At the end of this year, I want to express my gratitude to everyone who’s ever listened to any of these, read a word I’ve written, or indulged my jabbering about a song or an artist in person.
This is the longest of these people-who-died playlists I’ve been doing for a few years. Part of that’s my age; as I get older – turned 43 this year – more of my heroes and inspirations succumb to age. Part of that is paying attention. As I tried to capture and stash that news on a spreadsheet, I was more aware of people passing. So, there isn’t a blurb for every song. That granular writing may come back, or this may be the format going forward.
More than anything, just like the other year-end items, hell, like everything I’ve ever put on social media, this is a gratitude exercise. Each of these 140-ish artists/producers/engineers/session players made work that moved me deeply, sometimes formatively: we start and end with two people who actively shaped my soundworld, the 45 King and drummer Tony Oxley, so pour a little out and do the Ed Lover dance at some point this evening.
I also want to take a moment and point out that streaming has limitations – yes I use it, and it’s definitely the easiest entry point/path of least resistance for this kind of thing. Still, especially for local music – I would have loved to include the spoken word artist Is Said or have more to choose from for Columbus jazz drumming icon Matt Wagner or singer-songwriter-guitarist Kim Crawford – but a lot of work falls through the cracks, and it should be acknowledged.
Wild Up/Julius Eastman, “If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?” – The ensemble Wild Up continues their vital grappling with/resurfacing the once-thought-lost work of composer Julius Eastman with a third volume containing several of the pieces on the original three-disc anthology I had the hardest time grappling with. The acidic overtones and sharp stabs on this sardonic, jagged piece are perfectly executed here, under the baton of Christopher Rountree, and reflect a world I see in a way I didn’t when I first heard the piece, also laying bare the sense of hope inherent in getting off the mat every time.
Wadada Leo Smith and Orange Wave Electric, “Nzotake Shange” – One of America’s finest composers and trumpeters, Wadada Leo Smith (Anne said, after watching a quartet set at the Stone, it sounded like “Falling down stairs” and she wasn’t wrong but in a good way), assembled a dream team of electric downtown-associated players for his remarkable record Fire Illuminations: guitarists Nels Cline, Brandon Ross, and Lamar Smith; bassists Bill Laswell and Melvin Gibbs; electronic musician Hardedge; percussionist Mauro Refosco; and drummer Pheeroan akLaff. Each tune reflects on an individual or a specific moment in history, and this piece, named for the poet and playwright who broke me when I read for colored girls 15 years after it premiered, exemplifies everything I find so intoxicating about the album, the deep groove and the perfectly refined and directed shots of fire spraying over it.
Irreversible Entanglements, “root ⇔ branch” – Irreversible Entanglements not only blew my hair back twice this year but also put on an even more assured and powerful second album, Protect Your Light. This piece, partly in tribute to jaimie branch, has been a favorite since I first hit play, and it’s still a balm, horns slowly waltzing through Moor Mother’s poetry and the deep, circular groove of Luke Stewart’s bass before erupting into a hip-swaying march. “Let the horns open the day and get free.”
Johnathan Blake, “Lament for Lo” – Drummer Johnathan Blake released his best record as a leader with this year’s Passages, and it’s full of great players. Still, I kept coming back to this drum solo intro/tribute to fellow New York drummer Lawrence “Lo” Leathers, both as a tribute to conciseness in a playlist more given to sprawling statements and a reminder of how much texture and emotional content one instrument being played alone can be.
Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, “Last Waltz for Levon” – I’ve been waiting for several of the pieces on Darcy James Argue’s latest record, Dynamic Maximum Tension, to be collected on a recording for a very long time. This one, written in the wake of The Band drummer Levon Helm’s passing, I saw him do almost ten years ago in the basement theater of subculture, and he introduced it by paying tribute to Helm’s deep, instantly recognizable pocket. The Secret Society pays tribute to that slippery waltz that shadow-painting sense of time, in one of a record packed with gems – until writing this, the Duke Ellington tribute “Tensile Curves” was my choice for the playlist periodically, it was the Buckminster Fuller-inspired piece – and I can’t wait to see this band again at Big Ears finally.
Henry Threadgill, “The Other One: Movement III, Section 13” – Henry Threadgill followed one of the all-time great music memoirs, Easily Slip Into Another World, with a stunning chamber music record, The Other One, from which this is drawn. Not playing horn, just conducting, Threadgill’s affinity for tension and mystery in dynamics shines through loud and clear and his facility for strings takes on dimensions I wasn’t expecting.
Kali Malone, “Does Spring Hide Its Joy v2.1” – One of the standout performances I saw at Big Ears last year, composer and organist Kali Malone convenes a trio with cellist Lucy Raiton and guitarist Stephen O’Malley for a long record of beguiling riffs on melodic cells glowing with long tones.
Ingrid Laubrock and Cecilia Lopez, “LUNA MAROMERA” – Ingrid Laubrock put out several good records this year but I kept coming back to this duo record with Cecilia Lopez on electronics, Maromas, a continued investigation of the duo format from one of my favorite saxophonists, that also beguiled me when Anne and I saw the duo in Brooklyn in the Spring. There’s grit here, the ragged breathy tones and the long pulses that decay unevenly, that add to the inherent mystery.
Thandi Ntuli and Carlos Niño, “Lihlanzekile” – Producer/percussionist Carlos Niño has gotten a lot of deserved heat this year, I saw him anchor a brilliant trio with Surya Botofasina and Nate Mercereau at Winter Jazzfest in January, and my favorite record of his was this gorgeous duo album with South African pianist Thandi Ntuli. This closing track, translating to “It is clean”, was a piece I returned to over and over, an undulating landscape that changes every time I try to perceive it.
Andre 3000, “BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears a 3000® Button Down Embroidered” – The record that put Niño’s name into the wider American consciousness and which I liked a lot; though, as I discussed with Andrew Patton, it fits more neatly into the ambient genre or even downtempo electronica than the “flute jazz” box some people who didn’t know that was a genre tried to put it in. This track features the trio I mentioned above, creating alongside Andre Benjamin, and is one of the two tracks to feature flute instead of what I think is an EWI. It’s beautiful.
Allison Miller, “Fierce” – One of my favorite composer-drummers, Allison Miller, outdid herself this year with a small group record co-sponsored by a series of art spaces with Lake Placid Center for the Arts in the lead, Rivers in Our Veins. As always, she assembled a remarkable group of musicians with a deep history with her and each other: Jenny Scheinman on violin, Jason Palmer on trumpets, Ben Goldberg on clarinets, Carmen Staaf on keys, and Todd Sickafoose on bass. The intertwining – I think – Rhodes and acoustic piano comping under Scheinman’s solo that seems to burble out of Goldberg’s is a highlight of this track, and there’s not a dull track on the album. The interplay is really as good as it gets.
Damon Locks and Rob Mazurek, “Yes!” – Trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Rob Mazurek has worked with composer/bandleader/polymath Damon Locks in a variety of settings, most notably Mazurek’s shifting Exploding Star Orchestra, but distilling their two languages down to a duo on New Future City Radio paid off big, both on this record and seeing them live at Big Ears.
MEM_MODS, “Midtown Miscommunication” – One of my sleeper favorites in the good-for-all-parties category, a deep Memphis groove project from Paul Taylor (Amy Lavere, New Memphis Colorways), Steve Selvidge (Big Ass Truck, Hold Steady, Lucero), and Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars).
James Brandon Lewis and the Red Lily Quintet, “Were You There” – Saxophonist James Brandon Lewis reconvenes my favorite of his bands, the Red Lily Quintet – Kirk Knuffke on cornet, William Parker on bass, Chad Taylor on Drums, Chris Hoffman on cello – for a tribute to his Grandmother by way of paying tribute to the pioneering gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. Every song on For Mahalia, With Love, is a winner, with deep soulful grooves and stretching out without sacrificing any bit of these timeless melodies. The colors of the instruments coming in on this one remind me of Beethoven’s 9th in the best way.
Chris Potter, “You Gotta Move” – Saxophonist Chris Potter has a special affinity for the Village Vanguard. His newest record, Got the Keys to the Kingdom, is another stunning example. Potter and his powerful quartet – Craig Taborn on piano, Scott Colley on bass, and Marcus Gilmore on drums – tear into and pay homage to fascinating repertoire throughout the record, but I kept coming back to this glorious cubist-gutbucket take on Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “You Gotta Move.”
Mendoza Hoff Revels, “Echolocation” – Also blues-inflected but with open arms for everything since, the collaboration between guitarist Ava Mendoza and bassist Devin Hoff, featuring James Brandon Lewis in a more coiled, snarling mode than I’m used to, and Ches Smith’s powerful drumming, is the best avant-rock ensemble I’ve heard in recent memory. The liner notes referencing Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time and later Black Flag ring true, but this doesn’t sound like anyone else.
Tyshawn Sorey, “Seleritus” – Drummer and composer Tyshawn Sorey digs into the corners of the songbook with his killing trio of Matt Brewer on drums and Aaron Diehl on piano on Continuing. This deep dive into an Ahmad Jamal piece captures the space and silence of Jamal’s kind of shorthand in the common parlance but also captures the heaviness he always brought to the bandstand. A majestic tribute that plays everything these three have learned about the source and brought to their own work through the original.
Love in Exile, “Eyes of the Endless” – This supergroup of Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily exceeded every expectation I had going in as a big fan of all three players and writers. This piece has Iyer on Rhodes instead of the normal acoustic piano, and both the heavy strike and the ring of that instrument give the astonishing melody from Aftab a different, shimmering texture, like a cape being flung off and tossed into a bay.
Kurt Rosenwinkel and Geri Allen, “A Flower is a Lovesome Thing” – The gods of reissuing blessed us with a remarkable document of a duo concert in Paris in 2012 before Allen’s untimely passing. Two voices that shaped the jazz players my age and younger as much as anybody else explode this tune, one of my favorite Billy Strayhorn pieces, thoughtfully, out of love. Every note of this holds the next, waiting to be born, but not in a way that ever feels rote or obvious.
Aaron Diehl and the Knights, “Gemini” – Speaking of acts of love, it’s hard to compete with this one. The great Mary Lou Williams wrote her Zodiac Suite – which many jazzers play at least parts of to this day – as a through-composed chamber suite but it’s – I don’t think – ever been recorded as such. Masterful pianist Aaron Diehl restored the score and teamed up with NYC guardians of the contemporary canon, The Knights, for a beautifully recorded, definitive reading.
Roy Hargrove, “The Love Suite: In Mahogany – Obviously Destined” – Another gift from the reissue gods: a pristine recording of the 1993 Alice Tully Hall performance of trumpeter-composer Roy Hargrove’s piece The Love Suite: In Mahogany. This movement highlights both Hargrove’s sizzling horn playing and Marc Cary’s piano (that solo a couple of minutes in undulates with silky dynamism, but everyone – Jesse Davis, Ron Blake, and Andre Heyward comprise the rest of the horn section, Rodney Whitaker and Gregory Hutchinson keep things moving and held down as the remainder of the rhythm section – kills it here.
Yasmin Williams featuring Aoife O’Donovan, “Dawning” – Columbus was finally blessed with Yasmin Williams as the Wexner Center this year after several cancellations. The entire performance floored me, but I was especially intrigued by this new piece she introduced, revealing Aoife O’Donovan’s involvement. The studio recording delivers on all the promise that collaboration holds. Williams lets every note ring on its own, rolls feel like last year’s snow finally slipping down cliff sides, in a slow drag tempo perfectly suits O’Dovonan’s wordless vocals.
Chad Fowler/Zoh Amba/Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp/William Parker/Steve Hirsh, “Sentient Sentiment” – Chad Fowler, here on stritch and saxello, assembles a contemporary fire music supergroup and lets them loose in a frenzy of ecstatic, deeply thoughtful play on the five tracks of Alien Skin. The single show I was sorriest to miss in my town was Zoh Amba’s local debut featuring Chris Corsano, and I heard it was just as good as I’ve heard her in the past. Her lines exquisitely intertwine with Fowler’s and Perelman’s, particularly on this slow burn that blossoms into a line of explosions, as Parker, Shipp (both of whom appear elsewhere on this playlist), and Hirsh set up a baseline that shifts exactly as the music needs to.
Wolf Eyes, “Engaged Withdrawal” – I’ve been a fan of Wolf Eyes almost as long as I’ve been digging William Parker and Matthew Shipp, and their Dreams in Spattered Lines is another classic, with maturity as a blessing and not a crutch. This song creeps at a measured pace, Nate Young and John Olson leaving one another enough space and care, enough listening, to each make a proper impression on a record that has everything in its place and wastes no gesture, no moment.
David Lang/Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra/Sō Percussion, “man made” – The CSO (not that one, the other one), under their director Louis Langrée, teamed up with leading NYC contemporary troupe Sō Percussion for the first recording of David Lang’s stunning piece “man made.” Lang’s program note about the orchestra acting as translators and decoders, for the less traditional instrumentation and movement of the percussion quartet rings true, and that process – showing the strings – makes it all more magical rather than less.
Matthew Shipp, “The Bulldozer Poetics” – Shipp continues his growth into a clearer more approachable, even when the work itself gets thornier and more complex, like the world, piano style on the phenomenal solo album The Intrinsic Nature of Shipp. From the crush of those first notes, this driving piece sets up an entire world.
