Midyear 2017: KDHX DJ Top Tens

The new albums that receive the most attention on KDHX will rarely, if ever, be heard on frequencies further up the dial, because KDHX DJs are never told what to play or when to play it. Few community stations even match KDHX in the diversity of taste indicated by these lists, which include almost too many genres to name — blues, country, rock, indie rock, folk, bluegrass, hip-hop, old time, R&B, rap, punk, soul, metal, psych, prog, techno and more. Looking back on the year so far, here are our DJs' top ten album picks. For an idea of the consensus building around the year's most tried-and-true albums, check out our KDHX top spins list as well, charting a number of homegrown artists among the most played on the station thus far.

The Back Country with Jeff Corbin

• Ags Connolly — Nothin' Unexpected (At the Helm)
• Diesel Island — Diesel Island (Euclid)
• The Gibson Brothers — In the Ground (Rounder)
• Alison Krauss — Windy City (Capitol)
• Willie Nelson — God's Problem Child (Legacy)
• Tim O'Brien — Where the River Meets the Road (Howdy Skies)
• Bobby Osborne — Original (Compass)
• Dennis Stroughmatt — Wrong Side of the World (MME)
• Sunny Sweeney — Trophy (Universal Music Australia)
• Dale Watson and Ray Benson — Dale and Ray (Ameripolitan/Home)

Backroads with Stacy

• Gloria Attoun — Go (self-released)
• Beth Bombara — Map & No Direction (Lemp Electric)
• Rodney Crowell — Close Ties (New West)
• Amelia Curran — Watershed (Six Shooter)
• Rhiannon Giddens — Freedom Highway (Nonesuch)
• Tom Irwin — All That Love (Clyded)
• Gurf Morlix — The Soul & The Heal (Rootball)
• Pint & a Half — Boomtown Ghosts (self-released)
• Darden Smith — Everything (Compass)
• Caroline Spence — Spades & Roses (self-released)

Bittersweet Melody with Allen 

• Dan Auerbach — Waiting on a Song (Nonesuch)
• Bash & Pop — Anything Could Happen (Fat Possum)
• Foxygen — Hang (Jagjaguwar)
• Gold Star — Big Blue (Autumn Tone)
• Ha Ha Tonka — Heart-Shaped Mountain (Bloodshot)
• Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit — The Nashville Sound (Southeastern)
• Pokey Lafarge — Manic Revelations (Rounder)
• Laura Marling — Semper Femina (More Alarming)
• Middle Kids — Middle Kids EP (Domino)
• Chuck Prophet — Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins (Yep Roc)

Boogie on Down with Hound Dog Brown

• Various Artists — St. Louis Blues Society Presents 16 in 16 (St. Louis Blues Society)
• Paul Bonn and The Bluesmen — 50 Year (self-released)
• Gene Jackson — 1963 (Blue Lotus)
• John Primer & Bob Corritore — Ain't Nothing You Can Do (Delta Groove)
• Christopher Wrisner — "Mississippi woman" (self-released)
• Jeff Chapman — Watchin' The World Go By (self-released)
• Eight O' Five Jive — Swing Set (self-released)
• Diesel Island — Diesel Island (Euclid)
• The Cash Box Kings — Royal Mint (Alligator)
• Dylan Bishop Band — The Exciting Sounds of the Dylan Bishop Band (Espanada) 

Cure for Pain with Nathaniel Farrell

• Joshua Abrams — Simultonality (Eremite)
• Sula Bassana — Organ Accumulator (Deep Distance)
• Big Blood — The Daughters Union (Don't Trust the Ruin)
• The Caretaker — Everywhere at the End of Time: Stage 2 (HAFTW)
• Circle — Terminal (Southern Lord) 
• Sarah Davachi — All My Circles Run (Students of Decay)
• Aldous Harding — Party (4AD)
• Pefkin — Murmurations (Morc)
• Shit and Shine — Total $hit (Diagonal)
• Tiny Vipers — Laughter (Ba Da Bing!)

