Ansgar Dälken, All Ways Know
Dedicated to the music of pianist Thelonious Monk, All Ways Know offers brilliant solo guitar arrangements, played in D A D G A D and on nylon strings. (Acoustic Music)


Steve Baughman, Life in Prism: Guitar Notes from the Inside
Applying his trademark bouncy groove and effortless-sounding style, fingerstylist Baughman presents a set of music that includes old-time fiddle tunes, Breton traditionals, Irish jigs, and originals. Duets with Robin Bullock, Dennis Cahill, and Nina Gerber round out an otherwise solo outing. (celticguitar.com)


Duck Baker, Bob Brozman, Ed Gerhard, Woody Mann, and Massimo Gatti, Donna Lombarda
Four masters of American fingerstyle and Italian Massimo Gatti offer interpretations of traditional Italian tunes on this benefit project for an Italian hospice. Each artist’s varying approach to the title tune makes for particularly fun listening. (barcoderecords.it)

Pierre Bensusan, Vividly
The French D A D G A D master returns with a varied set of music. Tunes such as “Kiss Landing” and “D A D G A D Café” are simply as good as contemporary fingerstyle guitar gets in terms of composition, chops, tone, and virtuoso execution. (Favored Nations)


Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Interchange
The LAGQ expands by collaborating with a full orchestra (the Delaware Symphony Orchestra). Featuring Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto Andaluz and the premier recording of Sérgio Assad’s Interchange, (which was specifically written for the group), this album once again shows why the LAGQ is the top guitar quartet performing today. (Telarc)


Tomasz Gaworek, Born to Be Together
Amazingly fluid solo fingerstyle work ranging from Celtic standards to modernistic originals. Chops, imaginative arrangements, and great tone unite in this Polish guitarist’s offering. (Acoustic Music)


Bill Mize, The Angel’s Share
A soft touch and heavy groove, combined with an advanced sense of harmony, results in a highly unique and engaging sound that is on the quieter side of fingerstyle. (billmize.com)

Peppino D’Agostino, Nine White Kites
Nine White Kites features D’Agostino doing what he does best: playing solo guitar in the utmost polyphonic, rhythmic, yet melodic way possible. Influences of world music, classical, and American fingerpicking combine into a fresh batch of D’Agostino’s “minestrone music.” (peppinodagostino.com)


Gyan Riley Trio, New York Sessions
Jaw-dropping nylon-string guitar playing that straddles the lines between classical and jazz. Although this trio (which augments Riley with violin and drums) sticks close to Riley’s charts, the format also allows for a high degree of improvisation. (gyanriley.com)


Odair Assad, El Caminante
Assad’s debut album as a solo artist offers premier recordings of new works by Leo Brouwer, Egberto Gismonti, Sérgio Assad, and others. Stunning performances abound, making this album a must-have for fans of virtuoso classical guitar with a Latin tinge. (GHA)




Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs, God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise
Ray LaMontagne describes God Willin’ as “leagues above anything I’ve done before.” The album forgoes the strings and horns heard on LaMontagne’s prior releases, opting instead for the capable sound of his trusty touring band. LaMontagne’s whiskey-barrel vocals are more than enough to make this record worth your while, but it’s the haunting steel guitar parts (played by guitarists Eric Heywood and Greg Leisz) that will stay with you long after the album runs its course. (RCA)


Guster, Easy Wonderful
This newest addition to the Guster catalog is just dorm-friendly enough to inspire disbelief that they’ve been at it for more than 15 years. Youthful, melodic, and full of innovative pop-guitaristry, Easy Wonderful is true to its name. (Universal Republic)


Broken Bells, Broken Bells
Against a backdrop of decidedly electronic sounds, it’s easy to overlook the contribution of the acoustic guitar to this collaboration between Shins front man James Mercer and producer/multi-instrumentalist Danger Mouse. Broken Bells nevertheless offers a moving, melodic, and convincing argument for the role that acoustic instruments can play in experimental music. (Columbia)


Jakob Dylan, Women and Country
Dylan returns with a fantastic and intimate collection of songs. Don’t miss the stellar background vocals contributed by the incomparable Kelly Hogan and Neko Case. (Sony)


Black Prairie, Feast of the Hunter’s Moon
This all-Portland, Oregon, ensemble unites the Decemberists’ Nate Query, Chris Funk, and Jenny Conlee with the able Annalisa Tornfelt and Jon Neufeld for an album of mostly instrumental tunes. I’d be hard-pressed to say “no” to a new record or tour from the Decemberists, but if this is what happens when they take breaks, I’m more than willing to grant them a little extra time off. (Sugar Hill)