Curtis J. Stewart, “vii. Adagio from Johannes Brahms Sonata No. 1 Op. 78 (We Are Going to Be OK)” – Violinist/composer/arranger Curtis Stewart’s remarkable solo record of Love is one of those gargantuan acts of love I keep talking about and being drawn to. An expansive weaving together of pieces he’s been playing for years and knows well by composers who still speak to him, like Brahms and Ellington, and originals, played in tribute to his late Mother in her Upper West Side apartment.
Kieran Hebden and William Tyler, “Darkness, Darkness” – This collaboration between Kieran Hebden, the electronic musician better known as Four Tet, and avant-Americana guitarist William Tyler, delighted me, particularly this take on the Youngbloods song “Darkness, Darkness.” It unfurls slowly, letting the listener glimpse it in pieces, coming into view like a slowly backing-up camera refocusing every few seconds and coalescing into a powerful groove.
Rob Moose featuring Phoebe Bridgers, “Wasted” – yMusic co-founder violinist Rob Moose teamed with a variety of singers on his dazzling Inflorescence EP. I kept coming back to this fragile, pulsing collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers. The strings are both stabbing and enveloping light here. “Standing in the parking lot, in the glow of a Rite-Aid sign, everyone I know is staying in tonight. I’ve been here before, just screaming at a cell phone. Seems like a couple of months went by, but it’s years ago.”
Gerald Cleaver, “Of the American Dream” – One of the finest jazz drummers, Gerald Cleaver, has been working up a second strain of electronica-based music that I think hit its most assured and together expression yet with 22/23.
JD Allen, “Mx. Fairweather” – JD Allen stepped into the ring with electronics on THIS without sacrificing any of that rich, rounded tone. His great trio – Alex Bonney on those electronics and effects, Gwilym Jones on drums – attack this ballad and the other gorgeous originals on the record with subtlety and laser focus.
Nubya Garcia, “Lean In” – This killer single from one of my favorite London sax players, Nubya Garcia, summons up some of the textures of the garage club music she grew up with for an infectious mix.
Sexmob, “Club Pythagorean” – Downtown New York institution Sexmob – Steven Bernstein, Briggan Krauss, Tony Scherr, Kenny Wollensen – brought longtime collaborator Scotty Hard (Prince Paul, Mike Ladd, Antibalas) into the fold as a full member on their electrifying The Hard Way. This track also features John Medeski on Mellotron for a powerful groove bursting with hooks.
Javier Nero, “Kemet (The Black Land)” – Trombonist-composer Javier Nero leads a large band – including guest Sean Jones on a crackling solo on this title track – paying tribute to the ancient African empire of Kemet. The wordless vocals and frenetic cymbal work from Kyle Swan set up gorgeous massed horns, and killer vibes work from Warren Wolf, and a sizzling solo from Nero.
Marquis Hill featuring Joel Ross, “Stretch (The Body)” – Trumpeter Marquis Hill approached the ways intention can give our lives meaning and thoughtless action/habits can decay us, in a way that made more musical sense than any other such attempt I can think of, with the riveting Rituals + Routines. This track features vibes player Joel Ross painting constellations around the tight quartet of Hill, Junius Paul, Micheal King, and Indie Buz.
Chris Abrahams, Oren Ambarchi, Robbie Aveniam, “Placelessness (Side B excerpt)” – Chris Abrahams (The Necks’ pianist) brought together this trio of avant-garde guitarist and electronics player Oren Ambarchi and drummer Robbie Aveniam for Placelessness, two extended tracks of throbbing minimalism. Those squiggles around the minute mark, creating an interference color between the circular piano figure and the stuttered drums, were my initial handhold into the world of this music, and they still excite me.
Greg Ward Presents Rogue Parade, “Noir Nouveau” – Chicago alto player Greg Ward brings together some of his town’s finest players under the Rogue Parade name – Matt Gold, Dave Miller, Matt Ulery, Quin Kirchner – for the delightful concept album Dion’s Quest. This cinematic piece builds slowly, like shadows creeping along a wall, and develops sharper edges and flashes of light.
Sara Serpa and Andre Matos, “Carlos” – The vocalist pushing the boundaries furthest in the jazz/improvisation world right now, Sara Serpa, found an exquisite foil in guitarist/bassist Andre Matos. They assembled a great band consisting of Dov Manski on keys, João Pereira on drums, Okkyung Lee on cello, and Sofia Jernberg on additional vocals for the astounding album Night Birds. This original builds up from cells, sharing some sound-world commonality with the last two tracks, and flies to another place entirely.
Lawrence English and Lea Bertucci, “A Fissure Exhales” – I’ve been a big fan of Lea Bertucci’s playing and soundscapes for years. This collaboration with field recordings and tape manipulation artist Lawrence English, a standout track for me from their record Chthonic summons a sense of glacial motion, like many of the instrumental records that drew me this year, brings an entire world into my view and keeps revealing new mysteries.
Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, “Shallow Water (Tribute Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr., Guardians of the Flame)” – The power of the statement in Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah leaving his – up to now – primary instrument, the trumpet, behind in favor of his self-created Chief Adjuah’s bow and vocals, paid off big in his remarkable Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lighting, a mythopoetic tribute to all New Orleans has given us and everything it can still be. This tribute to the great Donald Harrison, Sr., features electrifying playing from Weedie Braimah on percussion, Luques Curtis on bass, and Marcus Gilmore on drums, among excellent guests.
Dan Wilson, “Bird Like” – Akron-based guitarist Dan Wilson grapples with his influences on the terrific Things Eternal, leading a great quartet of Glenn Zaleski on Rhodes, Brandon Rhodes on bass, and David Throckmorton on drums. The fluid lines and gleeful interplay make this Freddie Hubbard classic vibrantly, wrigglingly, alive.
Matana Roberts, “a caged dance” – Anything Matana Roberts does is worthwhile, and the fifth chapter in her Coin Coin series, delving into her family history and examining its context in American and specifically Black American history, In The Garden, might be the best installment yet. Produced with aplomb by Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio) and a large band of excellent musicians, including Mike Pride and Ryan Swift on drums, Stuart Bogie and Darius Jones on reeds, and Mazz Swift on violin, there’s not a weak track to be found. The stuttering, walking-the-line-between early 20th-century jazz and mid-century free jazz intro of this tune grabbed me immediately, and the rest of the track never let go.
Angel Bat Dawid, “INTROID – Joy ‘n’ Stuff’rin” – When I interviewed Angel Bat Dawid years ago, she was working on the multimedia Requiem for Jazz project. While I’m still chomping at the bit to see it realized, the record was maybe the most ambitious and moving jazz and jazz-adjacent piece I’ve heard all year. Massed vocal writing and those interweaving horns on this tune… it doesn’t get better. I’m still unpacking this Requiem and will be for a while.
Ambrose Akinmusire featuring Bill Frisell and Herlin Riley, “Owl Song 1” – Trumpeter-composer Ambrose Akinmusire assembled a trio of guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Herlin Riley for the gorgeous Owl Song. This lead-off track is a tribute to all three players’ dedication to tone, space, and adventuring spirits.
Missy Mazzoli/Third Coast Percussion, “Millenium Canticles Pt 5, Survival Psalm” – The “Millenium Canticles” suite by Missy Mazzoli, one of my favorite composers and who makes one more appearance on this playlist, is the opening salvo to Third Coast Percussion’s dynamic Between Breaths and this final movement feels like you’ve just made your way to shore. A tribute to finding ways and reasons to live.
Beverly Glenn-Copeland, “Harbour (Song for Elizabeth)” – Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s first record in 20 years is a rapturous collection of art songs only he could write. The melody and lyrics of this song, in particular, wrecks me every time. “Don’t you know that you’re the deep, where water, earth, and fire meet? Don’t you know that when you sleep, life’s laughing, weeping?”
Mark Lomax II featuring Scott Woods, “Ho’oponopono” – One of the performances I was sorriest to miss in the fall of 2022 was the premiere of Columbus’s greatest composer Mark Lomax’s newest collaboration with poet Scott Woods, Black Odes. I’m still sorry I wasn’t in town to see it, but the record is a spectacular document of an opening into a new era for two of our finest artists. “What else do I need but this hem? / What else do I need to decolonize this kiss to make it a worthy offering?”
Missy Mazzoli/Arctic Philharmonic, “These Worlds In Us” – I’ve been a big fan of Missy Mazzoli’s writing since I heard her chamber ensemble Victoire on a blog, and a year or two later saw them in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Her work has grown more expansive, covering a multiplicity of forms, and finally, there was a collection under her name with a variety of uncollected orchestra pieces, Dark With Excessive Bright. This one, new to me, was an immediate favorite and falls into my usual tone: a prayerful/hope-for-the-world piece I like to end these playlists on. Thank you all for reading/listening. I love you.
There were more records I loved, that I wanted to defend or argue about with people, that woke me up in the morning or kept me awake at night, than I could keep up with. The playlists themselves got a little unwieldy, but I still want to talk about records on a regular cadence, so look for something differently shaped in January.
One of the most fertile sources for finding new songs for me – and I love my fellow writers; I still read The Wire every month, Stereogum (especially Phil Freeman’s Ugly Beauty) regularly, NYC Jazz Record all the time, every promo email that comes my way – was radio. WFMU is still a constant flood of inspiration and joy.
However, I was saddened to see St Louis’s KDHX drive passionate volunteers away in droves with mismanagement and misinformation: I namecheck John Wendland’s Memphis to Manchester a lot but also pour a little out for longtime buddies Roy Kasten and Steve Pick (still providing killer recs on his Substack), newer pal Caron House (check her new podcast, After the Gold Rush, continuing her great show Wax Lyrical), and people I didn’t know but listened to semi-religiously like Rich Reese, Ital K, and more. One of my favorite radio stations is a shell of itself, and I hope everyone I like finds peace and a place to land, but I know many times it doesn’t work like that.
Like in past years: Songs mostly (but don’t always) have lyrics and are a (more-or-less) concise jolt of emotion; Spaces are mostly instrumental and are sculptural or landscape-ish; both consist of tracks that came out this year to the best of my knowledge. Parting Gifts is a look back at artists who made an impression on me we lost this year; it’ll be the last of these posted and very close to the 31st.
jaimie branch, “burning grey” – When I spoke with jaimie branch previewing her Wexner Center show in 2022 she was effusive about getting in with her band Fly or Die to record this album on the heels of that tour. And as sad as I am she’s no longer with us, this record – finishing touches presided over by her sister, Kate Branch, and her bandmates Jason Ajemian, Chad Taylor, and Lester St. Louis – is a masterpiece, so, like last year, I’m bookending the playlist with two of my favorite songs from it. This one, “Burning Grey,” served me as a mantra and a rallying cry throughout the year. The bouncy and tense urgency of the rhythm gets me pumped every time, fueling that vocal, assured in its desperation and so confident in its belief in people. That finely sharpened trumpet tone picking up right where the vocal drops off, the two sides of her voice perfectly simpatico. “Automatic time, automatic time, I wish I had the time, I wish I had the time, I had the time, I had the time, I had the time of my life.”
Jerry David Decicca, “Lost Days” – Long time friend and one of the two or three people who’ve turned me onto the most music of my life – hell, he may have sold me that Ethiopiques volume I was talking about in the live music list this year – Jerry DeCicca’s restlessness in his art is fed in all the right ways from a prolonged period of stability in the Texas hill county. New Shadows embraces the synthesizer and drum sounds of records like Tunnel of Love and New Sensations and the evocative looseness his writing has grown into over the last several albums and combines them into a tribute to wistfulness. The slightly pinched, distancing effect on the vocals (he and Rosali Middleman) draws me in. The winding tenor of James Brandon Lewis (who shows up more than once on the “Spaces” playlist) feels like it drifts through and perches on the edge of the beautiful landscapes crafted by co-producer Don Cento, looking out to a horizon while piecing together and honoring those lost days. “Look up, flags are at half mast all year like they ran out of gas.”
Olivia Rodrigo, “bad idea right?” – The ranking pretty much stops now as I try to weave together commonalities of tone and texture. A couple of my other high contenders for song of the year are at the very end, naturally. Still, if the previous couple of songs are my favorite songs of the year by a solid margin, this is my favorite single, maybe my favorite pop song, and a standout on Rodrigo’s barn burner of a second album, GUTS. The shifts in tone, the giddy delight with throwing off her friends and making a marvelous bad decision, the dry, shattered bottles on pavement drums, and the swirling keys all hit me exactly where I wanted. “I told my friends I was asleep, but I never said where or in whose sheets.”
Adanna Duru featuring Leven Kail, “Stay In” – Bringing the tone down in similar thematic waters for one of my favorite R&B songs of the year. The river-of-amber tempo and the candlelight (and melting candle wax) tones go all the way down my back. “You could take me out, or we could stay in; we could slow dance to Whitney again.”
Ledisi, “I Need to Know” – Co-written with Rex Rideout, this sumptuous on-the-edge-of-heartbreak ballad by Ledisi, draped in rich harmonies, paints an oblique story about a relationship on the precipice. I liked the Nina Simone tribute, but this has me ravenous for the next full length. “You got me up till daylight, tryna figure out if we’re all right.”
Mariah the Scientist, “Out of Luck” – Mariah the Scientist’s To Be Eaten Alive is gold-plated R&B, front-to-back perfectly tooled songs with a variety of collaborators but this one produced by Kaytranada grabbed me immediately and didn’t let go. The hard stutter of the drums underneath the placid synth sets off the synths’ and vocal’s vintage disco/early house tone beautifully. “If you treat me right, you won’t need another lover. Can you fantasize? All the things that haunted you and made you cry.”