Down Yonder with Keith Dudding

• Casey Campbell — Mandolin Duets: Vol. 1 (self-released)
• Front Country — Other Love Songs (Organic)
• Gibson Brothers — In The Ground (Rounder)
• Infamous Stringdusters — Laws of Gravity (Compass)
• Ned Luberecki — Take Five (CLM)
• Tim O'Brien — Where The River Meets The Road (Howdy Skies)
• Bobby Osborne — Original (Compass)
• Noam Pikelny — Universal Favorite (Rounder)
• Ralph Stanley II & The Clinch Mountain Boys — Ralph Stanley II & The Clinch Mountain Boys (Stanley Family)
• Mac Wiseman — I Sang The Song: Life of the Voice with a Heart (Mountain Fever) 

Elevated Rhymestate with Wil Wander

• AllttA — The Upper Hand (On And On Records)
• Bliss n Eso — Off the Grid (Illusive)
• Brother Ali — All The Beauty in This Whole Life (Rhymesayers)
• Chicago Loud 9 — Reason (self-released)
• FarFetched — Prologue VI (FarFetched)
• Horrorshow — Bardo State (Elefant Traks)
• Run the Jewels — RTJ3 (Run the Jewels)
• Sidewalk Chalk — An Orchid is Born (Ropeadope)
• Substantial — The Past is Always Present in the Future (HiPNOTT)
• Thes One + DJ Day — Náufrago (Piecelock 70) 

Emotional Rescue with Cat Pick

• Alt-J — Relaxer (Infectious)
• Finn's Motel — Jupiter Rex (self-released)
• Gold Connections — Gold Connections EP (Fat Possum)
• Grandaddy — Last Place (30th Century Records/Columbia)
• Hippo Campus — Landmark (Transgressive)
• Aimee Mann — Mental Illness (Superego)
• The New Pornographers — Whiteout Conditions (Concord)
• The Shins — Heartworms (Aural Apothecary/Columbia)
• Strand of Oaks — Hard Love (Dead Oceans)
• Harry Styles — Harry Styles (Erskine)

Feel Like Going Home with Roy Kasten

• Rodney Crowell — Close Ties (New West)
• Hurray for the Riff Raff — The Navigator (ATO)
• Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit — The Nashville Sound (Southeastern)
• Valerie June — The Order of Time (Concord)
• Pokey LaFarge — Manic Revelations (Rounder)
• Laura Marling — Semper Femina (More Alarming)
• Mountain Goats — Goths (Merge)
• Chuck Prophet — Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins (Yep Roc)
• Joan Shelley — Joan Shelley (No Quarter)
• Leif Vollebekk — Twin Solitude (Secret City)

Freaker's Ball wth DJ Swan

• Actress — AZD (Ninja Tune)
• CupcakKe — Queen Elizabitch (self-released)
• Aaron Dilloway — The Gag File (Dias)
• DJ Orange Julius — The Grove (Mall Music)
• Laurel Halo — Dust (Hyperdub)
• Jlin — Black Origami (Planet Music)
• Larry B. — 5 Sad Songs (Moodiie)
• Ryuichi Sakamoto — async (Commmons)
• SassyBlack — New Black Swing (self-released)
• Skullflower — The Spirals of Great Harm (Cold Spring)

The Future Is Now with Chris

• Algiers — The Underside of Power (Matador)
• Molly Burch — Please Be Mine (Captured Tracks)
• Hurray For The Riff Raff — The Navigator (ATO)
• Hanni El Khatib — Savage Times (Innovative Leisure)
• Kendrick Lamar — DAMN. (Top Dawg Entertainment)
• Gabriel Garzón Montano — Jardín (Stones Throw)
• Perfume Genius — No Shape (Matador)
• Sampha — Process (Young Turks)
• Thundercat — Drunk (Brainfeeder)
• Violents and Monica Martin — Awake and Pretty Much Sober (Partisan)

