Items12The creator’s order
  1. 1Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)Released 1 Jan 1970Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel achieved their commercial and artistic summit through an extraordinary balance of contrasting vocal registers. Simon's earthy, conversational baritone and rhythmic guitar phrasing provide the bedrock, while Garfunkel's soaring, angelic choirboy tenor floats into the…0
  2. 2Time (The Revelator) (2001)Time (The Revelator) (2001)Released 1 Jan 2001Recorded at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings craft an intimate acoustic monument. Welch's dark, hollow-toned lead vocal anchors the songs with ancient Appalachian stoicism, while Rawlings weaves around her with idiosyncratic, weeping harmony intervals and piercing…0
  3. 3Songs Our Daddy Taught Us (1958)Songs Our Daddy Taught Us (1958)Released 1 Jan 1958Don and Phil Everly set the undisputed benchmark for sibling close harmony on this stripped-back roots collection. Backed only by acoustic guitars and upright bass, Don's warm, dusky lower register locks in parallel thirds and fifths with Phil's shimmering, effortless high tenor on Barbara Allen…0
  4. 4Satan Is Real (1960)Satan Is Real (1960)Released 1 Jan 1960Alabama brothers Charlie and Ira Louvin brought terrifying theological conviction and razor-sharp close harmony to country gospel. Charlie's steady, reassuring lead vocal offers stability, while Ira's piercing, sky-scraping high tenor leaps above the melody with wild emotional intensity on The…0
  5. 5Indigo Girls (1989)Indigo Girls (1989)Released 1 Jan 1989Amy Ray and Emily Saliers built a folk-rock institution on the exhilarating contrast between their vocal textures. Ray's raspy, impassioned contralto delivers raw punk conviction, while Saliers's bell-clear soprano supplies lyrical sweetness and harmonic elegance. On Closer to Fine and Kid Fears,…0
  6. 6The Ash & Clay (2013)The Ash & Clay (2013)Released 1 Jan 2013The Milk Carton Kids, Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan, work with almost nothing but two acoustic guitars and two voices, and that restraint makes every blended syllable count. Ryan's warm lower line anchors the melody while Pattengale's fragile tenor hovers above; Snake Eyes is the track that…0
  7. 7The Lion's Roar (2012)The Lion's Roar (2012)Released 1 Jan 2012First Aid Kit, the Stockholm sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg, bring American country-folk traditions a bright Scandinavian clarity. Their voices blend so closely that the harmony seems to come from one throat, and Emmylou, a love letter to the classic duos it name-checks, is the natural place…0
  8. 8You Don't Own Me Anymore (2017)You Don't Own Me Anymore (2017)Released 1 Jan 2017The Secret Sisters, Laura and Lydia Rogers from near Muscle Shoals, Alabama, sing with the deep instinct of family harmony. Produced by Brandi Carlile, the album lets Laura's rich lead intertwine with Lydia's sharp high line on Mississippi and He's Fine, moving between front-porch purity and…0
  9. 9Barton Hollow (2011)Barton Hollow (2011)Released 1 Jan 2011The Civil Wars, Joy Williams and John Paul White, built their sound on dramatic friction between two voices. Williams's agile, emotive soprano pushes and pulls against White's dark Southern baritone on Poison & Wine and the stormy title track, so the harmonies crackle with longing and suspicion.…0
  10. 10Blindfaller (2016)Blindfaller (2016)Released 1 Jan 2016North Carolina duo Mandolin Orange, Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz (now recording as Watchhouse), harmonise as naturally as an evening conversation on the porch. Marlin's weathered, understated voice and Frantz's sweet, unforced one lock together on Wildfire and Hard Hearted Stranger, as close as…0