Married FM, “Wineburg, Ohio” – Emily Davis (Necropolis, The Ipps) and Beth Murphy Wilkinson (Times New Viking) cast a long shadow over Columbus music, so as soon as I heard this project was in the offing I had to hear it. This debut release exceeded my expectations handily, some of the best bedroom pop I’ve heard in years, teasing out complicated relationships with nostalgia (particularly on this song) and the world. One of the very few guests, Mike O’Shaughnessy, adds some delicious crunch to the tune with his drums. “All the things we used to do? We just go through the motions, so we’re not so blue.”
Sunny War, “New Day” – I’ve liked Sunny War for a while, but she found an exquisite blend of folk and punk and songs boiled over a hot flame on Anarchist Gospel. This stripped-down mantra/taking stock backs her voice – front and center – only with bluegrass legend Dennis Crouch’s upright and strings by Billy Contreras, like standing in the middle of a whirlpool watching a sunrise. “You stole the light right from my eyes: jarred it up like fireflies. Start the day, salutation and smile, and work your way to tribulation and trial.”
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, “When We Were Close” – I might wish he varied the tempos a little more, but Jason Isbell keeps putting out records that hit me straight in the heart. Weathervanes burrows into the classic rock side of his passions after the shimmering light-on-water heartbreak of Reunions, and those guitars hit exactly right on almost all of the album for me. From the moment I heard the record, this tough-in-just-the-right-way eulogy for Justin Townes Earle stopped me dead in my tracks; that signature riff is one you could picture JTE nodding and taking another drag on a cigarette to, and the two winks to tributes to other people, Earle’s famous namesake Townes Van Zandt’s “Rex’s Blues” and his father Steve Earle’s memorial to Townes “Ft Worth Blues,” do what that kind of a reference is supposed to do: dig it deeper and place it in a continuum, instead of being a lazy shorthand. “I saw a picture of you laughing with your child, and I hope she will remember how you smiled. But she probably wasn’t old enough the night somebody sold you stuff and left you on the bathroom tiles.”
Joy Oladokun, “Taking Things For Granted” – There’s not a bad song on Joy Oladokun’s fourth record, Proof of Life, and it was one of the albums I turned to when I needed comfort that didn’t feel reductive or simplifying this year. Her voice surfs over the insistent churn of the rhythm section (Elliot Skinner and Aaron Steele), bursting into light but never ignoring the dark under the surface. “What people say, ‘cause everybody’s feeling the pressure of a world that’s trying to end us every day. Sometimes it feels like everyone’s looking at the surface, and it’s not happening on purpose, but they’re taking things for granted again.”
Brennen Leigh, “The Bar Should Say Thanks” – I’m still kicking myself for hesitating on buying tickets to see Brennen Leigh with Kelly Willis earlier in the year, and it sold out. Ain’t Through Honky Tonkin’ Yet is the best neo-traditional country record in recent memory, by a mile. “Don’t they remember, each closing time, whose tab is always open? And who can they count on to hold the hand of a friend who’s barely coping? Who’s the queen of rehashing her hard knocks? Who drops all her spare cash in the jukebox, when I could’ve been putting it in the bank?”
Lisa O’Neill, “All of This is Chance” – One of the many songs on here I found through the aforementioned John Wendland, but one I remember specifically hearing on his show and having to write it down/dig into it. Irish singer Lisa O’Neill’s All of This is Chance was exactly the kind of storytelling record I didn’t even know I was consciously craving, and this title track is perfection, rich with drone (I suspect a violin, but could be an accordion or harmonium) and sandpaper guitar. “When you watch from the doorway, the years run by.”
Mick Harvey, “A Suitcase in Berlin” – This meditation on place and grappling with mortality continues Mick Harvey’s gentle evolution. The arrangement is perfect, understated, flecked with organ and strings, underscoring the wistfulness and his singing continues its growth into the ranks of the classic chanteurs. “It just stays there, and that makes its own sense. To make the trips always okay: I have the urge, I can just go back again. Go back again.”
John Cale, “Noise of You” – John Cale’s MERCY is a fucking triumph, a looking back and planting his flag in the now and tomorrow. Full of grapplings with mortality and not going gently into the night. On this, his shimmering synths dance around cracking drums courtesy of avant-garde percussionist Deantoni Parks (Meshell Ndegeocello) and the cello of long-time Alejandro Escovedo foil Matt Fish. “Was so long, so long ago. I hear you now.”
Gee Tee, “Cell Damage” – One of 12 bursts of middle finger exuberance from Sydney’s Gee Tee’s second record, Goodnight Neanderthal, featuring shaky synths and sawing guitars wrapped around an in-your-face vocal delivering tangy hooks. A reminder of how much I love rock and roll and how well the Aussies are doing it these days.
Daddy Long Legs, “Silver Satin” – Swinging garage-blues shouters Daddy Long Legs returned with Street Sermons which made me extremely happy and very much looking forward to seeing them live again – this song, with its deep backing vocals, prominent castanets, and barrelhouse piano, teases different elements of the formula to the fore without sacrificing the basement dance party we’re all here for. “I’m gonna get me a bottle of Thunderbird. She swings as sweet a song as I’ve ever heard.”
6LACK, “preach” – I got turned onto 6LACK from an old friend and co-worker Cassie Schutt years – and two jobs – ago, and I’ve been a fan ever since. The suspended organ and clicking drums in the background of this standout from his terrific Since I Have a Lover are exactly the right background for the sly smirk in his flexible delivery. “I get sick of being looped in; I’m praying for a beat switch, interlude transition. I’m moving on my feet quick. Limited thinking, gimmicks and placements, mimicking faces committed to the wicked and basic. Who amI to capitalize without giving back?”
Lucinda Williams, “New York Comeback” – I devoured Lucinda Williams memoir Don’t Tell Anybody The Secrets I Told You in two days, and loved this post-stroke return Stories From a Rock and Roll Heart, full of swaggering barroom gems and deep soul, a life still bearing her bitemarks. My personal favorite was this recounting of triumph that also counts the scars, written with her husband Tom Overby and Jesse Malin (who I’ve donated toward; get well soon, Jesse), featuring a powerful Steve Ferrone drum part and backing vocals from Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa. “No one’s brought the curtain down; maybe you should stick around until the stage goes black. Maybe there’s one last twist. Two outs, nobody on base, we’re down to the last strike. Could hear a pin drop in this place. Hoping for a miracle tonight.”
The New Pornographers, “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies” – Much like the last few records, Continue as a Guest didn’t hold my attention all the way through, but I kept coming back to this perfectly crafted quirky pop gem with a bouncy arrangement. Hearing Carl Newman and Neko Case’s voices in concert still moves me like few other combinations. “Listening to the first grace notes of the day play, the sun kept on rising til it floated away. Spun out of control, you recover and steer through, into controlled slide. That’s just what you do. And now you’re clearing the room just like Pontius Pilate when he showed all his home movies. All of his friends yelling, ‘Pilate, too soon!’”
Peter One featuring Allison Russell, “Birds Go Die Out of Sight (Don’t Go Home)” – The former Cote d’Ivoire country star who fled to the US during strife in his country picked up the career now that his children are grown. The weathered and sweet voice and the charm and careful crafting of the songs struck me when I saw him at Big Ears earlier in the year in the intimate confines of the Jig and Reel. This song was a highlight of that set; I found myself singing the “Don’t go home” hook for weeks, and it’s a highlight of the very fine Come Back to Me record, including gorgeous harmonies by Allison Russell, harmonica from Memphis legend John Németh and aching pedal steel from Paul Niehaus. “Hold your horses, brother. Don’t you go, can’t you see? Things have changed, you have changed. You’ve been here for more than twenty years.”
Shania Twain featuring Malibu Babie, “Giddy Up! (Malibu Babie Remix)” – I love some Shania Twain. When I first turned 18 and was going to clubs, she was the one contemporary country star who I saw actively embrace remixes and the variety of audiences losing their minds to her work. This exuberant remix by Malibu Babie (who also produced killing work from Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion in recent years) extends that tradition. Pure dancefloor joy, shiny but still with room to breathe. “Drunk in the city, got litty in your cup.”
Chappell Roan, “Red Wine Supernova” – I got hipped to Chappell Roan through my friend and former coworker Mary McCarroll. I love most of the record, but this song hit me immediately and stayed my favorite; a glittering slice of pop perfection with a raging keyboard bass riff and barbed lyrics. “I heard you like magic; I got a wand and a rabbit.”
Meng & Ecker, “Shoot Yer Load” – I’d heard of the Blacklips performance art collective, centered around the Pyramid Club on Avenue A, but it was just enough before my time I didn’t really know the work. The compilation Blacklips Bar: Androgyns and Deviants — Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels, 1992–1995 co-edited by ANHONI, was a better introduction than I could have imagined; a mix of cabaret-style reimaginings of classics and pop hits and serrated-edge dance pop originals like this one, performed by a duo named after the bad-taste British comic strip, including the writer of the original comic David Britton. “Go on and shoot your load. Let it go.”
Scowl, “Psychic Dance Routine” – One of my favorite new rock bands, Scowl out of LA, was one of my most anticipated shows at Ace, sadly canceled due to COVID. Psychic Dance Routine is stripped to the bone, wire-taut, and sparking, Kat Moss’s vocals leading the charge. “She’ll never be your animal. She’s got her own personal hell.”
Karol G featuring Peso Pluma, “QLONA” – I knew some singles by Colombian sensation Karol G, but her fourth record, Mañana Será Bonito, just grabbed me by the shoulders and didn’t let go. I had a very hard time picking a single song off this, but “QLONA” got the slight edge for introducing me – late to the game – to Mexican corrido/trap star Peso Pluma.
Meshell Ndegeocello featuring Jeff Parker, “ASR” – For someone I don’t think has ever made a bad record, The Omnichord Real Book is the latest high watermark for Meshell Ndegeocello. The afrobeat call and response on the vocals made more sense when I saw this song was co-written by an architect of that sound, Tony Allen, along with the recently gone and much missed Amp Fiddler and Chris Connelly (Ministry, Revolting Cocks). A brilliant feature turn from Jeff Parker on guitar alongside guitarist/co-writer Chris Bruce (Wendy & Lisa, Bell Biv Devoe) is the icing on the cake of this track. “We were not born to live and breathe this extraordinary pain.”
The Third Mind, “Sally Go Round the Roses” – Dave Alvin reconvened the murderer’s row he assembled for his studio project of blues cut-ups par excellence, The Third Mind, for an even stronger collection of tunes and fiery playing than the self-titled original. They dig into the classic pop of the Jaynetts’ song, a favorite of Anne’s and one I didn’t know until she lit up when we saw Tav Falco do it a few years ago in New York and turn it inside out in ways that reconfigure how we look at it without disrespecting the original, without disregarding any of its original magic. A perfect, smoky Jesse Sykes vocal floats through the thickets of guitar from Alvin and David Immergluck, a heat-mirage of a groove from bassist Victor Krummenacher, and always-stellar drumming from Michael Jerome, who I’ve been a big fan of since seeing with Richard Thompson around 20 years ago (maybe the first time I saw Alvin, opening that tour, or maybe that Zeppelin show with Dave Alvin was a year or two before). “The saddest thing in the whole wide world: to see your baby with another girl.”
Lori McKenna, “Letting People Down” – As big a fan as I am of Lori McKenna’s writing for other people, every time she puts out one of her own records feels (in my own tiny world) like an event and her terrific grappling with, engaging with (but never drowning in) nostalgia of 1988 was another dagger to the solar plexus like only she can deliver. Like Jim Lauderdale, in a more just world McKenna would be the one packing stadiums, but that might make the soil of country and adjacent music a lot less fertile. “You get up for work every day; you drag yourself right out of bed. The arms of those angels are wrapped around the dreams you left. I look the other way, pretending not to notice; I don’t know how it died, but I know where the ghost is.”
Rissi Palmer, “Speak on It” – Raleigh-based country singer Rissi Palmer gets stronger and casts a wider net with every release, and her EP this year, Still Here, continued that trend. Much as I liked the title track collaborating with Miko Marks, I kept gravitating back toward this New Orleans-inflected, horn-spattered call to arms. “Brothers getting beat; his sister’s held to the ground. If you say what you see, we can turn it around…If no one will defend them, baby, let them know you will.”
Say She She, “C’est Si Bon” – Brooklyn-based soulful disco band Say She She shot to another level of clarity and power with their excellent second record Silver and this standout, what they referred to as “a tribute to the global dancefloor” in an advance notice, is exactly the kind of thing I’d want to hear in a club, balancing a strong, very cold drink, surveying the crowd but not for long before joining the fray. “Tell them what you want; the time will soon be gone.”
Jorja Smith, “Try Me” – London-based R&B star Jorja Smith returned with a record falling or flying this year featuring a suite of rock-solid songs. “Try Me” is an excellent showcase for her voice and barbed lyrics, surrounding her in atmospherics and a skeletal but thumping beat. “Can you wait for this second? To please somebody else other than your needs. You’ve got a lot left on these sleeves, but your heart’s not on your sleeve.”