Gettin' Down to It with Sean Smothers

• Amy Black — Memphis (Reuben)
• Don Bryant — Don't Give Up On Love (Fat Possum)
• Tanika Charles — Soul Run (Record Kicks)
• Robert Cray and High Rhythm — Robert Cray and Hi Rhythm (Jay-Vee)
• Adam Hucke's Music for Nerds — Madam I'm Adam (self-released)
• Gene Jackson — 1963 (Blue Lotus)
• Brian Owens & The Deacons of Soul — Soul of Ferguson (Purpose)
• Soul Scratch — Pushing Fire (Colemine)
• Southern Avenue — Southern Avenue (Stax)
• Otis Taylor — Fantasizing About Being Black (Trance Blues)

Gold Soundz with Chris Bay

• Big Thief — Capacity (Saddle Creek)
• Cayetana — New Kind of Normal (Plum)
• The Courtneys — The Courtneys II (Flying Nun)
• Cloud Nothings — Live Without Sound (Carpark)
• Craig Finn — We All Want the Same Things (Partisan)
• Grandaddy — Last Place (30th Century Records/Columbia)
• John Moreland — Big Bad Luv (4AD)
• Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever — The French Press EP (Sub Pop)
• Spiral Stairs — Doris and the Daggers (Domino)
• Sylvan Esso — What Now (Loma Vista)

Hindsight with Matt

• The BV's — Speaking from a Distance (KUS)
• Communions — Blue (Fat Possum)
• Daysee — Splash EP (self-released)
• Fotoform — Fotoform (self-released)
• Life on Venus — Encounters (Shelflife)
• Novella — Change of State (Sinderlyn)
• Ride — Weather Diaries (Wichita)
• Slowdive — Slowdive (Dead Oceans)
• Star Tropics — Lost World (Fastcut)
• The Workhouse — Now I Am on Fire (Oscarson)

Hip City with Chris Lawyer

• The Pimps of Joytime — Third Wall Chronicles (Sugar Road)
• Tanika Charles — Soul Run (Record Kicks)
• Cody Chesnutt — My Love Divine Degree (Handwritten)
• Cookin' On 3 Burners — Lab Experiments, Vol. 1: Mixin' (Soul Messin')
• Trombone Shorty — Parking Lot Symphony (Blue Note)
• Robert Cray & HI Rhythm — Robert Cray & HI Rhythm (Jay-Vee)
• Hard Proof — Stinger (Modern Outsider)
• Tuxedo — Tuxedo II (Stones Throw)
• Como Mamas — Move Upstairs (Daptone)
• Five Alarm Funk — Sweat (Five Alarm Funk)

Juxtaposition with Rob Levy

• Beach Fossils — Somersault (Bayonet)
• British Sea Power — Let The Dancers Inherit the Party (Caroline)
• Cigarettes After Sex — Cigarettes After Sex (Partisan)
• Cloud Nothings — Life Without Sound (Carpark)
• Girlpool — Powerplant (Anti-)
• Novella — Change of State (Sinderlyn)
• Ride — Weather Diaries (Wichita)
• Saint Etienne — Home Counties (Heavenly)
• Slowdive — Slowdive (Dead Oceans)
• The XX — I See You (Young Turk)

Latin Hemispheres with Carlos G. Charles

• Battle of Santiago — La Migra (Made with Pencil Crayons)
• Campo — Tambor de Cosmos  (Sony Mexico)
• Chico Mann & Captain Planet — Night Visions (Bastard Jazz)
• Dat Garcia — Maleducada (ZZK)
• La Vida Boheme — La Lucha (Nacional)
• Little Jesus — Rio Salvaje (Nacional)
• Los Macuanos — Epilogo (Nacional)
• Making Movies — I Am Another You (self-released)
• Mexican Dubwiser — Border Frequency (Kin Kon)
• Ondatropical — Baile Bucanero (Soundway)

