2022 MUSIC
It’s that end of the year time for best releases and favorites. I always keep an ongoing playlist of my current favorite tunes for the year—any era, just as life sends them my way or I find them. I figure the right music always comes along.
That live Glen Campbell cover of U2’s tune “All I Want Is You” was my favorite tune of the year overall. It was released quite a few years back. The OFF! record Free LSD really stands out. Also Hollie Cook’s Happy Hour and a reissue I found of The Embarrassment’s Death Travels West. Also Lyres, Buzzcocks, and Lungfish. And I discovered James Wilsey’s instrumental record El Dorado. That actually might be my favorite discovery of the year. It’s magical and deserves to be heard.
If my musical edutaintment theme in 2021 was swampy & primitive (Gun Club, Scientists, Tav Falco) maybe my theme this year was old time basic rock and roll and blues: Bo Diddley, Link Wray, Lee Dorsey, Andre Williams, Slim Harpo, The Wild Tchoupatoulas, Mojo Buford, Memphis Slim, Magic Sam. There are playlists inspired by James Lee Burke’s Robicheaux detective series that I’ve been listening to a lot. Hip shaking music to show folks a good time, and just fine with being of a different era. I read a Stephen King story that referenced Gary U.S. Bonds’ “Schools Out” to great effect and that has been on heavy rotation in my head. I’d like to be a better guitar player so playing along with the good stuff can’t hurt.
