Top Twenty Albums of 2011
1 The Features Wilderness
2 Ha Ha Tonka Death of Decade
3 The Donkeys Born With Stripes
4 Southeast Engine Canary
5 Joe Ely Satisfied at Last
6 Rural Albert Advantage Departing
7 Teddy Thompson Bella
8 Dave Alvin Eleven Eleven
9 Jon Langford Skull Orchard Revisited
10 Bright Eyes The People’s Key
11 Mountain Goats All Eternal’s Deck
12 Chris Mills Heavy Years
13 Gurf Morlix Blaze Foley’s 113th Wet Dream
14 Owen Temple Mountain Home
15 Blake Thomas Our Town
16 Paul Otteson February Fables
17 Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin Tape Club
18 Sleeping in the Aviary You, Me Ghost
19 So So Radio Dustcovers
20 John Wesley Harding The Sound of His Own Voice

Top Twenty Shows of 2011
1 Iowa Arts Festival with Joe Ely, The Bottle Rockets and Alejandro Escovedo; June 3 & 4; Downtown Iowa City
2 The Dismemberment Plan/JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound/Kid, You’ll Move Mountains; February 19; The Metro, Chicago
3 M Ward/Carlos Forester/Mike Coykendall; December 4; Schubas, Chicago
4 Ian Moore & the Lossy Coils; SXSW, March 17; Continental Club, Austin
5 Bright Eyes/Titus Andronicus; April 3; The Riverside Theater, Milwaukee
6 Jon Dee Graham/Andrew Duplantis; July 5; Kiki’s House of Righteous Music (KHoRM)
7 Orton Park Festival with the Great Lake Swimmers and the Josh Harty Band; August 27; Orton Park
8 The Waco Brothers/Semi Twang; September 10; The Frequency
9 Hideout Block Party with Andrew Bird, Mavis Staples, Jon Langford and the Burlington Welsh Men’s Choir, Booker T. Jones; September 24; The Hideout, Chicago
10 Robbie Fulks; December 3; KHoRM
11 Ha Ha Tonka/Trapper Schoepp & the Shades/Charlie Parr; September 23; Club Garibaldi, Milwaukee
12 Gurf Morlix with Kevin Triplett and his documentary “Blaze Foley: Duct Tape Messiah”; October 27; KHoRM
13 The Features (opening for Kevin Devine); September 9; Bottom Lounge, Chicago
14 Blake Thomas; November 19; Stoughton Opera House, Stoughton
15 Chris Mills/Theodore/Trapper Schoepp & the Shades; June 26; High Noon Saloon
16 The Monkees; June 29; Genesee Theater, Waukegan IL
17 Bobby Bare Jr with Carey Kotsionis; July 29; KHoRM
18 Sebadoh/Mazes; October 31; High Noon Saloon
19 Butch Hancock/Josh Harty; September 13; KHoRM
20 Graminy; January 28, 2011; Wild Hog in the Woods Coffeehouse

all venues Madison unless otherwise noted