fRoots Magazine Announces Critics Poll Albums Of The Year nominees in Folk, Roots & World Music

British publication fRoots announced today its Critics Poll Albums Of 2011. Categories include New Album Of 2011 and Best Reissue Or Compilation Of 2011. This year there are 11 rather than the usual 10 in the New Album due to a tied placing.

This year’s winners will be revealed exclusively by BBC Radio 3 in a special edition of World On 3 broadcast from 11 pm on Friday 2nd December, hosted by Mary Ann Kennedy. Full details, also including the Best Packaged Album winner, will appear on the fRoots web site and in a dedicated Amazon.co.uk section from 3rd December, and in the Jan/Feb 2012 double issue of fRoots published in mid-December.

Every year since 1986 (when the first winner was Paul Simon’s Graceland), fRoots magazine has polled experts in the UK and abroad to decide the Album Of The Year in folk, roots & world music. With over 300 writers, broadcasters and activists worldwide invited to vote, it is the most extensively researched and prestigious annual poll of its kind, the de facto flagship industry awards, with Amazon UK as retail partner.

fRoots Critics Poll – New Album Of 2011 Nominees
(listings alphabetical)

Aurelio – Laru Beya (Real World)
Ry Cooder – Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down (Nonesuch)
Fatoumata Diawara – Fatou (World Circuit)
Mary Hampton – Folly (Teaspoon)
JuJu (Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara) – In Trance (Real World)
Jackie Oates – Saturnine (ECC)
Aziz Sahmaoui – University Of Gnawa (General Pattern)
June Tabor & Oysterband – Ragged Kingdom (Topic)
Tinariwen – Tassili (Anti)
Abigail Washburn – City Of Refuge (Rounder)
Gillian Welch – The Harrow & The Harvest (Acony / Warner Bros)

fRoots Critics Poll – Best Reissue Or Compilation of 2011
(listings alphabetical)

Home Service – Live 1986 (Fledg’ling)
Kate & Anna McGarrigle – Tell My Sister (Nonesuch)
Hedy West – Ballads And Songs From The Appalachians (Fellside)
Various – Bambara Mystic Soul – The Raw Sound Of Burkina Faso 1974-1979 (Analog Africa)
Various – 80s World Music Classics – When The World Was Young (Nascente)

All the winners to date can be found at www.frootsmag.com/pollwinners