Bulla en el Barrio, “Madre Luna” – Another example of the music scene making Brooklyn so exciting right now, features Carolina Oliveros and Christian Rodriguez spun off from Chicha Libre who I loved so much. I’ve seen this referred to as New York’s first bullerengue group, a regional genre based in Colombia and Panama.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy, “Behold! Be Held!” – I’m not sure there’s a songwriter I’ve loved for this many years who epitomizes the Dickinson edict of “Tell all the truth but tell it slant” as whole-heartedly as Will Oldham. The themes I’ve been able to suss out from this standout track from his Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You album (my favorite record of his since Master and Everyone, and despite more detailed chamber music arrangements, the closest to giving me some of the vibrations that record did) include the reasons we make art, the way we find revelation through not knowing, and an incomplete (of course) map to living. I know there’s more to discover through play, not dissection. Kendall Carter’s keys and the close harmony between Oldham and Waters have a meditative effect on me and set up the burst of moonlight that’s Drew Miller’s saxophone, playing a similar role to James Brandon Lewis’s on DeCicca’s track here. Just magic. “And then when that grueling death bell knells, we’ll have such a wondrous thing to remember: there’s nothing to fear from those crazy blue bells. The mystery’s solved, and the oval is closed, and everyone we know will be born again: behold, be held, the adventure’s over.”
Rhiannon Giddens, “Wrong Kind of Right” – The first time I saw Rhiannon Giddens at Big Ears – I was already a fan from her work with Carolina Chocolate Drops – was revelatory; killer repertoire and the announcement of a great American voice. Her first record of all originals, You’re The One, is everything I hoped, a vintage big room country-soul record but written with a modern eye and ear. Dwayne Bennett’s (Charlie Wilson, Valerie June) organ swells leads a killing horn section arranged by Jack Splash (Solange, Mayer Hawthorne, Anthony Hamilton), buffetting and oozing around her voice and a bounce-a-quarter-on-it rhythm section. “I’m not the apple of your eye; it’s a shame you’re the one in mine. You know I love all the things we do, and I know it’s not the same for you.”
Amanda Shires and Bobbie Nelson, “Waltz Across Texas” – Amanda Shires, after a series of ever-more-daring solo records, reminded us all of her vintage Texas bonafides – starting out in a later version of Western Swing pioneers the Texas Playboys and in Billy Joe Shaver’s band – and shining a spotlight on late-to-get-her-due piano player Bobbie Nelson with the beguiling and gorgeous Loving You. This lovely take on the Ernest Tubb classic is a perfect example of the beautifully unadorned style of the record. “Like a storybook ending, I’m lost in your charms.”
Vada Azeem, “ABUELA” – Columbus rapper Vada Azeem got my attention with his early work with Fly.Union and returned after a decade of not releasing a full length under his name with the stunning We Forgot God Was Watching. This tribute to his grandmother, riding a loping, horn-rich beat from Cleveland-based production collective Armani Cove. “I remember what my Grandma told a little me, my eyes full of glee, ‘Stay focused, child, always tie your camel to the tree.’”
Alien Nosejob, “Split Personality” – Following closely on one of my favorite Gonerfest sets, a collection of poppy, catchy piss-takes, this solo project from the Ausmuteant’s Jake Robertson delivered a record that lived up to that introduction and then some, The Derivative Sounds of... Or... A Dog Always Returns to its Vomit, crisply recorded and loaded with little details, guitar hooks and surprising drum fills that never detract from the forward propulsion.
The Tripwires, “Piano Annie on Sunday” – John Ramberg’s written a lot of my favorite songs over the years – from co-writing most of Neko Case’s Furnace Room Lullabye before I knew him, to a swath of perfect Model Rockets songs (I play “Ugly Jacket” and swoon every October, even to this day) – and we were blessed with two full-lengths from his current supergroup The Tripwires, also featuring Johnny Sangster (Neko Case), Jim Sangster (Young Fresh Fellows), Dan Peters (Mudhoney), and Mark Pickerel (Screaming Trees). This shining example from Do It Some More finds Ramberg and the band capturing a feeling I love and paying tribute to something that doesn’t get spoken of nearly enough, the local musician just killing it week after week, letting a crowd coalesce around her. One of my goals for 2024 is to get out to the Pacific Northwest and see all my people out there, focused on a Tripwires show. “Places everybody for star time: 17 to 70. Annie hangs loose on days like today, the best I’ve ever heard her sing.”
Cheater Slicks, “Garden of Memories” – Columbus Titans’ Cheater Slicks returned this year with another world-beater of a record, Ill-Fated Cusses, and much like the last one, 2012’s Reality is a Grape, I find myself more drawn to the mid-tempo and slower songs than the ragers. This tune conjures nostalgia while knowing it’s a lie, crafting charcoal drawings of crackling feedback around a mournful, menacing vocal. “Garden of memories, sheltered within me, fade like dew drops in rain. Fade like a daydream, leave just a smokescreen; joy that lies beyond the veil of this concrete-like jail.”
B. Cool-Aid featuring Liv.e, Jimetta Rose & V.C.R, “soundgood” – B. Cool-Aid, a supergroup of rapper PinkSiifu and producer Ahwlee, teamed up for a concept record dripping in ambiance, Leather Blvd. The smoky soundscapes on this track, with that infectious keyboard riff burrowing into my skull and sweet-spicy crooning, was endemic of everything I loved about the album. “Two-a-days up here. Hide it from your girlfriend, like we the only ones here. You know that shit sound good.”
Ashley McBryde, “Cool Little Bars” – Ashley McBryde’s The Devil I Know was another shining example of her hooky Mellencamp-style roots rock and deep country ballads with sharply observed detail in the lyrics. This co-write with rising star Laney Wilson and Trick Savage, who I wasn’t previously familiar with, takes on a subject close to my heart and, clearly, to the artist, with warm empathy. “The faded paint is covered up with dollar bills, from regulars and amateurs that all had time to kill. It’s cookie-cutter corporate on this street, so, Lord, as I sit me down to drink, I pray time just forgets to turn places like this into drive-thrus and condos. Lord knows we need those little holes in the wall, for lost souls and old stray dogs. God bless two-for-ones and broken hearts, and cool little bars.”
Robbie Fulks, “One Glass of Whiskey” – A similar subject viewed with an affection but also a little more of a barbed tongue and a remove, this was my first favorite off Robbie Fulks’ killing Bluegrass Vacation record, uniting him with the cream of the contemporary bluegrass scene – on this track including Punch Brother Chris Eldridge, T-Bone Burnett first call bassist Dennis Crouch, Family Band mandolinist Ronnie McCoury, and longtime Fulks’ foil Shad Cobb – and, in some sense, bringing him full circle to the earliest work he was known for in the Chicago scene. “And when I feel I’m sinking low, I reach for the first friend I see. All I need is to look at him and know he’s sinking faster than me. One glass of whiskey to ease my mind, and another one to take it too far away to find.”
Jerry Joseph, “The War I Finally Won” – Singer-songwriter Jerry Joseph (The Jackmormons, Little Women) continues his solo renaissance with Baby, You’re the Man Who Would Be King, produced with diamond-hard clarity from Eric “Roscoe” Ambel and a stunning set of songs like this stomping look at the choices inherent in a life. “I got spit in my eye and a lump in my throat and I just know I’m done. Thrash in a rage, and a gnashing of teeth. A coming of age just out of reach. I should’ve listened when you told me to learn how to breathe.”
Billy Valentine and the Universal Truth, “Home is Where the Hatred Is” – Columbus favorite son Bily Valentine, formerly of the Valentine Brothers, assembled a crack band for a beautiful record of social commentary soul tunes like this silk-wrapped-around-knives take on the Gil Scott-Heron classic. “You keep saying kick it, quit it, kick it, quit it, but did you ever try? To turn your sick soul inside out so that the world can watch you die?”
ANHONI and the Johnsons, “Can’t” – ANHONI returned with maybe her finest record, My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross, synthesizing the various influences and genres of each of the earlier records into a more consistent, cohesive soul. This swinging northern-soul inflected song, with a stellar cast of players including drummer Chris Vatalaro (Antibalas, Bat for Lashes, Sam Amidon), Martin Slattery’s (Amy Winehouse, Joe Strummer) keys, and Jimmy Hogarth (also ANHONI’s co-writer) on guitar, was a standout for me. “Come back home, my darling, come back home, my friend. Sorry for the things I’ve done. I can’t stop this, darling, it keeps being real; I don’t want you to be dead. I can’t stand around talking shit with all these rotten teeth.”
79.5, “B.D.F.Q” – At the vanguard of Brooklyn’s neo-disco scene alongside Say She She who featured elsewhere in this playlist, 79.5 put out a front-to-back stunner with their eponymous debut full-length. This song, the advance single that hooked me and a standout when I got to see them open for Lady Wray this year, written by singer Kate Mattison, is a thumping, snarling anthem. “Bitch, don’t fucking quit – you’ve got it, bitch, you’ve got it.”
Sexxy Red featuring Nicki Minaj and Tay Keith, “Pound Town 2” – One of the phenomenon songs this year, a sex anthem with a creeping club beat courtesy of Tay Keith and an infectious mumbling delivery I can’t quite compare to anyone else from Sexxy Red. “I want fish and grits, throwing hissy fits.”
Wu-Tang Clan, “Claudine” – I hadn’t been paying a lot of attention to what the Wu’s been up to lately but every few years, they have a single or two that knock me on my ass and remind me what a force they remain. The newest entry in that storied canon is “Claudine,” featuring Method Man and Ghostface Killah, a hook from Nicole Bus who’s new to me, and a vintage-sounding sweet soul beat from longtime affiliate Mathematics. “You think it’s fine to play with all what I have left. It’s a cold world out there and I can’t take this silence.”
Future Utopia featuring Kae Tempest, “We Were We Still Are” – I knew Kae Tempest through their writing before I even knew they made music, but quickly became just as big a fan of that other side (still bummed they didn’t make it to Big Ears, hopefully someday). This track pairs the poet-rapper with grime mastermind Future Utopia working in a vintage, horn-flecked landscape mode. An infectious party starter with plenty to grip onto. “Hello disorientation, my old friend, welcome to the days of distortion. Complex parades of illusion, charades, on course for destruction: yawn for the horseman. An end is an end until it’s a beginning; winning. We built this city on what we stole, and then we ate it whole.”
Scratcha DVA featuring Skream, and Mez, “X Rated” – Skream was one of the first artists I gravitated toward in the early, languid waves of dubstep, and I became a fan of grime DJ and producer Scratcha DVA not long after. I’m not as familiar with Nottingham-based rapper Mez but he works wonders over this beat with a supple, shifting flow.
Lil Yachty, “pRETTy” – Lil Yachty continued his exploration of psychedelic tones and vintage distortion on the hypnotic Let’s Start Here. This echoey slow jam is one of the standouts for me from the album. “I know you done been through a lot, but trust me when I say I’m there for you.”
Chiiild featuring Lucky Daye, “Good For Now” – Chiiild and Lucky Daye teamed up on this mesmerizing duet, with production from PL, xSDTRK & D’Mile, the swirling acoustic guitar riff is a highlight but their two voices run the show for me. “Tell me that we’re dreaming, don’t say that we’re in love. Whatever this is, it’s good for now.”
King Louie Bankston, “Gone Too Far” – King Louie Bankston, one of the undersung heroes of the New Orleans underground, left us too soon in 2022, and Goner Records and some old friends and collaborators have started on some archival projects as a much-needed corrective to this mad genius who’s work languished too often on demo tapes or limited-edition CDRs or 7”s that never got repressed. The first blush of that vital work is the fantastic Harahan Fats. This track captures the blend of crunching earworm riff and confessional lyric, blurring bravado, self-deprecation, and sweetness that made so many of us fall in love with him in the first place. “I fell behind ‘cause I’ve gone too far; this ugly mind, so don’t take a look.”
Ibex Clone, “Nothing Ever Changes” – Memphis cracked power trio Ibex Clone returned with their best record yet, All Channels Clear, maybe the best record George Williford (guitar), Alec McIntyre (bass), and Meredith Lones (drums) have made yet, and that’s saying something because I loved Ex-Cult, NOTS, and Hash Redactor an awful lot. The sharp pop hooks floating on sludgy post-punk rhythms hit just right here. “It’s taken nearly five thousand years to know exactly who you are. Getting into a lifetime stupor. Insulated from ourselves for good.”
Call Me Rita, “This is a Stick Up!” – Another explosion from this powerhouse band, fronted by poet/artist Vanessa Jean Speckman with backing from some of Columbus’s finest players including her partner Micah Schnabel and Jay Gasper on guitars, Todd May on bass, and Jason Winner on drums. “We’re not living! Only serving, we’re way more deserving than to live and die while genuflecting Capitalism Daddy in the sky.”
The Hives, “Rigor Mortis Radio” – The Hives’ returned with The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, another reminder of the finely-tooled power they bring in the service of joy. This stomping hand-clap disco rocker is another classic every bit as good as the first singles that made them international superstars. “I took my feet out of your puddle ‘cause you know what? I got better things to do ‘cause you know what I got. I got these people eating out of the palm of my hand, I got them answering every single one command. I know you want my time, here’s my line – I got your offer, decline, decline.”
Kassa Overall featuring Laura Mvula and Francis and the Lights, “So Happy” – I first saw – and loved – Kassa Overall in a rhythm section alongside John Hebert as one of the most promising jazz drummers I’d seen in a long while. He’s still that but with his solo albums he’s revealed that he’s so much more, and the gorgeously unclassifiable ANIMALS is the next step in that evolution. The best weirdo soul anyone’s making, with swooping strings, a rhythm that never feels showy but doesn’t resolve where you’d expect, and a glowing hook from Laura Mvula. “Nevermind a seat at the table, I would settle for crumbs if I’m able. Is it dumb to be wise in a humble disguise? I’m not meant to be a puppet or a fool.”
