HUNTINGTON -- Whether you're a head banger or into jam bands, country, bluegrass, hip hop, gospel or just plain rock 'n' roll, it was, as always, a pretty stellar year for locally made CDs.

Here's just a six-pack of my favorite CDs from this past year in no specific order.

Bud Carroll and the Southern Souls, "Wasted Words and Best of Intentions"

Not unlike Derek Trucks, Jason Isbell, and J.J. Grey and Mofro, and this next generation of hot Southern rockers, Carroll blends up relevant, topical lyrics soaked in a delicious musical gumbo of Muscle Shoals-esque Southern rock spiced with that country, funk and gospel.

Carroll, who was best known as the guitar slinger for Jive Records artists, American Minor, has really come into his own as a songwriter and band leader for the Southern Souls, (Jimmy Lykens, bass and vocals, Steve Barker, drums and Jon Cavendish, keys, guitar and vocals), captured on this disc by renowned Athens, Ohio-based producer Eddie Ashworth (Sublime, Dio, Great White and Pennywise).

The Lykens-penned, "Big Coal," has been in the Top 10 on The Planet, and Carroll, whose unit took the main stage at Huntington Rib and Music Fest, starts off 2010 with his first appearance on the internationally-heard radio show, Mountain Stage on Feb. 21, with Lucero and Bottle Rockets.

You can get the new CD, and hear a few cuts online at www.myspace.com/budcarroll.

Fletcher's Grove, "All the Way Home"

Last winter I ran into the West Virginia University/Marshall University-student built jam band Fletcher's Grove up at Timberline's lodge in Canaan Valley rocking the mountain down with a great live jam.

A snapshot of that sweet live Grove groove was captured this year by Jeff Bosley, long-time veteran of the Mountain Stage crew. Bosley engineered the October release, "All the Way Home," an all originals CD of nine songs he recorded in August in part at the Jomie Jazz Center at Marshall. The Grove is definitely one soul with its eclectic jam that blends in influences from Phish and Lotus back to the Allman Brothers and The Grateful Dead.

Bosley also helped put together a stellar national CD release, "Still Moving Mountains," a critically-acclaimed anti-Mountain Top Removal CD that featured Kathy Mattea, Del McCoury, Blue Highway and many others.

Before they head back to their respective schools, see the Grove live with Freekbass at the V Club on New Year's Eve.

Shayar, "Get Up and Try"

He may be from Jamaica, but Lenval "Shayar" Jarrett is truly Mountain made.

The multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who moved to Beckley back in 1997, shows off that Mountaineer spirit on his latest CD of 10 originals, "Get Up and Try," on which he plays everything but a Turnpike toll booth.

For the record, Shayar, who toured internationally with Burning Spear for many years, grooves on everything from percussion and keyboards to guitar, harmonica and mandolin, making an excellent new batch of homegrown Mountain State reggae.

Cut with Beckley-based Dan Bailey and with Beckley's own Lady D singing backup, Shayar's new CD, like most other regionally-made CDs, is available locally at Now Hear This. Go online at www.rasshayar.com to see his latest video, "Trust in You," which has a great slideshow of photos with Shayar in the New River Gorge.

Rick Huckaby, "Hittin' My Stride"

The son of the late Marshall basketball coach, Rick Huckabay, Rick (who changed the spelling of his last name because nobody could say it right), has put out his best record yet, the aptly-titled "Hittin' My Stride" packed with 12 new originals. It's just out on Head Coach Records, named after his pops and run by Huck and his brother Andy.

Rightfully, Huck, who was named Music Row Magazine's Breakout Artist for the Year for 2009, didn't mess with the success of his first, country-soul-slathered CD that was also cooked up with fellow Louisiana-native, Lonnie Wilson.

Huck, whose song, "Muddy Water," that he wrote with Monty Criswell, was a No. 1 video for Trace Adkins last year, has loaded up another great CD of songs written with such folks as Criswell, Exile's J.P. Pennington, Michael White and others.

You can get the CD online and hear a few cuts at www.myspace.com/rickhuckaby.

Stone Machine, "Stone Machine"

Split Nixon has already had quite the comeback year. The once-defunct Ashland-based modern rock act is back together, has labels courting, rocked out the X-Fest stage and helped a brother out recording a mighty fine side project called "Stone Machine."

Put together by veteran guitarist and songwriter, Dirk Blevins (formerly of Ten Years Gone), "Stone Machine" features Blevins' pedal-to-the-metal Southern rock melted down by Split Nixon lead vocalist Jason Mays and a host of other local musicians including Scott Ross of Split Nixon, Ten Carp Lie's guitarist Matt Parkins and drummer, Jeremy Hall and Rodney Crisp.

The boys rock the walls off with a killer blast of 11 originals such as "Dirty Sweet," "Down South Mama" and "Pike County Woman" all written by Blevins, a 38-year-old Kenova resident who had the band 10 Years Gone for about eight years.

Originally released in late August, the CD has been strewn all over the Internet on iTunes, Amazon and was the No. 1 new hard rock release for the week of Aug. 25-29, on e-Music and is still in the Top 100 for 2009 releases on that site.

To listen to the band and to check out the CD, go online at www.2catstudios.com/9lives. Click onto Stone Machine.

Bad Employees "Looking for Werk"

Huntington had a couple notable electronica releases in 2009 with Attack Flamingos putting out a CD, "No Star Could Be as Large," and on the heels of that CD (whose space-themed cover image was oddly enough copied a couple weeks later by Dido), rock-tronica duo Bad Employees (John McComas and Andy Rivas) released its first full-length CD, the deftly-titled "Looking for Werk."

Both of those CDs are out on the Sarasota, Fla.-based label, LBA Records, run by Huntington native Neil Nessel.

The CD's drizzled with danceable, digital melodic honey of synth-and-guitar jams like "Sleep It Off," that like a good episode of "The Office" pokes fun at modern America with great lines like, "Yes, I am an American in a hurry; yes, I am an American starting to worry. You have to believe that things are working out for me."

In 2009, the duo played New York City and chalked up other regional gigs after taking almost a year (these Bad Employees have day jobs) to record the eight-song, all-original CD. The CD was mixed and mastered by Keith Barnhart, the owner of The MusicPlex, and the Huntington native keyboardist and studio whiz who spent his musical career in New York, Atlanta and Nashville playing on dozens of records by such heavy-hitting artists as Paul Simon and Chaka Khan.

Go online at www.myspace.com/bademployees or www.lbarecords.com.

Dave Lavender writes about local music for The Herald-Dispatch. Contact him at 304-526-6686 or by e-mail at lavender@herald-dispatch.com.