Mid-Day Jamboree with Fred Gumaer

• Gloria Attoun — Go (self-released)
• Diesel Island — Diesel Island (Euclid)
• Rhiannon Giddens — Freedom Highway (Nonesuch)
• Wayne Hancock — Slingin' Rhythm (Bloodshot)
• Tom Irwin — All That Love (Clyded)
• Pokey LaFarge — Manic Revelations (Rounder)
• Willie Nelson — God's Problem Child (Legacy)
• The Secret Sisters — You Don't Own Me Anymore (New West)
• Chris Stapleton — From a Room: Vol. 1 (Mercury Nashville)
• Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives — Way Out West (Superlatone)

The Mixtape with Jason

• Priests — Nothing Feels Natural (Sister Polygon)
• The Mountain Goats — Goths (Merge)
• Father John Misty — Pure Comedy (Sub Pop)
• White Reaper — The World's Best American Band (Polyvinyl)
• Kendrick Lamar — Damn. (Top Dawg)
• Warm Soda — I Don't Wanna Grow Up (Castle Face)
• Ty Segall — Ty Segall (Drag City)
• Thundercat — Drunk (Brainfeeder)
• Pissed Jeans — Why Love Now (Sub Pop)
• Chastity Belt — I Used To Spend So Much Time Alone (Hardly Art) 

Music at Work with Curt

• King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard — Flying Microtonal Banana (ATO)
• Jeb Loy Nichols — Country Hustle (City Country City)
• Nikki Lane — Highway Queen (New West)
• William Matheny — Strange Constellations (Misra)
• Bash & Pop — Anything Could Happen (Fat Possum)
• Torgeir Waldemar — No Offending Borders (Jansen Plateproduksjon)
• Ha Ha Tonka — Heart-Shaped Mountain (Bloodshot)
• The Afghan Whigs — In Spades (Sub Pop)
• The Hooten Hallers — The Hooten Hallers (Big Muddy)
• Blackfoot Gypsies — To the Top (Plowboy)

Mystery Train with Tim 

• Grandpa's Ghost — The Carnage Queen (Transduction) 
• Robyn Hitchcock — Robyn Hitchcock (Yep Roc)         
• Hurray For The Riff Raff — The Navigator (ATO)   
• King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard — Flying Microtonal Banana (ATO/Flightless)
• Holly Macve — Golden Eagle (Bella Union)
• Mastodon — Emperor Of Sand (Reprise) 
• Sacred Paws — Strike A Match (Rock Action) 
• Oumou Sangaré — Mogoya (No Format) 
• Six Organs of Admittance — Burning the Threshold (Drag City)       
• The Vanilla Beans — Wavey (Float Away, Dangling)    

Pop! The Beat Bubble Burst with Rich Reese

• Chuck Berry — CHUCK (Dualtone)
• The Black Angels — Death Song (Partisan)
• Finn's Motel — Jupiter Rex (Victory Over Gravity)
• Grandaddy — Last Place (30th Century/Columbia)
• Los Straitjackets — What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Los Straitjackets (Yep Roc)
• Mark and the Clouds — Cuculus (Mega Dodo)
• Chuck Prophet — Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins (Yep Roc)
• The Rallies — Serve (The Rallies)
• Ty Segall — Ty Segall (Drag City)
• White Reaper — The World's Best American Band (Polyvinyl)

Rhythm Highways with East Side Slim

• Eric Bibb — Migration Blues (Stony Plain)
• Elvin Bishop's Big Fun Trio — Elvin Bishop's Big Fun Trio (Alligator)
• Jake Xerxes Fussell — What In The Natural World (Paradise Of Bachelors)
• Kilborn Alley Blues Band — The Tolono Tapes (Run It Back)
• Annie Mack — Tell It Like It Is EP (BiGiAM)
• Shannon McNally — Black Irish (Compass)
• John Németh — Feelin' Freaky (Memphis Grease)
• Chuck Prophet — Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins (Yep Rock)
• Patrick Recob — Perpetual Luau (Mr. Lucky's Blues Recording Co.)
• Various Artists — Blues 88s: Unreleased Blues Piano Gems, 1938-1942 (Hi Horse)