Flo featuring Missy Elliott, “Fly Girl” – British R&B vocal group Fly lace a charming interpolation of Missy Elliott’s “Work It” into this infectious slice of sugary pop, including bringing the originator out to spit some delightful interjections and a killer verse. “Back up on the market, better put in your bid, ‘cause when Missy throw a party you can’t find nowhere to sit.”
Ari LaShell, “Get Down” – Atlanta-by-way-of-Detroit soul singer-songwriter put out a stunning debut EP AWH this year and this song, a silky slither of a vocal over a bouncing, clicky beat reminds me of early ‘00s neo-soul and late ‘70s mutant disco without being overly devoted to any one style. “Boy, I want you to get down. Down.”
Dom Deshawn, “‘09 Nostalgia” – Columbus rapper Dom Deshawn released his best record AfterParadise, this year. Before the record, I heard a beautiful headlining set at the Goodale Park Gazebo this summer. This song got me immediately and hasn’t let me go yet, making the best use of breezy, glowing production from Masked Man. “Ichabod Crane, you know I be coming for necks, cause the summer’s got a lot of debts I gotta collect.”
Killer Mike featuring Andre 3000, Eryn Allen Kane, and Future, “SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS” – Much as I like Run the Jewels, I delighted in this year’s Michael, hearing Killer Mike rap over some other beats with well-chosen collaborators. This track, with production from DJ Paul, James Blake, and No ID, is an ideal showcase. “Diamonds shaped like a teardrop. I’ve got the streets in a headlock. Fly just like a skydiver, spirit, I can get manslaughtered, suicide door on the Range Rover.”
Sweeping Promises, “Good Living Is Coming for You” – Neo-new wave duo Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug piled on a level of crunch for their stellar Good Living is Coming for You, with this title track epitomizing the good time groove, gleaming hooks threaded through a sense of paranoia, a powerful desperation to take everything out of life you can before it’s taken away I related to very strongly. “Wave after wave, threatening to break the surface. This interior’s designed to make you nervous.”
PinkPantheress featuring Ice Spice, “Boy’s a liar, Part 2” – After last year waxing rhapsodic about Ice Spice, I was primed for this song-of-the-year candidate with rising pop star PinkPantheress. A pulsing heartbeat of a rhythm layered with fragile latticework of keyboards and a little guitar undergirding the lightness of PinkPantheress’s vocals and the unhurried, winking smirk of Ice Spice. “Ducking my shit, ‘cause he know what I’m on, but when he hit me I’m not gon’ respond.”
Lydia Loveless, “French Restaurant” – Lydia Loveless has never been gone – her pandemic-era Daughter was a thornier record that was a slower burn for me, or at least slower to digest – but with Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again it felt like Columbus’s most powerful singer-songwriter was back at full force. Ten catchy, diverse songs in a tight 33 minutes, and this song sums up the mix of anthemic, soaring heartbreak and keenly carved sense of place that I get more of from their work than anywhere else, with the always excellent band of Jay Gasper and Todd May on intertwining guitars, Mark Connor’s swinging bass and synth, and George Hondroulis’ heavy and nuanced drums. “Well, pretty soon, I’ll be running into the dark while you follow me in the car ‘cause you know I won’t get that far on foot. And I was a fool, forever walking out on something we worked on for so long when all you ever asked of me was just a little bit of goddam honesty.”
M. Ward featuring first aid kit, “too young to die” – M. Ward appears every year with a perfect record, nostalgia sculpted with rusty daggers and antique navigational instruments, and supernatural thing is another excellent example. This shimmering, haunted travelogue through the human heart weaves his voice with Swedish folk duo first aid kit. “And sailing, sometimes failing, that’s the only way to fly. Crying, sometimes wailing, that’s the only way that we learn how to try. With my face down in the mat, the champ says, ‘Are you too old to fight or too young to die?’”
Dale Watson, “I Ain’t Been Living Right” – Dale Watson takes his steely eyed looks at the beauty and flaws of the world and himself and strains it through a more acoustic filter, partly inspired by Leadbelly after moving to the great Huddy Ledbetter’s hometown, with Starvation Box, named after what Ledbetter’s father called a guitar. This sunny self-recrimination shares a lilting tone with “Gentle on My Mind” and a weathered grin that’s all Watson. “Out of the ten commandments, I reckon I broke eight, and I reckon you can reckon on which two I didn’t break.”
El Michels Affair and Black Thought, “Glorious Game” – Glorious Game matches Black Thought’s make-it-look-easy virtuosity and classicist tendencies with El Michels Affairs’ dusky cinematic vibescapes in a match made in heaven. “Gloves and mask off, time to blast off; baton I’ll pass off, rhyme your ass off.”
Optic Sink, “Summertime Rain” – I loved Optic Sink’s debut just as much as I loved singer-keyboardist Natalie Hoffmann’s earlier band Nots, saying something because Nots might have been the best rock band touring for a few years. Their follow-up – produced by Sweeping Promises’ Caufield Schnug – adds a fulltime drummer, monster player Keith Cooper from the Sheiks to the alchemy of Hoffmann and Ben Bauermeister (Toxie) and it’s a tighter, hookier record without satisfying any of the weird textures or sense of being on a journey I loved about them initially. “When I see you fade out, it feels like summertime rain.”
Statik Selektah featuring Posdnuos, “Round Trip (For Dave)” – Statik Selektah returned with another rock solid record this year, Round Trip, and for me the standout with this collaboration with De La Soul pillar Posdnuos to pay tribute to Posdnuos’s gone-too-soon groupmate Dave Jolicoeur/Trugoy the Dove. “I’ll never feel submerged in greed if someone gives me flowers when I’d rather the seeds.”
Healing and Peace, “Into a Hole” – Alex Mussawir has stealthily grown into one of Columbus’s finest songwriters on a trajectory from Future Nuns through Kneeling and Piss into Healing and Peace. This eponymous debut EP has six songs that grapple with an interesting, frequently ambiguous equanimity and trying to find one’s place in the adult world with a dry, world-weary vocal and a chiming thump. “A constant paving over of ideas, never satisfied, but truth is not a cart that drags behind you.”
Jess Williamson, “God in Everything” – I liked Williamson’s collaboration in Plains, the way I found out about her, but I really loved this year’s solo record Time Ain’t Accidental. The warm clarity of Brad Cook’s (Houndmouth, WIlliam Tyler, Ani Difranco) production sets up a world and a story I know well told from a specific and perfectly realized perspective. “Did you see or appreciate the wisdom in me? Was I something for you to play with, did I say the wrong things? Did you notice how I serve my tea?”
Esther Rose’s “Chet Baker” – Maybe the single song I pushed on people more than any other this year and a standout for me from Esther Rose’s Safe to Run, her fourth record, but I was woefully late to the party. The ingratiating melody, the steel guitar wrapping around the sold acoustic rhythm, and the narrative that feels like describing a lazy Sunday that understands exactly the import of the moment, of noticing everything the narrator sees, and knows how the time will sleep away whether they want it to or not. The steel turned up on the breathy, ground-falling-out-from-under-you bridge hits me every time. “You know rock bottom shouldn’t feel this good. We could go down swinging, arm in arm, or we could just go drinking at the 8 Ball. Two bucks, press play, baby, bully the juke. Outside the ladies’ restroom, there starts to form a queue. Six bucks: starlight special, a shot and a beer; we’re not doing great, aw, but we’re pretty good.”
Buddy and Julie Miller, “We’re Leavin’” – In The Throes is another low-key masterpiece from Buddy and Julie Miller, a perfectly produced record of how interesting love for the world can be, how fulfilling. And this song is a magnificent hymn – written by Julie Miller – that moves even a non-believer like me; their voices blanketed by long-time friends and collaborators Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, Byron House’s upright bass with Fred Eltringham’s waltzing drums, Stuart Duncan’s fiddle sluicing between Buddy Miller’s guitar and Tim Lauer’s piano. Just perfect. “Come on, everybody, we’re leaving together.”
Allison Russell, “Eve Was Black” – Allison Russell followed up my record of the year last year with exactly the right move. This thornier, harder, complicated record takes every idea from her debut. It adds everything she’s absorbed since, with static-laced production by dim star around crunching drums from Megan Coleman, acid-fried guitar form Elenna Canlas and Meg McCormack, and piano from the Revolution’s Lisa Coleman. This song’s a furious reminder of the stories behind the stories. “Do I remind you of what you lost? Do you hate, or do you lust? Do you despise or do you yearn to return back to the Motherland, back to the Garden, back to your Black Skin, back to the innocence, back to the shine you lost when you enslaved your kin?”
Iris Dement, “Workin’ On A World” – Iris Dement’s burst of productivity in the last few years has helped cement her as one of the best songwriters of my lifetime – already would have been assured if she only ever wrote “Our Town” and “Let the Mystery Be” – and this title track off her 2023 record was another stone classic. Co-produced with Richard Bennett (Steve Earle, Neil Diamond) and Pieta Brown, with a full horn section, and joy that knows it’s fed by pain and struggle. “I’m joining forces with the warriors of love who came before and will follow you and me. I get up in the morning knowing I’m privileged just to be working on a world I may never see.”
jaimie branch, “the mountain” – And we wrap with, as foretold, more jaimie branch. This gorgeous cover of the Meat Puppets; just her voice with Jason Ajemian’s voice and bass. “Coming down from the mountain, I have heard of the glory. I will go again someday, but for now, I’m coming down.”
The Little Rockers (from left, Phil Cogley (if I’m wrong there, someone please post), Quinn Fallon, Joe Peppercorn, Jason Winner)
This may sound like a joke to most people who know me, but this year, I really felt the strain of trying to juggle too much. Some of that stress resulted from differently demanding jobs – especially switching companies around Memorial Day. Some of that feeling was mental health, including the fact that a bout of COVID and a recurrence of gout both threw my gym habit, which I’d really enjoyed the last two years, off hard. I’ve got some strategies, and it’s all about iterative improvement/a feedback loop I’d been steadfastly ignoring; we’ll see if I can get to a more balanced place of being open to really enjoying everything I head out for and not being so goddam tired.
That whining out of the way; I’m so glad I have a habit of doing these every year because I saw an amazing array of stuff. Narrowing this down to 20 was extremely hard – even with another 20 of the best sets I saw at a festival. I saw about 170 shows over 12 cities – though a few of those cities were only for festivals, like Knoxville for Big Ears or Memphis for Gonerfest.
In no surprise, I was at Dick’s Den the most often, with 25 appearances, and I never saw any bullshit music there. It’s not only my clubhouse; it’s where our finest musicians feel comfortable stretching out, trying new things, and checking new players. Not only our jazz scene, but I feel safe saying Columbus’s entire cultural firmament would be poorer without the constantly rejuvenating energy of Dick’s.
Natalie’s Grandview was next up; I was there 11 times (with two more scheduled after this intro – hopefully after this post, but we’ll see how long this takes – but before the end of the year). Beyond the dazzling show that did make this list, it had the most sweated-over, where-does-this-go shows of any venue in town. In another year, the Robbie Fulks (first time with a full band in a few years), the Sadies (who killed me as a trio when I didn’t think I’d ever get used to them without Dallas Good), Sarah Borges/Eric Ambel (who brought my favorite set list they’ve ever done from two artists who’ve never made a bad record), and Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express (who sailed over what’s always a high bar when he’s in town) all would have made this list handily.
And I want to take a second to shout out something Natalie’s does that I think is important: residencies. Beyond their legendary extension of Bobby Floyd’s Sundays (to which I’ve been an intermittent visitor since they were held at the Lobby on the east side), they’ve made space to give established and up-and-coming artists recurring weekly space on their more intimate Charlie’s Stage to bring guests, workshop new material, and remind us all just how deep the bench is of talent in this town. I saw stellar examples of this by Lydia Loveless, the duo of singer Sydney McSweeney and saxophone player Terrance Charles, Hammond B-3 players Jon Eshelman and Tony Monaco, and the trio version of alternate-universe harmony maestros The Randys, and easily missed half a dozen I wanted to make. My cultural life is richer through the efforts of Charlie and Natalie Jackson; every year, they double down on that.
Speaking of, I want to take a second to shout out fellow Grandview venue Woodlands Tavern: every time I made it out for Colin Gawel’s monthly residencies, I had a fantastic Sunday; more than once taking out-of-town pals, enjoying the guests he’d bring on, especially his rallying for both democracy in general and reproductive rights in specific with two Issue 2 shows before the two elections.
Cafe Bourbon Street either continues getting its groove back, or I continue getting my head out of my own ass and noticing. Every one of the six nights I spent there could have easily made this list; the one show that made the 20 not only still reverberates in my head but also was worth getting COVID again. Ace of Cups, I haven’t been to as often, but the subtle improvements in sound and the bar, while keeping some of the great staff and the overall ambiance, always make me feel good. I especially appreciate the carrying the torch for bigger community building or reinforcing events – the two-day 20th anniversary of Lost Weekend Records and the fundraiser for Arturo De Leon, headlined by the return of the New Bomb Turks; both made my heart swell.
Everything listed below is in Columbus unless otherwise stated; everything is in chronological order. All photographs are by me. When I list an opening act, it’s because that opener helped nudge the show onto this list.
