Greg Beets

1) Beaver Nelson, Macro/Micro (Freedom)

2) The Golden Boys, Dirty Fingernails (12XU)

3) A Giant Dog, Fight (Tic Tac Totally)

4) Kingdom of Suicide Lovers, Distant Waves (Golden Hour/Super Secret)

5) The Gary, Remains (Sick Room)

6) Crooked Bangs (Western Medical)

7) Burgess Meredith, Banana Moon

8) Dana Falconberry, Leelanau (Antenna Farm)

9) Alejandro Escovedo, Big Station (Fantasy)

10) Coffee Sergeants, Purple Martin Sanctuary

Jim Caligiuri

1) Crooks, The Rain Will Come

2) Guns of Navarone, Prize and Battlefield

3) Uncle Lucius, And You Are Me (Entertainment One)

4) James Hand, Mighty Lonesome Man (Hillgrass Bluebilly)

5) Beaver Nelson, Macro/Micro (Freedom)

6) Jason Eady, AM Country Heaven (Underground Sound)

7) Jon Dee Graham, Garage Sale (Freedom)

8) MilkDrive, Waves

9) Kat Edmonson, Way Down Low (Spinnerette)

10) The Couch

Thomas Fawcett

1) Dana Falconberry, Leelanau (Antenna Farm)

2) Gary Clark Jr., Blak and Blu (Warner Bros.)

3) Daniel Johnston, Space Ducks: Soundtrack (Eternal Yip Eye Music)

4) NickNack, State Machine (Crowd Control)

5) Brownout, Oozy (Nat Geo)

6) Ray Wylie Hubbard, The Grifter’s Hymnal (Bordello)

7) Notes Floats, The Transfer

8) Kydd Jones, The Sounds in My Head Pt. 2

9) The Golden Boys, Dirty Fingernails (12XU)

10) Belaire, Resonating Symphony (Indierect)

Doug Freeman

1) Heartless Bastards, Arrow (Partisan)

2) The Flatlanders, The Odessa Tapes (New West)

3) Gary Clark Jr., Blak and Blu (Warner Bros.)

4) ZZ Top, La Futura (American)

5) Kat Edmonson, Way Down Low (Spinnerette)

6) Sarah Jaffe, The Body Wins (Kirtland)

7) The Gary, Remains (Sick Room)

8) The Trishas, High, Wide & Handsome

9) Lace Curtains, The Garden of Joy and the Well of Loneliness (Female Fantasy)

10) David Ramirez, Apologies (Sweetworld)

Chase Hoffberger

1) Christeene, Waste Up, Kneez Down

2) Berkshire Hounds, Greatest Hits

3) The Golden Boys, Dirty Fingernails (12XU)

4) Dumb, Don’t Worry About the Pool Party

5) Bavu Blakes, Sanct EP

6) Belaire, Resonating Symphony (Indierect)

7) The Young, Dub Egg (Matador)

8) League of Extraordinary G’z, The Plug EP

9) Dikes of Holland, Braindead USA

10) Esperanza Spalding, Radio Music Society (Concord)

Abby Johnston

1) The Eastern Sea, Plague (WhiteLabBlackLab)

2) Alejandro Escovedo, Big Station (Fantasy)

3) Gary Clark Jr., Blak and Blu (Warner Bros.)

4) Divine Fits, A Thing Called Divine Fits (Merge)

5) Bobby Jealousy, A Little Death

6) Whiskey Shivers, Rampa Head

7) Shearwater, Animal Joy (Sub Pop)

8) Guy Forsyth, The Freedom to Fail (Blue Corn Music)

9) Kat Edmonson, Way Down Low (Spinnerette)

10) Crooked Bangs (Western Medical)

Margaret Moser

1) Ray Wylie Hubbard, The Grifter’s Hymnal (Bordello)

2) Gary Clark Jr., Blak and Blu (Warner Bros.)

3) Rosie Flores, Working Girl’s Guitar (Bloodshot)

4) Alejandro Escovedo, Big Station (Fantasy)

5) Ruthie Foster, Let It Burn (Blue Corn Music)

6) Doug Sahm, The Return of Wayne Douglas (Steady Boy)

7) Akina Adderley & the Vintage Playboys, Say Yes (Get Level Records)

8) Denny Freeman, Diggin’ on Dylan (V8 Records)

9) Brownout, Oozy (Nat Geo)

10) Amy Cook, Summer Skin (Root House Records/Thirty Tigers)

Michael Toland

1) Cotton Mather, Kontiki Deluxe Edition (The Star Apple Kingdom)

2) Coffee Sergeants, Purple Martin Sanctuary

3) My Jerusalem, Preachers (The End)

4) Alejandro Escovedo, Big Station (Fantasy)

5) The Sword, Apocryphon (Razor & Tie)

6) Willie Nelson, Heroes (Legacy)

7) … And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Lost Songs (Richter Scale/Superball)

8) Gary Clark Jr., Blak and Blu (Warner Bros.)

9) Ringo Deathstarr, Mauve (Sonic Unyon)

10) The Saint James Society (Tee Pee)

Jay Trachtenberg

1) Brownout, Oozy (Nat Geo)

2) Gary Clark Jr., Blak and Blu (Warner Bros.)

3) Coffee Sergeants, Purple Martin Sanctuary

4) Kat Edmonson, Way Down Low (Spinnerette)

5) Alejandro Escovedo, Big Station (Fantasy)

6) Glenn Fukunaga, Not a Word

7) Elias Haslanger, Church on Monday (Cherrywood)

8) Heartless Bastards, Arrow (Partisan)

9) My Jerusalem, Preachers (The End)

10) Shearwater, Animal Joy (Sub Pop)

This article appears in 2012.

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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.

Thomas Fawcett has been freelancing for The Austin Chronicle since 2007. He likes good music and does not fake the funk.

Doug Freeman has been writing for the Austin Chronicle since 2007, covering the arts and music scene in the city. He is originally from Virginia and earned his Masters Degree from the University of Texas. He is also co-editor of The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology, published by UT Press.

Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.