Rocket 88 with Darren Snow

• Blond Ambition — Slow All Over (Swoon City)
• Blondie — Pollinator (BMG)
• The Blue Aeroplanes — Welcome, Stranger! (Artstar)
• Chastity Belt — I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone (Hardly Art)
• Land of Talk — Life after Youth (Saddle Creek)
• Laura Marling — Semper Femina (Kobalt)
• Middle Kids — Middle Kids EP (Domino)
• The Molochs — America's Velvet Glory (Innovative Leisure)
• Tei Shi — Crawlspace (Downtown)
• White Reaper — The World's Best American Band (Polyvinyl)

Rolling Thunder with Ryan Cain

• Arcadea — Arcadea (Relapse)
• Electric Moon — Stardust Rituals (Sulatron)
• Elkhorn — The Black River (Debacle)
• Lamagaia — Lamagaia (Sunrise Ocean Bender/Cardinal Fuzz)
• Mastodon — Emperor of Sand (Reprise)
• Nova Collective — The Further Side (Metal Blade)
• Pairdown — Reach To Ring (self-released)
• Pallbearer — Heartless (Profound Lore)
• Prana Crafter — MindStreamBlessing (Eiderdown)
• Yolk — Solar (Nuun)

Songwriter's Showcase with Ed

• Kasey Chambers — Dragonfly (Warner Music Australia)
• Slaid Cleaves — Ghost on the Car Radio (Candy House Media)
• Rodney Crowell — Close Ties (New West)
• I Draw Slow — Turn Your Face to the Sun (Compass)
• Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit — The Nashville Sound (Southeastern)
• Robyn Ludwick — This Tall to Ride (Late Show)
• Katy Moffatt — Where the Heart Is (Centerfire)
• Oh Susanna — A Girl in Teen City (Stella)
• Tom Russell — Play One More: The Songs of Ian & Sylvia (True North)
• Mick Thomas — These Are the Songs: A Mick Thomas Retrospective (Liberation)

Sound Salvation with Steve Pick

• Dan Auerbach — Waiting on a Song (Easy Eye Sound)
• Chuck Berry — CHUCK (Dualtone)
• Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie — Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie (Atlantic)
• Jessi Colter — The Psalms (Legacy)
• Dirty Projectors — Dirty Projectors (Domino)
• Finn's Motel — Jupiter Rex (self-released)
• Robyn Hitchcock — Robyn Hitchcock (Yep Roc)
• Laura Marlin — Semper Femina (More Alarming)
• The Mavericks — Brand New Day (Mono Mundo)
• Chuck Prophet — Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins (Yep Roc)

The Space Parlour with Nick Acquisto

• Benjamin Booker — Witness (ATO)
• Flo Morrissey & Matthew E. White — Gentlewoman, Ruby Man (Glassnote)
• Landlady — The World Is a Loud Place (Hometapes)
• Magic City — La Vie est Chère (Tower Groove)
• The Magnetic Fields — 50 Song Memoir (Nonesuch)
• The New Pornographers — Whiteout Conditions (Concord)
• Robyn Hitchcock — Robyn Hitchcock (Yep Roc)
• Sacred Paws — Strike a Match (Rock Action)
• Snowball II — Flashes of Quincy (Doughnut)
• Steady Holiday — Under the Influence + Terror EP (Infinite Best)