Rhiannon Giddens, standing, and Katherine McLin, playing violin, from the Promusica Chamber Orchestra
Meshell Ndegeocello (Blue Note, NYC, 01/12/2023) – I’ve been a fan of Ndegeocello since hearing Plantation Lullabies in High School, but I’d never seen her live, so a week at the Blue Note when I was in town for the constellation of APAP side events was a no-brainer. She augmented the already tight usual band with guitarist Jeff Parker and keyboardist Julius Rodriguez. She opened by saying, “It’s rainy outside; we’re going for a mood,” and held me in the palm of her hand as the band slid from silky looseness to snapping wire-tight at precisely the right moments, all hovering around her voice and guitar or keys. They previewed songs from the at-the-time-upcoming The Omnichord Real Book, dipped into the catalog, and sprinkled the 70-80 minute set with a handful of beautiful covers, including a smoky, slow-jam take on the ‘80s George Clinton classic Atomic Dog. Not the first show of the year I saw, but this definitely set a bar for everything that came after.
Promusica Chamber Orchestra with Rhiannon Giddens (Southern Theater, 01/19/2023) – One of my favorite contemporary singers since first hearing Carolina Chocolate Drops, my fandom of Rhiannon Giddens exploded after seeing her solo at one of my first couple of Big Ears festivals in the Bijou Theater. She captured the spectrum of American music in Columbus’s intimate historic theater, working alongside our Promusica Chamber Orchestra at Promusica’s annual fundraiser alongside her musical foil, Francesco Turrisi and upright bassist Jason Sypher. With soaring, nuanced string arrangements from Gabe Witcher (often a visitor to the Southern as a member of the Punch Brothers), she tore into classics like Nina Simone’s “Tomorrow is My Turn” and Gillian Welch’s “Factory Girl” along with originals like “At the Purchaser’s Option” with aplomb and that crystalline tone. Just breathtaking.
Teeth Marks/Cardiel/Garbage Greek (Rumba Cafe, 02/11/2023) – It’s no surprise Garbage Greek is the only band to make this list twice. They are my people and have been my favorite straight-up rock band since stripping down and woodshedding during COVID. They always bring it whether they’re coming as a three- or four-piece (Adam Scoppa’s percussion and backing vocals add fascinating textures when he’s available). They’ve brought a strain of harder rock to Rumba Cafe. They’re bringing bands that probably wouldn’t play here otherwise. This example turned me onto beautifully unhinged Mexico City two-piece Cardiel – who fused furious garage rock with acid-tinged improv and even the depth and richness of dub reggae – and local band Teeth Marks, who had an appealingly raw vibe that immediately added me to their list.
Columbus Jazz Orchestra with Maria Schneider (Southern Theater, 02/12/2023) – I love our Jazz Orchestra, but sometimes the rep isn’t right up my alley. Obviously, there were no such questions with Maria Schneider, who’s been at the forefront of modernizing the big band language for decades. Watching her conduct a set of her deathless compositions was my favorite example of seeing how the muscles of this band can flex, be delicate, and powerful in the same breath.
Yasmin Williams
Yo La Tengo (Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, 03/22/2023) – Speaking of delicate and powerful, alternating and at the same time, Yo La Tengo might be the touring band I’ve seen most often over the years, but I’ve never seen a better two sets than they brought to one of my favorite venues in March. Highlights for me included an opening “Sinatra Drive Breakdown,” a breathtaking “Center of Gravity,” a dazzling “Sugarcube,” and an encore starting with a cover from underground Ohio heroes Electric Eels.
Yasmin Williams with Tarta Relena (Wexner Center, 03/28/2023) – I’d waited a long while for Yasmin Williams. Canceled at least twice due to COVID, another cancelation and a year wait after I’d interviewed her and written a preview. But this makeup date affirmed everything I love about her records, gave me my first taste of my current favorite acoustic guitarist live, and introduced me to the astonishing Spanish singing duo Tarta Relena. Hymns not bound to a specific tradition, resonating notes tearing rips into universes. Once again, an astonishing show from the Wexner Center that served as a palate cleanser/amuse bouche for the glorious buffet of Big Ears.
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit with Amythyst Kiah (Andrew J. Brady Center, Cincinnati, 04/29/2023) – Maybe the last leg of Isbell’s touring with longtime bass foil Jimbo Hart in a new big room in Cincinnati I wasn’t familiar with before heading down, he and his crack band hit every stage of his career, from the song that introduced most of us to him as a writer, DBT’s “Outfit” through a solid helping of Southeastern songs in the year of its 10th anniversary, and every record since Southeastern rehabilitated his image, including an encore that paired the devastating “Cast Iron Skillet” off not-yet-released Weathervanes with early DBTs standout “Decoration Day.” And Amythyst Kiah and band killed a tight nine-song set heavy on her terrific record Wary and Strange but also sprinkled with hard-edged takes on classics like her set-closing bring-the-house-down take on Vera Hall’s “Trouble So Hard,” which she also appeared alongside Gregory Porter on Moby’s recent revisiting of his “Natural Blues” that introduced many of us to that through a sample.
Promusica Chamber Orchestra with Caroline Shaw (Southern Theater, 05/14/2023) – Promusica has been one of our cultural treasures for (barely) longer than I’ve been alive, and their 2022-23 season closer brought Caroline Shaw, one of my favorite contemporary composers, to town finally after originally being booked in 2020. Three pieces gave a taste of the scope of Shaw’s work as a writer and writer-performer – Blueprint for a String Quartet, Is a Rose, and Entr’acte for String Orchestra – and they paired this section with a gorgeous version of the first Brahms symphony which Shaw sat in on in the back of the violin section. It was a rapturous night. I couldn’t believe I was lucky enough to see it.
Jerry Powell Experience (Lalibela, 06/14/2023) – I was intrigued when, over lunch at a favorite Ethiopian spot in town, Lalibela, I saw a table card advertising that Jerry Powell III, one of our finest jazz drummers whom I hadn’t seen in a while, had a Wednesday residency in the restaurant’s bar. A stripped-down version of his band, accompanied only by a great keyboard player, took us on a journey in two sets: some standards, some more traditional “dinner music,” and some surging extended afrobeat jams. A reminder to be open to what’s in every corner of your town; I end up in the same venues a lot, and it’s not a bad thing; they’re places that are easy for me to get to from my home and from other venues, and that book a large number of shows that align with my tastes. But it’s always good to be reminded how much terrific shit is happening off that well-trod path.
Joe Peppercorn/Little Rockers/X-Rated Cowboys/Garbage Greek (Little Rock Bar, 06/21/2023) – Quinn Fallon’s Little Rock Bar has been a locus for multiple groups of my friends; I’ve made friendships there, and I’ve strengthened friendships. I’ve had some of the best nights of the last ten years at its bar or on its patio. Their annual celebration is right before Comfest, so getting some returning out-of-towners is always a delight, but this year was special. Everybody playing, all current or former employees of the bar, brought it. A beautiful solo Joe Peppercorn set. Pickup band Little Rockers’s blazing set included both a gorgeous take on the ‘Mats “Swinging Party” sung by Peppercorn and a killing “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” sung by Patrick Koch. Koch’s own band, Garbage Greek, continued their streak of burning down everything in sight. And Fallon’s own X-Rated Cowboys, with a great record out this year, continued their evolution into a leaner, meaner, more colorful band than the one I started seeing over 20 years ago. A tribute to one of the shapes community takes and much of what I love about this town.
Dave Alvin and Lisa Pankratz
Dave Alvin and the Guilty Ones (Natalie’s Grandview, 06/29/2023) – I got into Dave Alvin buying King of California when I was in High School. My fandom went into overdrive with the one-two punch of Hightone’s 1997 reissue of The Blasters’ debut album American Music and Alvin’s Blackjack David the next year (still one of my favorite singer-songwriter records of all time, and still a record I go to often, especially in the wee hours of the morning). I remember talking to Alec Wightman on the phone from my dorm room, getting tickets for the first time I saw Alvin at the Columbus Music Hall promoting Public Domain in 2000 – starting me down the road of following Zeppelin Productions, who I don’t think have had a year they didn’t make this list at least once since I started keeping track in college. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen Alvin over the years, at least 15, but – and I had a little trepidation given what I’d heard about his cancer battle recently – I don’t think I’ve ever heard him sing better, the richness of his voice almost knocked the drink out of my hand, and his guitar playing had a razor-cut crispness that more than made up for any minor losses in speed. Plus, he’s always had great bands. Still, this four-piece Guilty Ones was just perfection: Lisa Pankratz’s band-leading behind the drums as she elegantly worked every mood of the set, as good on a smoldering ballad like “King of California” as the gutbucket raunch of Big Bill Broonzy’s “You’ve Changed” and the soaring wistfulness of “Abilene.” Flexible and driving bass from Brad Fordham. And Alvin’s longtime guitar foil Chris Miller with harmonies and jousting, never too showy. Watching this, I was reminded of the purpose of a writer as a conduit for remembrance, for honoring moments that might not come back. In the American popular – whatever that means – music world, Alvin’s given us more shining examples of that mood, that form, than anyone else. He doled out many of my favorites in this show, reminding us that memory doesn’t have to be somber: the rave-up “Haley’s Comet,” the sexy-as-its-subject R&B of “Johnny Ace is Dead,” the Sam Cooke homage “Border Radio,” and the double-barreled reflections on youth and California “Dry River” and “Ashgrove.” A perfect night and a prime example of how good two guitars, bass and drums still sound. Anne and I decompressed, dissecting this in a bar a few blocks away, for hours.
Fred Moten/Brandon Lopez/Gerald Cleaver with Ingrid Laubrock/Cecilia Lopez (FourOneOne, NYC, 07/10/2023) and Big Joanie with Frida Kills (Baby’s All Right, NYC, 07/10/2023) – Once in a while, there’s a night that reminds me what enraptured me about Brooklyn in the first place. I was lucky enough to have a few of those nights this year. Maybe my favorite all-around started with a drink with Anne right off the Metropolitan Avenue L stop (following a long remote work day), dinner at still my favorite New York steak house St Anselm, jukeboxes and bar hopping down the street to a space I hadn’t made it to yet, FourOneOne for a set from one of my favorite saxophone players, Ingrid Laubrock, who Anne and I saw on one of our very first trips to the city together, in a mesmerizing duo with Cecilia Lopez on electronics, followed by one of my favorite writers and thinkers about music, Fred Moten, leading a burning rhythm section of Brandon Lopez and Gerald Cleaver. Then, with a debriefing drink on the walk back up the hill, saw righteous Brooklyn band Frida Kills open for UK powerhouse Big Joanie, who made one of my favorite rock records in a long time last year, turning out a packed house.
Big Joanie
Soul Glo with MSPAINT (Ace of Cups, 07/20/2023) – Another band who made one of my favorite rock records from 2022, Philly’s Soul Glo, paired with one of my favorite Gonerfest discoveries from the last decade, Hattiesburg’s MSPAINT – I’m not sure there’s a lyric Anne quotes more often than “Destroy all the flags and the symbols of man!” – was obviously a can’t-miss pairing. So much better than I hoped. Hardcore’s always been a genre I admired more than loved, with some exceptions, but I generally love when a band uses those colors as a foundation and color with the rest of rock history. MSPAINT’s gnarled organ-trio crunch has taken on additional flexibility and suppleness, featuring more dynamics than the epic piledriver we first fell for but with the same wit and fury. And Soul Glo was every single thing I wanted in a rock and roll band: a rhythm section that knows when to swing and when to pummel, a slashing colorist of a guitarist, and a frontman I couldn’t stop watching—a magical combination and a show perfectly sized and pitched for Ace.
Oneida with DANA (Cafe Bourbon Street, 8/16/2023) – Pal Fred Pfening getting back into booking in 2023 was a phenomenal delight and the barn burning avalanche of Oneida was a show for the ages, dipping into some of their longer dance forms – their krautrock tendencies even blossoming into flowers blooming in disco trenches – with an opening set from DANA who get looser and more vibrant while holding their crown of best rock band in town.
Waco Brothers with Jon Langford and the Bright Shiners (Big Room Bar, 09/22/2023) – The last few times we’d been lucky enough to see Jon Langford, one of the iconic songwriters and singers going back to helping invent British post-punk with the Mekons, were at the fantastic Hogan House venue. We still had the pleasure of seeing PJ and Abbie, proprietors/bookers of Hogan House, and doing as much for music that wouldn’t come to this town otherwise as anybody I can think of, but it was a pleasure to see the Bright Shiners in a bar and the Wacos in a room where we could dance. Their own crackling songs like “The Man That God Forgot” and “This Town” holding their own with covers from the real rock and roll canon like “Teenage Kicks” and “All or Nothing” – the best rocking dance party of the year.
Johnathan Blake Quintet (Village Vanguard, NYC, 10/12/2023) – On the heels of a phenomenal record (you’ll see some evidence on this year’s playlists), drummer and composer Johnathan Blake brought the power of a volcanic quintet – Dezron Douglas on bass, Dayna Stephens on sax, Fabian Almazan on piano, and Jalen Baker on vibes – for a perfect set that went from Horace Silver (maybe the best “Peace” I’ve ever heard) to his own new tunes to classics from his father Ralph Peterson, Jr. A night that reminded me why the Village Vanguard stays one of the best listening rooms in the world.