The Giving Tree Band, The Joke, the Threat, and the Obvious
The Giving Tree Band has made waves for their environmentally friendly initiatives—which include reclaimed-wood instruments, sustainable CD packaging, and an affinity for biking and camping—but their down-home 2010 effort is every bit as fun as it is green. (Crooked Creek)


Rogue Wave, Permalight
Straight-ahead strummers are the exception and not the rule on Zach Rogue and company’s newest release, which plays like a case study on innovative uses for the acoustic guitar. Stand in the way of these catchy power-pop gems and you’re likely to be swept out to sea. (Universal)


Josh Ritter, So Runs the World Away
Ritter’s newest skips the instant gratification of tracks like “Right Moves” and “Next to the Last Romantic” heard on 2007’s excellent The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. Offering instead a darker and more cerebral collection of songs, So Runs the World Away unfolds like a book of poems: withholding, meaningful, and ripe for exploration. (Pytheas Recordings)


Elvis Costello, National Ransom
Costello delivers one of his most diverse and theatrical volumes to date in National Ransom, which reunites the legendary songwriter with producer T Bone Burnett. The extra-wide net’s worth of songs flirts with the sound pioneered on 2009’s Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane, but largely pushes into a sonic territory all its own. (Hear Music)


Johnny Cash, American VI: Ain’t No Grave
If this aptly titled, allegedly final installment from Cash’s American Recordings collaboration with producer Rick Rubin seems preoccupied with thoughts of death and dying, it means only that you’re paying attention. For those prepared to regard this autumnal volume, American VI will prove to be a true gift. (Lost Highway)


John Jorgenson, One Stolen Night
On his latest solo album of Hot Club–style Gypsy jazz and other styles, John Jorgenson shows an ever-expanding skill at composing great melodies and creating brilliant arrangements to showcase his dazzling Django Reinhardt–inspired technique on acoustic guitar and other instruments. (J2)


Bryan McDowell, The Contestant
This 19-year-old multi-instrumentalist won an unprecedented triple crown on flatpicking guitar, fiddle, and mandolin at the 2009 Winfield festival. His debut album demonstrates an otherworldly sense of technique, coupled with brilliantly melodic musical skills on tunes ranging from his stately, patrician acoustic guitar on “Over the Waterfall” to a Hot Club–drenched, jazzed-out rendition of “Swing 42.” (bryanmcdowellmusic.com)

The Boxcars, The Boxcars
Put mandolin superstar Adam Steffey in the same band with banjo/fiddle giant Ron Stewart and a cast of modern bluegrass masters and you get the first bluegrass supergroup of the new millennium. Burning down the rails through a selection of originals and classics, these Boxcars are on a one-way track to greatness. (theboxcars.com)


The Punch Brothers, Antifogmatic
Enigmatic, emphatic, and ecstatic, the Punch Brothers delight in reinventing not just bluegrass but every modern musical form to create an acoustic amalgam no other band could create. Led by master mandolinist Chris Thile, this quintet toys with the listener’s sense of time, space, and security to create an unforgettable experience. (Nonesuch)


Don Stiernberg, Swing 220
Jazz mandolin genius and former Jethro Burns protégé Stiernberg leads acoustic guitarist Jeff Jenkins and bassist Rusty Holloway through 14 jazz standards that crackle with wit, style, and substance. If you want to hear acoustic swing done right, here’s a graduate-school lesson from the modern master. (Blue Night)


Nora Jane Struthers, Nora Jane Struthers
Struthers writes new songs that could be prewar and sings them in a voice drenched with truth and integrity. Joined by the likes of Bryan Sutton, Tim O’Brien, and Stuart Duncan, Struthers’s debut album sounds like an undiscovered cache from the Carter Family’s Bristol Sessions. (Blue Pig)


Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen, At Edwards Barn
Two pioneers of country rock reunite in a stripped-down bluegrass setting that merges their glorious voices and consummate musical skills, where they cover Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers classics such as “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “Wheels,” “Sin City,” and “Eight Miles High.” (Rounder)


Infamous Stringdusters, Things That Fly
No other modern progressive acoustic band does a better job transcending the boundaries of bluegrass to create a coherent, emotional musical statement. Rich, cinematic songwriting is supported by elegant contemporary arrangements and soaring instrumentals and singing to create a moving work of art about love, loss, life, and all the things that make us fly and fall. (Sugar Hill)


Tim O’Brien, Chicken and Egg
Acoustic chameleon Tim O’Brien slips into the soft-shoe footprints of John Hartford on this album filled with wry wit and deep-water wisdom on the troubles and triumphs of life as we know it today. Joined by aces like Bryan Sutton, O’Brien skips effortlessly from bluegrass to swing to roadhouse rock. (Howdy Skies)