Welcome to the fifth consecutive Best Albums of the Year here at Hidden Track. Hopefully, you know by now that we pride ourselves on covering music that spans any genre, any age, any geography and any instrumental makeup. To us, good music is good music. Period.

So, you can rest assured of the one thing that will always make our list a cut above the rest: we consider everything. Our submissions include all styles of music from bluegrass to jazz, jam to indie, electronica to rap, as well as everything in between. At the end of the day, we’re a diverse open-minded music blog. Our writers work here because they have great taste in music, and thus they are encouraged simply to write about what catches their interest. We have no motives, no editorial biases and no strings attached. We hope that comes across in our picks.

So, let’s kick off our week-long celebration of the HT staff’s favorite albums of 2012 with numbers 25 through 21…

25) Old Crow Medicine Show – Carry Me Back

Sounds Like: The modern torchbearers of Bill Monore’s high and lonesome sound

Key Tracks: Carry Me Back, Levi, Bootlegger’s Boy

The Skinny: Long before it was cool to play acoustic foot-stomping Americana music, there was the Old Crow Medicine Show. The Nashville-based band, who have been around since 1998, could arguably be credited with planting the seeds the genre’s current boom – thanks in part to the popularity of their “breakout hit” Wagon Wheel. For their first album since 2008, the band welcomed back founding member Critter Fuqua, and delivered a modern Americana classic steeped in bourbon-soaked bluegrass, dusty country and traditional Appalachian folk sounds. While there has been a question about the authenticity of the newer generation of roots acts, OCMS are undoubtedly the real McCoy.

- Jeffrey Greenblatt

• Spotify Playlist: Hidden Track’s Top 25 Albums Of 2012
  
• Previously On HT: Top 25 Albums Of 2011

24) First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar

READ ON

Music for your mellow mood… enjoy!

Will Johnson: Scorpion

Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel, New Multitudes) is one of those guys: either you love his music obsessively or you just haven’t listened to enough of it yet. His newest album is a great place to start. Here, he’s barely above a whisper, singing moody tales of love and woe with a quiet intensity that permeates the entire set. But this is much more complex and interesting than your normal singer/songwriter fare. Throwing in some beautiful instrumental pieces and with strong material throughout, Scorpion is a virtuoso performance that shouldn’t be overlooked.

MOG: https://mog.com/m#album/72375955

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B008XCIKJ0

Rhapsody: http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/will-johnson/album/scorpion

Beachwood Sparks: The Tarnished Gold

READ ON

In the early part of the aughts Beachwood Sparks put out two full lengths and an EP of psychedelic country-rock, or what Gram Parsons would have dubbed “Cosmic American Music.” After a ten-year hiatus the Los Angeles-based act returned last month with the release The Tarnished Gold, their first album since 2002. The highly recommended record picks up exactly where they left off, with an exquisite mix of their Flying Burrito Brothers meets The Byrds meets The Beach Boys sound. The band recently released the homespun video for the album’s first single, Forget The Song. Let’s check it out…

Beachwood Sparks – Forget The Song

Beachwood Sparks – Desert Skies

It’s been more than a quarter of a century since Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong have performed live on-stage as their stoner comedy personas Cheech & Chong. Well, come this September that will all change as the duo will embark on their Light Up America tour – the duo’s first in over 25 years. Tickets for select dates will go on-sale starting August 8, with more dates to be revealed in the coming weeks.

If some classic stoner-comedy isn’t your idea of a good time, than maybe one of these recently announced tour will be…

• 19 year-old singer/songwriter Sonya Kitchell recruits The Slip to be her backing band for her upcoming tour (begins: 09/24)
• Country-rock revivalists Beachwood Sparks confirm more reunion dates (begins: 08/21)
• Widespread Panic unleashes their fall tour plans making Spreadheads in the South and Midwest very happy (begins: 10/10)
• Former BtN artist Vampire Weekend lines up a fall headlining tour (begins: 09/05)
• Canadian music collective the Broken Social Scene announce an October run (begins: 10/08)
• Art-rockers TV On The Radio put together a lengthy North American tour (begins: 09/05)

Finally, it’s been quite some time since we’ve done an ol’ fashion festival announcement around these parts. Since we didn’t want to get rusty we thought we’d share the initial line-up for the second installment of South Padre International Music Festival. Taking place on South Padre Island, TX from October 31st through November 2nd, the diverse bill boasts the likes of Willie Nelson, Los Lonely Boys, Ghostland Observatory, Grupo Fantasma and Foghat. Three-day, weekend passes are available at an early-bird discount rate of $70 plus tax and service fees until August 24. A portion of the ticket proceeds will go to help benefit a most worthy cause: Hurricane Dolly relief efforts in the Rio Grande Valley.