heaven, or whatever you'd call it

january 2025

[ ] new year. reticent to say happy new year. it has mostly been happy, but also startlingly bad in certain, unavoidable ways. so it goes. it is for you to decide whether my bookending this month’s playlist with Really Long songs is good or bad.

i believe i only listened to GILLIAN WELCH’s “I DREAM A HIGHWAY” for a few days straight this month. the song is mesmerizing. it’s a spiritual pilgrimage, at once lucid and hazy. much has been written about this song, so i don’t need to pile on. just enjoy it, take a walk, don’t get too lost… or do.

people are digging CAMERON WINTER’s debut album “HEAVY METAL”. he is ingeniously frenetic where GILLIAN WELCH is profoundly languid, but the record is absorbing all the same.¹

other news in new music: YVES JARVIS is putting out some exciting new singles ahead of an album set to release in february. BLACK COUNTRY NEW ROAD announced a new album “FOREVER HOW LONG”. JAPANESE BREAKFAST and TWAIN are both back in the saddle and due in Nashville soon—The Blue Room and The Ryman respectively.

“DANCING ON THE EDGE”, RYAN DAVIS AND THE ROADHOUSE BAND’s debut album is new to me, despite coming out in 2023.² better late than never—the band opened for MJ LENDERMAN & THE WIND at Brooklyn Bowl and i felt it my duty to acquaint myself with the record ahead of the show. as far as the lyrics go i get SILVER JEWS in spades, but not in a way that feels derivative. i dare say lyrics this inventive could ever feel derivative, and i love the feeling of both surprise and conviction at the end of certain lines: i could never imagine it that way / it couldn’t be said any other way. if you can believe this—and, in many ways, you should—RYAN DAVIS AND THE ROADHOUSE BAND will be back this month at Soft Junk. get yer tickets now.

i reckoned with a personal haunting after the MJ LENDERMAN show. he’s 25. he’s handsome. he’s smart. he’s really good at guitar. his band all seemed like dear friends.³ he was wearing brown Dansko clogs. so… oh well. as i’ve said, compare and despair. and the truth is: the songs feel good to listen to—like how Jackass is funny and the earth is round, they are a comfort that I have no desire to resist. Brooklyn Bowl felt like the right place to surrender. the sound was strong and the sight lines clear. near the end of the set, Rick, a talent buyer and friend, leaned over and said: he’ll be at The Ryman next time. probably. all the luckier were we to catch him this time around.

in other news my thing was published on GUNKYARD and the response was favorable. nobody publicly shamed me. one guy commented “interesting”.

sad to be missing a chunk of shows in February, but i’ve got a date with a pair of skis and a torn acl. a strong opportunities to see MELAINA KOL open for GREG MENDEZ. do take a look at what’s coming up and go, go, go! see ya at Soft Junk.

SHOWS IN JANUARY: HALF WAIF / MJ LENDERMAN & THE WIND + RYAN DAVIS AND THE ROADHOUSE BAND

SHOWS IN FEBRUARY: CHRISTIAN LEE HUTSON + ALLEGRA KRIEGER / GREG MENDEZ + MELAINA KOL / RYAN DAVIS AND THE ROADHOUSE BAND + STYROFOAM WINOS + OLD PUP / ESTHER ROSE + TWAIN / whatever you invite me to

1. unless you’re my dad. he described it as: “kind of taxing”. lethal!

2. apparently i was not yet cool enough to receive the record.

3. shout out to his bassist, Landon George, hailing from Watertown, TN. big dog was definitely wearing a long sleeve dryfit shirt from what I would assume to be his high school football team. likely o- or d-line, possibly a linebacker.