2023: My Year in Music

Hello again! It's early in 2025 and I am trying to catch up on missed years.  2023 was an absolute blur.  I started the year with a new job and a big trip planned and that's about all I managed to do in 2023.  I onboarded, then, in March, I went to Antarctica! It was an incredible trip, and left surprisingly little down time.  After I got back from Antarctica it was full throttle on the job, working weekends at the winery, and I didn't come up for air until the end of the year. 

Me on the Antarctic Continent

This year's list is quite short as a result.  I didn't have a lot of time for reflection, I mainly just had my head down and charged through.  I didn't have the bandwidth to discover many new things with starting up counseling again, trying to learn a new job and ways of working, staying involved with my family and trying to be present in my relationships. But these are a few songs that landed well throughout the year.

 

The Angels - Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again (Live)

The passengers and crew on the boat for the Antarctica cruise were utterly wonderful, almost to a person. And so are the people I work with at the winery. I help sometimes with these educational wine tasting classes we do that pair food and wine around a theme.  We did Australia in January of 2023 and we played only Australian pop classics as part of the music when people were getting seated before the class started.  This was my favorite song that was on that playlist.  Then, on the boat, we had an Australian expedition leader who was also a classically trained singer.  And sometimes he would take over the mic in the lounge at night and provide some blessed relief from the Czech crew member who was in charge of entertainment who sang a lot of songs in Chinese, and some Elvis songs, and none of it well.  But the Australian expedition leader was awesome.  He would sing this song as his showstopper, and an 84 year old, nearly-toothless Australian and her adult niece who would yell at the top of their lungs whenever he did.  There is a chorus that the audience sings, which you can sort of hear in the live version, which is what the Aunt and Niece would yell and I loved it every time.  This is also just an undeniably great song.  

Spoon - Wild

Spoon's been on my annual list before. It's no secret I like songs about rambling, wandering, searching, and restlessness.  This song falls firmly into that category. It has a great rock edge to it, good bass line for an intro, then in builds into a really big song, fitting of its name.  

Umphrey's McGee - Glory

I work with a lot of Phish, Grateful Dead and Jimmy Buffet fans at the winery.  I have learned that you can infer a rather serious level of life commitment from someone's love of any one of those bands, and jam bands are a very particular love. The playlist we play at the winery has the loves of its staff represented.  We are usually very busy on the weekends so I don't usually get a chance to listen to the music, but sometimes if I'm helping open I do hear the songs, and this song played one beautiful spring morning as I looked out over the vineyard with the leaves coming back on the vines and the trees starting to bud.  It was a lovely moment, and it's a really great, stirring song from a well-respected jam band.  I listen to it a lot, and it doesn't have lyrics so I get to simply enjoy the uplifting sounds, instead of trying to pick apart the meaning for hours.  

Pete Townshend - Hiding Out

This is how I think many people feel when they get overwhelmed by the dark stuff we see in the world, on the news, in our daily lives, etc.  Is he critiquing those who are hiding out and not engaging in the brokenness of the world even as he identifies as one of them? It is certainly hard to take in all the difficulties around us and not be overwhelmed.  I will give him that.  

Brian Eno and John Cale - Lay My Love 

I would propose an alternate title for this song: I am that I am.  When I listen to the lyrics and the relentless repetition of the melody, it sounds like a joyful march on someone's soul, with a battle cry. "I will surround you with my love and you're not going to be able to explain it, understand it, or do anything about it".  A stalker-y sentiment in its worst interpretation, but I think with the right intentions behind it, it's probably one of the best things in the whole world you could do for someone. 

Joe Pug - Crescent Bridge

KG introduced me to Joe Pug when I blindly followed her to his show at the 9:30 club several years ago.  He's one of those incredible authentic singer songwriters who you want art not to be such a sacrifice and a struggle for.  You know this guy tours relentlessly, does all his own social media, and works his ass off to try and keep doing what he loves and make a living at it.  He's an excellent songwriter, has a very distinctive voice, and flies below the radar.  And this song is a classic good-guy-gets-overlooked-by-girl-for-awful-flashy-rich-dude-with-no-substance song.  Tale as old as time.  I like all the details in the song about the people, I can absolutely see the smoky bar, the guy with no heart, the guy with an aching heart waiting on a bridge...MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE ALREADY, GIRL!

Noah and the Whale - Blue Skies

I wish this band would have gone on forever.  Most breakup songs are more cathartic than helpful, but I think this one is actually pointing people towards hope.  A standout in the genre for sure. 

U2 - With or Without You

I remember when the email came through saying that we won our bids in the lottery for U2 tickets at the Sphere, and among them were four tickets for opening night.  I knew I wanted to go with my brothers, so we all flew to Vegas and had a ridiculously fun weekend.  But the crown jewel was the U2 show.  In what I can only describe as a paradigm shifting concert experience - words fail to convey how incredible what the audience experienced that night was.  So you can listen to this U2 song, and I'll just sit here and remember... 

Me and my bros at opening night of U2 UV at the Sphere

The National, Bon Iver - Weird Goodbyes

I first heard this song driving to a cabin weekend with friends in October of 2023 out near Bluemont, VA.  It was a really fun weekend but I remember it being rainy, foggy and fully autumn.  Arguably two of the best songwriters and producers out there teaming up to write a song left me with basically know chance of escaping emotionally unscathed from their poignant foray into some kind of death of a relationship. The vivid pictures they drop you into at the top of the song - you're in the empty house, you see all the relics of the life that was. When people you love die, or maybe remain alive but go away permanently, the grief does trigger from very strange places, in my experience.  When the opening of the song says "There'll come a time I'll wanna know I was here", it's exactly that.  You sort of grab for something because you know you're not feeling it yet, but what you're seeing is important and future you will want to hold on to it for the sake of your own ability to grieve.  And I love how the song takes you through the breakdown as well.  When he talks about the windshield crying, and I was driving in the rain on a chilly, rainy autumn morning, it was definitely not the windshield...it was me.  

Eva Cassidy - Songbird (Orchestral) 

My older brother introduced me to Eva Cassidy a long, long time ago.  She's from DC, had an incredibly short career before dying of melanoma at 36, and was a stunning talent.  This song, the title track from the eponymous album, soars with the addition of the orchestra behind it.  If you thought it was beautiful before with just Eva's gorgeous voice and the simple guitar, wait till you hear those strings...

Ola Gjeilo - Home

From an album called "Winter Songs", cinematic and grand in its beauty, this simple, quiet piece falls right in the middle and sounds warm, beckons you inside, and surrounds you with light, like you would hope home would.  

Martha's Vineyard in September with friends from the boat