PopMatters has been bemoaning the fact that the music industry seems to be working by the adage "if a woman doesn't have a hit by the time she's 22 years old, she should probably look for another career."

To counter this apparent (and not totally true) trend, they've come up with a list of ten great albums from 2008 by women 45-years-old or older.

PopMatters Best Records of 2008 by Women 45 Years Old and Over

1. Don't Do Anything - Sam Phillips
2. Day After Tomorrow - Joan Baez
3. Beautiful - Bonnie Bramlett
4. Stronger - Carlene Carter
5. Coal - Kathy Mattea
6. @#%&! Smilers - Aimee Mann
7. Live - Phoebe Snow
8. All I Intended to Be - Emmylou Harris
9. Back to Now - Labelle
10. Una Dia - Juana Molina

PopMatters also gave an honorable mention to 11 other "older" women who released good albums in 2008.

• Rory Block
• Mavis Staples
• Patty Loveless
• Eliza Gilkyson
• Carly Simon
• Lucinda Williams
• Dolly Parton
• Marcia Ball
• Irma Thomas
• Patti Smith
• Grace Jones

CMT's Craig Shelburne dug a little deeper today to choose twenty indie albums from 2008 that you might have missed. Included were a couple from the stable of veteran artists:

• Sleepless Nights - Patty Loveless
• Buena Vista - Robin & Linda Williams
• Coal - Kathy Mattea