Harlem Gospel Travelers, Eli “Paperboy” Reed, and band
Eli “Paperboy” Reed and the Harlem Gospel Travelers (Union Pool, NYC, 10/14/2023) – I don’t always love a repertory show, but this was exactly how you do it. Eli “Paperboy” Reed used his 40th birthday to pack out the Union Pool room and tear into one of my favorite records of all time, Sam Cooke’s Live at the Harlem Square Club 1963, and for the encore, instead of dipping into his own catalog, brought up the Harlem Gospel Travelers and did songs Cooke was doing in concert contemporaneously. He didn’t even dip into earlier, better-known Sam Cooke songs like “You Send Me.” It was a tribute to scholarship but also to sensual delight – the looseness and good time everyone had on stage and in the audience lit me up from the inside on a day that also included the production of Merrily We Roll Along that made my theater list and a return to century-old Brooklyn classic restaurant Bamonte’s, plus always killer DJing from legends like Mr. Finewine as a nightcap.
Lady Wray and 79.5 (Brooklyn Made, NYC, 10/15/2023) – I’ve been a fan of Lady Wray since “Make It Hot” and her co-writes/guest spots on Missy Elliot classics. And I’ve seen a few R&B hitmakers who transitioned to classic soul sounds over the years. But I’ve never seen one do it with the kind of grace and wit Wray did here, honoring her earlier life with a scorching “Make It Hot” about a third of the way through the set and devoting just as much energy and enthusiasm to the newer work. Finally, seeing the reigning Brooklyn disco band 79.5 was as much a selling point as the headliner. They didn’t disappoint – sweated so much from dancing that my blazer stuck to me from sweat when we finally tumbled into the chilly Brooklyn night.
Lady Wray and band
Los Rumberos (Cafe Marula, Barcelona, 11/11/2023) – First trip to Spain, especially Barcelona, was more focused on food and art than music, but after a fantastic dinner, Anne found at Restaurante Informal – some of the best sea bass I’ve ever had – where we didn’t have a plan except not feeling like heading home immediately after, we stumbled into Mexican band Los Rumberos, not just playing rumbas but son, cumbia, vintage disco, reggae, in a ball of sweaty, kinetic energy. Blew me back against the bar.
Mulatu Astatke (Fernán Gómez Centro Cultural de la Villa, Madrid, 11/17/2023) – I loved those Ethiopiques compilations, and my favorite was the volume dedicated to percussionist Mulatu Astatke that came out when I was 18. So, seeing he was playing the first night we were in Madrid was a no-brainer. And at 79 years old, fronting a septet of much younger players, he astonished me. Slipping between marimba, timbales, congas, and electric piano, he guided the band like a wizard redirecting a river.
Mulatu Astatke and Band
Festival Sets:
Irreversible Entanglements
Winter Jazz Fest (NYC, Various Venues, January 2023)
New Standards Songbook
Irreversible Entanglements
Scrawl
Lost Weekend Records Anniversary (Ace of Cups, February 2023)
Scrawl
Lonnie Holley with Mourning [A] BLKStar
Big Ears (Knoxville, Various Venues, March 2023)
Lonnie Holley with Mourning [A] BLKStar
Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band
James Brandon Lewis
Trio Imagination
Staples Jr. Singers
The Jazz Bins
Rica Chicha
Peter One
Amy Lavere
Twangfest (St Louis, Off Broadway/Tower Grove, June 2023)
Amy Lavere and Will Sexton (Tower Grove Farmer’s Market)
Paranoid Style
Summer Solstice (Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, June 2023)
What a marvelous year for Visual Art. 125 or so exhibits, over nine cities, giving me peace or disrupting that peace. Leaving me unable to speak or filled with an irrepressible urge to tell someone, everyone, about them, or sometimes both at the same time.
All photos are by me, with no claim made to the underlying rights to the artwork. Everything listed here is in chronological order based on when I saw it (or in some cases, like the Wexner Center, No Place Gallery, and Streetlight Guild shows, based on the first time I went).
Nick Cave, Guggenheim
Nick Cave, Forothermore (Guggenheim, NYC) – I was overjoyed that my APAP/Winter Jazzfest/work trip overlapped with the last weeks of this dazzling retrospective of the American artist Nick Cave filling the side galleries of the Guggenheim. There was so much to love in this massive collection showing off the various sides of his work. My favorite part of this was the way it led the audience through the thornier, more jagged pieces of his work before the catharsis of the better-known sound suits which really underlined the sound suits’ beauty and joy as an act of resistance, of asserting his power and dignity.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, S/T (David Zwirner, NYC) – Another more expansive look at an artist I’d been a fan of for a very long time. This retrospective took over three of David Zwirner’s massive gallery spaces, including finally assembling two pieces (both labeled “Untitled” with different subtitles) had had fully planned before his death. Gonzalez-Torres’ ability to transmute the basic objects of our lives, to abstract and expand, has never been as moving for me as it was on this blustery New York afternoon. Just recalling, it clicked through my bones like pins snapping into a lock.
Susan Phillipsz, Separated Strings (Tanya Bonakdar, NYC) – Susan Phillipsz’ film of the story of Pavel Haas, a composer who wrote and performed a piece while in Auschwitz and was killed anyway, played on a two-channel installation and a sound installation isolating the violin part on multiple speakers in a bright room upstairs, floored me. This is what I want from most installation art and only seldom get.
Tiffany Lawson, Streetlight Guild
Tiffany Lawson, Contemporary Colored Deluxe (Streetlight Guild) – Streetlight Guild is killing it in every respect. Music, poetry, education, but especially for visual art: this is the kind of permanent, visible home Columbus’s fertile black art scene hasn’t had for a while, and the crowds, whenever I come, seem to back me up at how much we’ve all missed it. I liked everything I saw here, but this concentrated dose of Tiffany Lawson’s witty, nuanced, narrative-informed-but-never-constrained collage work was one of my favorite discoveries (I know, I know, I should have known more of her work earlier – sometimes I’m slow) of the year.
AK Burns, Of Space we are… (Wexner Center) – All three of the spring exhibits at the Wexner Center worked for me, but the A.K. Burns – showing all four of his Negative Space films and building installations and ephemera around them, situating the storytelling in these moving, chilling environments – just stuck to my ribcage and never quite let go. This as a whole – believe I came back to watch each movie in the galleries – fulfilled the promise I grew up searching for in science fiction and only found fleetingly.
Bobby T. Luck, Was it Your Trigger Finger? (Pizzuti Collection at Columbus Museum of Art) – This two-room installation skewered vintage US military recruiting propaganda, institutional racism, government bureaucracy, and so much else in a way that balanced its wit with tear jerking, landing perfectly placed piledrivers.
Sydney G. James, Girl Raised in Detroit (MOCAD, Detroit) – Another look into the past, both James’ personal past and a wider social and political past, balancing a tear-jerking and nostalgic installation with enormous and unsparing mural-style tributes. Breathtaking and bracing.
Caleb Yono, No Place Gallery
Caleb Yono, Impersonator (No Place Gallery) – Hoisting the torch for uncompromising art in downtown Columbus proper, No Place Gallery put out one stellar exhibit after another. My favorite was this – occasionally blurred – myriad of paintings of Madonna impersonators, drenched in atmosphere and pulsing with energy.
Claude Monet and Joan Mitchell, Monet/Mitchell: Painting the French Landscape (St Louis Art Museum, St Louis) – The scholarship at this spellbinding rapture of an exhibit at one of my favorite US Museums was second only to the rapturous beauty both Monet and Mitchell evoked. The connections between what each artist found in the countryside, far away from Paris and New York, are as intense as the different paths and techniques they deployed in the service of that building.
Faye HeavyShield, Confluences (Pulitzer Art Foundation, St Louis) – The Pulitzer has always had a special place in my St Louis heart, basically, next door to the better-known CAM STL (also great), finding interesting connections to avant-garde artists of different backgrounds, time periods, and media. I had the pleasure of a phenomenal tour led by curator Tamara Schenkenberg, the perfect introduction to an artist I’m ashamed to say I knew nothing about before walking through the door. This wide-ranging retrospective was bursting with wrenching work that used highly modern techniques to get at the power and the pain of Faye HeavyShield’s overlapping histories and color the world in ways I knew but didn’t know and ways I knew but wished weren’t what they are. A show – and conversation – that still haunts me as I look back on this year.
Faye HeavyShield, Pulitzer Art Foundation
Various Artists, Irrepressible Soul (Urban Arts Space) – Iyana Hil (creator and co-curator with Dr. Terron Banner, Mario Hairston, and Christopher Hearn) did an astounding job here, bringing together artists whose work I already knew and loved, like William Evans, Cameron A. Grainger, and L’Ouverture Jones with artists I’d never heard of into a tapestry of black and Afro-Diasporic arts. As someone who’s been going to the Urban Arts Space since the building opened, I believe this may be the best single exhibit I’ve ever seen there. Plus – and it’s my eternal regret I didn’t get to the satellite events – tying the work here together with other Columbus black cultural institutions, from the King Arts Complex to Sole Collections, was a wonder.
Juane Quick-To-See Smith, Memory Map (Whitney Museum, NYC) – My first conscious exposure to Juane Quick-to-See-Smith was at one of my favorite public art events anywhere, Counterpublic 2023 in St Louis, so it was even more of a joy to see this enormous retrospective at the Whitney when Anne and I went to New York late summer to see Greg Cartwright play. The playful but deadly serious tones captured an America that was always on the surface for the people being oppressed, but it uses defiance as a path to hope, sunlight cracking through moldering walls.
Sahar Khoury, Umm (Wexner Center) – The Wex’s fall exhibits were also all extremely strong. Still, Khoury’s collaged sculptural and installation pieces inspired by the legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum kept me coming back, always finding something new in the glitter and the scuffs.
Gary Simmons, MCA
Gary Simmons, Public Enemy (MCA, Chicago) – A work trip to Chicago let me catch up with some dear friends, have some strategy sessions with coworkers and also catch a couple of astonishing art exhibits on lunch hours – the benefit of being right downtown. The MCA is always more than edifying when I get there – they turned me onto Doris Salcedo and so much more – and this Gary Simmons’ mixed-media grappling with racism and its after-effects, twisting every symbol just artfully enough that it wasn’t the version I expected, landed hit after hit.
Remedios Varo, Science Fictions (Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago) – The Art Institute of Chicago also blew me away with this early surrealist who relocated from Spain to Mexico City with the outbreak of WWII. Exactly the stew of midcentury elements I’ve loved but at an angle, I wasn’t expecting, in the first major museum I ever fell in love with.
Various Artists, Columbus Metropolitan Library Main Branch
Various Artists, Columbus Metropolitan Library at 150 (CML Main Branch) – Not just here because our house was in one of the photos taken and selected by Dorian Ham as part of this exhibit, but that was the kind of surprise that won me over. The perfectly chosen artists for this – people I’ve been a big fan of for a while, like April Sunami, Rob W. Jones, and Tera Stockdale, and those whose names I didn’t even know – and the pieces were woven into an evocation of the sense of community I still love about Columbus, even when it pisses me off or lets me down. A flag-planting about the role libraries have played in that and still play.
Various Artists, Black American Portraits (Brooks Museum, Memphis) – The Brooks does astonishing work; over the 10 years I’ve been visiting regularly, it’s become a must-see part of my Memphis trips. This touring exhibition, which originated at LACMA and was curated by Dr. Patricia Daigle and Efe Igor Coleman, took me through thematic rooms to shine a light on a shifting black experience that always rightfully resists being restrained or easily named.
Henry Taylor, Whitney Museum
Henry Taylor, B Side (Whitney Museum, NYC) – Another hat tip to the Whitney – in a season where everything was good, from a look at one of my polymath inspirations Harry Smith doing the almost impossible to the finest wide-lens look at Ruth Asawa I’ve ever seen; to a gut-wrenching group show; this deep dive into painter Henry Taylor vibrated every nerve ending in my body.
Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity (Reina Sofia, Madrid) – Most of what we did in Madrid and Barcelona wasn’t new exhibitions; first time in cities of course I’m spending a lot of time in the Prado and looking at Gaudi. But the Reina Sofia is the kind of contemporary art museum – and I love all the US versions, don’t misunderstand – I could really only compare to Centre Pompidou. I was that wowed. And I liked everything on display, but this extensive, almost exhausting, retrospective of Shahn’s work took him out of my previous understanding of his art in Diego Rivera’s slipstream and made it fully formed and three-dimensional in my brain.
Laura Ramírez Palacio, S/T (PlusArtis, Madrid) – Anne and I stumbled here when the other modern art gallery we intended to hit was closed. In a thriving gallery scene, this was the exhibit that wouldn’t let me go. Gone too young, Palacio crafts a mythoautobiography in drawings with clear referents, but I couldn’t ever quite put my finger on it. I staggered out of the gallery, pretty much only wanting to talk about this.
There was a flood of phenomenal music, so much that left me staggered this year. As with past years, I’ll write about the actual material in the playlist posts which should be out the week of the 22nd (looking to get Visual Art and Live Music written up this week), but I still like having what my favorite records were to look back on and see what still sparks me later and what didn’t hold up like I expected it to.