Steam-Powered Radio with Kelly Wells

• Norman Blake — Brushwood: Songs & Stories (Plectrafone)
• Rayna Gellert — Workin' Too Hard (StorySound)
• Alison Krauss — Windy City (Rounder)
• Pokey LaFarge — Manic Revelations (Rounder)
• Nathan Blake Lynn — Tales from a River Hobbit (self-released)
• Old Crow Medicine Show — 50 Years of Blonde on Blonde (Columbia)
• Resonant Rogues — Hands in the Dirt (Resonant Rogues)
• The Secret Sisters — You Don't Own Me (New West)
• Dale Watson & Ray Benson — Dale & Ray (Ameripolitan) 
• Whiskey Bent Valley Boys — Whiskey Sessions (self-released)

Time Warp Radio with Mark Hyken

• Joe Bonamassa — Live at Carnegie Hall: An Acoustic Weekend (J&R Adventures)
• Cachemira — Jungla (Heavy Psych Sounds)
• Chuck Bedford Experience — Skipping Stones Into The Fifth Dimension (self-released)
• Gov't Mule — Revolution Come...Revolution Go (Evil Teen)
• Moon Duo — Occult Architecture, Vol. 2 (Sacred Bones)
• Amplifier — Trippin' with Dr. Faustus (Rockosmos)
• Siena Root — A Dream Of Lasting Peace (MIG)
• Hawkwind — Into The Woods (Cherry Red)
• The Stranger — The Stranger (Lumpy)
• The Sonic Dawn — Into The Long Night (Heavy Psych Sounds)

Trip Inside This House with Valis

• The Black Angels — Death Song (Partisan)
• Buried Feather — Mind Of The Swarm (Cobra Snake Necktie)
• The Citradels — Where's One? (self-released)
• Flowers Must Die — Kompost (Rocket Recordings)
• Holy Monitor — Holy Monitor (Blackspin Records/Prmitive Music)
• My Expansive Awareness — Going Nowhere (Analog Love)
• The Stevenson Ranch Davidians — Amerikana (Picture in My Ear)
• The Sun's Evil Twin — Insula EP (self-released)
• Triptides — Afterglow (Requiem pour un Twister)
• Violet Swells — There's No Time Like Eternity (Zodia)

Uncontrollable Urge with BobEE Sweet

• Blind Butcher — Alawalawa (Voodoo Rhythm)
• Blondie — Pollinator (Noble ID / BMG)
• The LoneTones — Dumbing It All Down (Little Things Records)
• Magic City — La Vie est Chère(Self)
• Robyn Hitchcock — Robyn Hitchcock (Yep Roc)
• Chuck Prophet — Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins (Yep Roc)
• Oumou Sangaré — Mogoya  (No Format)
• Tinariwen — Elwan (Anti-)
• Cindy Wilson — Supernatural (Self)
• Yowie — Synchromysticism (Skin Graft)

Universal Default with Brian

• 79rs Gang — "Dead and Gone/Wrong Part of Town" (Sinking City)
• Alice Kemp — Fill My Body with Rice and Flowers (Erratutm)
• Gamelan Voices — I (Gong Ear)
• Henokh Setiawan / Prìson — Henokh Setiawan /Prìson (Tandem Tapes)
• Radboud Mens & Matthijs Kouw — 1 (Moving Furniture)
• Roberto Musci — The Loa of Music: Complete Sessions (Soave)
• Slomo — Transits (Trilithon)
• $un $keletons Get It Up Yers Trio — Deddington (doubledotdash!?)
• Teleplasmiste — Frequency is the New Ecstacy (House of Mythology)
• Tony Conrad — Ten Years Alive on the Infinite Plain (Superior Viaduct)

Wax Lyrical with Caron

• Big Thief — Capacity (Saddle Creek)
• Chastity Belt — I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone (Hardly Art)
• Chicano Batman — Freedom is Free (ATO)
• Cassandra Jenkins — Play Till You Win (self-released)
• Laura Marling — Semper Femina (self)
• Nadia Reid — Preservation (Blue Raincoat)
• Sacred Paws — Strike a Match (Rock Action)
• Jay Som — Everybody Works (Polyvinyl)
• Tennis — Yours Conditionally (Mutually Detrimental)
• Valerie June — The Order of Time (Concord)