New:
Jaimie branch, Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))
Brother/Hood/Dance, photo by Ryan Muir, courtesy of the Wexner Center
What a great year for theater – seeing 53 shows over four cities, with particularly good batting averages on the three New York trips. Also, every company in Columbus was hitting this year. Some of the best work I’ve seen in years from MadLab, Opera Columbus, and Evolution, lined up with front-to-back strong seasons from The Contemporary (formerly CATCO) and Available Light, a renewed interest in dance and theater from the Wexner Center, Short North Stage stretching its wings, all added up to more I wanted to see than I could make happen. Even when I didn’t love some of the work, almost every single thing I saw, I admired the effort and the swing they took. It’s a good time to be a fan of theater in town, get out and see as much as possible,
Everything listed here is in chronological order and in Columbus unless otherwise noted. The companies provided all photos for promotion, either sent to me directly or taken from websites.
Wilma Hatton and Ricardo Jones in ‘Snowville Cafe’, photo by Steve Malone
KL II by Kaneza Schaal, directed by Kaneza Schaal and Christopher Myers (Under the Radar Festival, NYC) – I only made it to one thing out of the three I had booked at Under the Radar this year – one canceled early, one canceled while I was at the Public – but this reaffirmed what a great thing the festival is for those of us who love experimental theater. Kaneza Schaal braided the text of Mark Twain’s King Leopold’s Soliloquy with a personal history with Patrice Lumumba’s independence speech with personal history with so much else and fused it to a blue flame of a performance and fascinating design and direction choices.
Snowville Cafe by Julie Whitney-Scott, directed by James Blackmon (MadLab) – Julie Whitney-Scott, one of my favorite theater artists in town, had an astonishing year directing a regional premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Lynn Nottage, classics like Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun, leading her spectacular tradition of Columbus Black Theater Festival, writing her first novel, it was a dazzling record of work. But my favorite piece, the thing that I kept talking about months after it closed, was this luminous slice of life James Blackmon directed for MadLab. I called it “a poetic character study that also makes its setting a vibrant, fascinating character, with a real love for its characters but a sometimes unsparing eye for their faults. The empathy of the writing and direction are so perfectly in sync they almost seem invisible,” in my review for Columbus Underground.
Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by David Glover (Available Light) – Available Light continued their astonishing streak this year. Everything they did had the unshakable feeling of “I can’t picture anyone else doing this.” David Glover’s stunning production and brilliant cast were up to the challenge of fusing the technical difficulty – the main five actors pull their characters out of a hat – to the piece’s deep themes and rich humor. I said it, “[highlights the shifting volatility, the danger of using our friends as a mirror of ourselves, but the absolute necessity of friends,” in my review for Columbus Underground.
Afro/Solo/Man by Orlando Zane Hunter, Jr. and Ricarrdo Valentine (Brother(hood) Dance, presented by Wexner Center for the Arts) – The Wexner Center also pulled itself up this year, drawing on some local talent and some far-flung relationships, to put out work I can’t picture any other presenting organization bringing to town. This gut-wrenching dance piece by Hunter and Valentine, about generational trauma and internalized shame but also abundant, bursting-at-the-seams joy, had me babbling about it for weeks after seeing it.
Monica Danilov-Marquez, Maria de Buenos Aires, Opera Columbus; photo by Terry Gilliam
Maria de Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer, directed by Christopher Darling (Opera Columbus) – Opera Columbus continues killing it and this Piazzolla operetta lined up with my tastes with sniper-like precision. I said, “The parallel singing and dancing choruses also set the world of the play, accentuating the collage aspects and the surging drama and eroticism. This riff on an opera-ballet with tango feels simultaneously organic and surprising,” in my piece for Columbus Underground.
Seven Guitars by August Wilson, directed by Ron OJ Parson (Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati) – Finally got to see the last of the August Wilson Pittsburgh cycle with this sumptuous production at one of Ohio’s shining theaters, Cincy’s Playhouse in the Park. Bryant Bentley’s Red Carter and Dimonte Henning’s Schoolboy Barton are performances burned into my brain.
Sue Wismar in foreground, Elizabeth Girvin and Sydney Jordan Baker in background, When We Were Young and Unafraid, photo by Cat McAlpine
When We Were Young and Unafraid by Sarah Treem, directed by Michelle Batt (eMBer Women’s Theatre) – eMBer Women’s Theatre has come into its own over the last few years, and this year they blew me the hell away with a gorgeous, knife-twisting look at shifting social mores, pervasive sexual violence, the need to connect – and the way that can be a source of strength or twisted into something terrible, with astonishing performances, especially by Sue Wismar and Matthew Sierra. I said, “[The] characters’ arguments about the times changing and the chilling prescient words “They’ll change back,” resonate long after the lights go back on the play,” in my review for Columbus Underground.
The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe, directed by Aviva Helena Neff (The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio) – The second production of Sarah DeLappe’s magnificent coming-of-age play The Wolves I’ve seen in a few years, and I’m still knocked out by the play and the synchronicity in coming together and splitting apart personified by the cast hear left my jaw in my lap with awe and broke me in the right measures. For Columbus Underground, I said, “[It] reminded me of its ability to surprise through the quality and sharpness of its execution. It’s hard for me to picture seeing a better production of this beautiful, life-affirming, heartbreaking play.
Machinal by Sophie Treadwell, directed by Ryan Naughton (The Sound Company) – Ryan Naughton and Jessica Hughes gave the Columbus theatrical scene a powerful shot in the arm in their few years here, teaching at OSU, and their crowning achievement was a powerful production of landmark expressionist play Machinal by their Sound Company. I said, This production is rich with jagged beauty and a perfect example of how irony can be used to make something hurt more, not less. How much more potent can abstraction be at evoking a feeling than spelling something,” for Columbus Underground.
Jessica Hughes, Machinal, photo by Blake Mintz
Beautiful by Doug McGrath and the music of Carole King et al, directed by Dionysia Williams (Short North Stage) – I didn’t see a bad production by Short North Stage all year, but this jukebox musical – which might have had the hardest go with me walking in, given the depth of my familiarity and love of the Carole King-Gerry Goffin songs and the milieu around them, and this captured it so perfectly, anchored by brilliant performances by Britta Rae, Corbin Payne, and Nick Lingnofski. For Columbus Underground, I said, “The book has enough pain and richness to give ballast to the material, but Beautiful never lets anything get in the way of the power and beauty of these songs.”
The Comeuppance by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Eric Ting (Signature Theatre Company, NYC) – Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is one of the playwrights I’ll see anything that comes out if I can at all make work. I was overjoyed that one of the last matinees overlapped with our middle trip to New York this year. I got there – after two hours a few blocks north of the Signature complex having some drinks and laughs at staple Rudy’s Bar and Grill- and was dismayed to find out the performance was over two hours with no intermission. I’m used to that meaning, “We don’t trust the material/we want to exert some dominance over the audience/people will leave.” But for 2:15, I was staggered, enraptured, blown away. Every tool Jacobs-Jenkins has carefully sharpened is deployed in heartbreaking, unsettling ways with a phenomenal cast in this mythopoetic riff on The Big Chill that tells a story about reckoning with youth, trauma, and who has the right to a story; to pain; that I haven’t heard before. I’m dying to see this again and have already pre-ordered the script in book form (coming out next summer). I saw a couple of things this year where I both immediately said, “This is the best thing I’ve seen,” and I still think that later in the year (you’ll see the other further down this list); this was one of them.
Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, directed by Thomas Kail (Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, NYC) – I’ve seen a good number of the recent Sweeney Todd revivals, the first Sondheim I loved thanks to an introduction to the taped George Hearn/Angela Lansbury performance from childhood friend Matt Porreca, and I love the attempts at realism, psychological or otherwise. But it was an unalloyed joy to see this Thomas Kail-directed version that focused on the sumptuous music, playing the original orchestrations and with a dynamite lead from Josh Groban, in almost a sharp-edged comic book interpretation. And as with the Sunday Anne and I saw a few years ago, Annaleigh Ashford’s Mrs. Lovett runs away with the whole goddam show, just a dynamite performance.
The Comeuppance photo by Monique Carboni
The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez, directed by Joe Bishara (Evolution Theatre Company) – Evolution has been swinging for the fences the last couple of years, and, in my eyes, it’s really paid off. The ambition of this huge cast recasting of Howard’s End to deal with the aftermath of the AIDS crisis, which was the play everyone was talking about when Anne and I were in London (and I couldn’t fit it into the schedule), follows great work Evolution has done with Lopez’s writing like the intimate character-driven Poz and gets to luxuriate in this over two three-hour parts. I called it, “About how we tell stories, how stories bring us together, give us a framework for living, and in the same breath – and sometimes the same story – let us delude ourselves and others, build walls, and slowly (or slowly-then-suddenly) rot us from the inside,” as I reviewed Part 1 and Part 2 for Columbus Underground.
POTUS by Selena Fillinger, directed by Leda Hoffmann (The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio) – Fresh off Broadway, POTUS affirmed Hoffmann’s commitment to brand new work and stewardship as CATCO transitioned into The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio. It’s a crackling burlesquing of the highest hallways of power and riotous, hilarious entertainment. It may have been the hardest I laughed all year. I said the production was “A springloaded machine of everything getting worse in ways we see coming, but at just enough of an angle, the wind is knocked from our lungs as a precursor to the following laughs. Hoffmann and her cast excel at this, ratcheting in the tension up, weaving in call-backs (if there’s another inflection you can put on “ass play” we don’t see in this play, I can’t think of it) so they embed in our brains and still getting that jolt of surprise when they detonate, with just enough release to make the pace feel frenzied without being exhausting,” in Columbus Underground.
What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck, directed by Dakota Thorn (Available Light) – Dakota Thorn, who I’ve long admired as an actor, hit it out of the park with her first – I think – directing and Available Light member Michelle Schroeder-Lowrey is the perfect fit for this funny, intensely moving snapshot of a slice of America from Heidi Schreck. I said, “Hilarity – starting with the 15-year-old Heidi talking about the constitution in bodice-ripper terms (“a sweaty, steamy document”), deep dives into specifics of language, and abject horror bump right up against one another, without feeling unbalanced. In the late-play discussion of Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales, the play draws a clear line between an abstraction being the point, the nitpicking of “shall” as a dodge, a way to avoid letting people into the argument being seen by the court, and the breathless, sometimes delirious love of words as a way to let people in, to truly see them, instead of shutting them out, as the play does,” in my review for Columbus Underground.
Infinite Life by Annie Baker, directed by James Macdonald (Atlantic Theatre, NYC) – I can’t think of a contemporary writer who burrows into the most banal – and simultaneously most intimate – spaces of modern life with more agility and a sharper knife than Annie Baker. This look at seven women in a spa/health retreat that’s not explicitly described is a master class in interweaving perspectives; the way we talk with the knob turned all the way up until it seems strange. Anne and I talked about this all the way down 8th Avenue to the Vanguard (see this year’s live music list), and I’m still turning it over in my head, trying to make sense of it in the best way.
Laurie Carter Rose, Arriah Ratanapan, Noelle Anderson, and Shanelle Marie, POTUS, photo by Terry Gilliam
Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, directed by Maria Friedman (Hudson Theatre, NYC) – Everything you’ve heard about this is true. Easily the strongest, most fully realized version of this underdog of the Sondheim canon, directed with a sure hand and razor-sharp timing by Maria Friedman, who uses her storied history with Sondheim and her internalizing of those rhythms to make everything breathe and, crucially, peels back a little more of the onion on Franklin Shepherd (a stunning Jonathan Groff) to show the people pleaser quality at the heart of all that grasping – the first time I really believed that line, “I’ve only made one mistake in my life but I’ve made it over and over again: saying ‘Yes’ when I meant ‘No.’” Daniel Radcliffe kills me as the righteous purist Charley Kringus, and Lindsay Mendez, new to me, gives a more fleshed-out version of Mary Flynn, taking her out of the Dorothy Parker caricature while still nailing those lines than I’d previously seen.
Which Way to the Stage? by Ana Nogueira, directed by Edward Carignan (Short North Stage) – I didn’t realize how much I’d missed Short North Stage’s taste in non-musical plays until this breath of fresh air reminded me. It felt really good being back in the Green Room, laughing and thinking. In Columbus Underground, I said, “[It] treats these heavier themes with the gravity they need – how does this thing you love change, and what happens when it doesn’t? How do we look to other people? – but they never get in the way of the laughs. It’s a delightful comedy with a sniper-targeted sense of its audience.”
Ghost Quartet by Dave Malloy, directed by Drew Eberly (Available Light) – The other thing that stood out to me as the best thing I saw all year, a song cycle with theater running through its veins, that denied my easy understanding as much as it made me love it. For Columbus Underground, I said, “Malloy and the cast, under Eberly’s sure hand, dig into a purer emotional landscape, the way a song feels as it moves through you, and the late nights of wanting to one-up one another because you love the people you’re with so much; while still having all the insecurities and viciousness that makes us human.”
Good Grief by Ngozi Anyanwu, directed by Shanelle Marie and Alan Tyson (Contemporary Theatre of Ohio) – Shanelle Marie and Alan Tyson collaborated on directing this lovely meditation on loss, friendship, and growing up by Ngozi Anyanwu, a jewel in a very strong season from The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio. For Columbus Underground, I said, “The ability, starting in Anyanwu’s text and emphasized by Marie and Tyson’s direction, not to demonize anyone, to find drama without making anyone a villain, showing us people who are all doing their best is a rare gift and a pleasure I don’t get often enough in any medium.”
Amy Rittberger in the foreground, Katie Giffin and Jo Michelle Shafer in background on the bar, Ghost Quartet, photo by Kyle Long
Screen of Distance 