It’s that time again for music aficionados (or as we prefer, nerds) to wax poetic about the year that was in music. On Open Air, we added over 300 new titles to the expansive JPR music library with music from all around the world and styles ranging from French Cabaret Jazz, classic pop sung in Inuktitut, reggae, folk, new music from octogenarian rock stars, rock and roll from a country legend, bluegrass, blues, jazz and some stuff we had a hard time classifying.
Open Air Hosts, Danielle Kelly and Dave Jackson, have boiled it down to a free-flowing list of favorites. Album tiles below will be in italics and song titles in quotes.
Danielle's List:
In no particular order, an inconclusive list of ten of my favorites on Open Air in 2023:
- I found myself particularly sensitive to the tragedies in the global news this year, and have been finding relief and refuge in more and more instrumental music in my life soundtrack. For this reason, King Canyon, Eric Krasnos' new project with Son Little, was welcome for me. Bluesy psych rock goodness that lets me just be with my thoughts, still delivering enough energy to keep on top of my house chores!
- I was super stoked to cheer on Southern Oregon's own Free Creatures new full-length release While We Can. I’ve long been a fan of Creature’s lead vocalist and bassist Emily Turner's hypnotic vocals, and her grooves mesmerize me. Teamed up with Skylar Skuglios’s psych guitar riffs and special sauce a la Marv Ellis is all a winning dance around the house/car recipe for me.
- Susto took over my home stereo for months when I heard the single “Rock On” from their full-length album My Entire Life. I was a fan before, loving past singles like “Feel Alright” and “Get Down” from Time in the Sun, but this album with its vulnerability and catchy lyrics and hooks took me on a trip with them. Meeting the gang and hearing about this album first-hand in a JPR Live session made that album magical for me.
- If we are gonna talk about rock stars though, Grace Potter gets my vote. She’s funny, fun and fantasy-full in her new record Mother Road, but she's no joke. “Lady Vagabond” has been a serious sing-along anthem for me in the halls of the JPR studios this year. From “Good Time,” who wants to argue with lyrics like: “There's got to be a way that we can turn this ship around Uh, 'cause you can't keep a good time down”
- Speaking of earworms, Emily King was majorly repeatable for me. It's her perfect pop sensibilities, soft gentle voice and charm behind confidence and feminism. When I hear Special Occasion, I'm taken right to a passenger seat, windows rolled down cruising and taking in a summer time scene, (my favorite vibe).
Hozier's Unreal Unearth makes another point in my argument that he’s at least part space alien. It’s intellectual and spiritual, pulling from an old text of Dante's Inferno, yet easily accessible with infectious hooks, and as always, the vocals are goose bump-inducing good.
- The truly creepy album artwork of Fever Ray’s Radical Romantic had me doubting. And the track names weirded me out too. But like my affinity for the film “The Shining”, I couldn't help but replay and dive deeper each time, despite how uncomfortable it is. The instrumentation, production, lyrics and melody are so unique. I probably won't turn it on for relaxing at bedtime, but it’s definitely given my brain some food for thought.
- Both Taj Mahal's Savoy and Amos Lee's Sings Chet Baker delighted the jazz vocalist in me. I love the role the Savoy music hall played in jazz history, and to have a giant of roots/jazz/blues music like Taj pay homage to the space and the music made famous there is simply wonderful. Likewise, Amos Lee dusting off a few of my favorite introspective, brooding Chet Baker standards had me falling sentimental for the songs all over again.
- I’m a sucker for clever lyrics, and defenseless against a powerful hook. As far as single songs I couldn't get out of my head, here are the offenders: Parker MIllsap’s “Front Porchin,” Jenny Lewis’s “Puppy and a Truck,” Slaid Cleaves’ “Terlingua Chili Queen,” Love, Dean’s “Fool,” Kassi Valaza’s “Watching Planes Go By,” Danielle Ponder’s “Some of Us Are Brave,” Bahamas “I’m Still,” Mick Flannery with “Goodtime Charley” Bailen’s “Tired Hearts” and the guitar riff in Killing Cartisano’s “Drunk Man.”
- With Chronicles of a Diamond, The Black Pumas delivered once again my favorite blend of soul and psych rock. “More Than a Love Song” sits on my top played just like “Colors” did from their debut self-titled release. Heavy and uplifting simultaneously.
- Honorable mentions: Elisapie, for reinventing classics and making them sound even cooler in her indigenous people’s language of Inuktitut, especially with “Taimangalimaq” (Time After Time).
- Kurt Vile for remaining the loveable king of rambling stoner rock.
- Fruit Bats with River Running To Your Heart for a record I like to play from the beginning track straight through to the end.
Dave's List:
Honorable mention: Jaime Wyatt – Feel Good, Cat Power – Sings Bob Dylan: 1966 Live at the Royal Albert Hall, Della Mae – “No Rain”, Taj Mahal – Savoy, Eric Bibb – Ridin’, Ruen Brothers – Ten Paces, Stephen Marley – Old Soul, Dave McMurray – Grateful Deadication II, Danielle Ponder – Some of us are Brave, Rodney Crowell – The Chicago Sessions, Liv Warfield – The Edge, Natalie Merchant – Keep Your Courage, Sunny War -Anarchist Gospel, and a series of nicely interpreted cover tunes by Southern Oregon’s Alice Di Micele.
The finalists:
- boygenius(SIC) – The Record. The first full-length release from the supergroup made up of singer/songwriters Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers took the world by storm, and earned several Grammy nominations.
- Christone “Kingfish” Ingram – Live in London. The Gen Z bluesman is poised to make the first half of the 21st century his own. Blues guitar heroes come and go, and every once in a while, we get a new player who rises above, like Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughan. Kingfish joins Derek Trucks and Joe Bonamassa as the guys blazing new trails in an old art form now.
- Margo Cilker – Valley of the Heart’s Delight. A member of the Pacific Northwest Americana circuit released an album produced by Sera Cahoone, with help from Jenny Conlee (Decemberists) and Caleb Caudle. I hear throwbacks to Emmylou Harris and Iris DeMent.
- Kassi Valazza – Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing and the single “Watching Planes Go By.” Also from the PNW, and joined by Portland band TK and the Holy Know Nothing, Valazza’s album Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing is classic ‘60s-style folk. “Watching Planes Go By” sounds a bit like The Carpenters and Jefferson Airplane and reminds me of the song “Walk Me Out in the Morning Dew.”
- Iris Dement – Workin’ On A World. I liked this record as soon as I heard it, but didn’t realize how much until later when I kept going back to play it again. The title track “Workin’ on a World” is a hopeful message that encourages people to do their part. In contrast, “Goin’ Down to Sing in Texas” takes on the absurdity of some of our culture wars and encourages people to listen to their better angels.
- Sufjan Stevens -Javelin. The melancholy themes are hard to take, but heartfelt, and reward listeners with a beautiful, tear-jerker of a record. Stevens wrote the songs for Javelin in the aftermath of the death of his partner in the Spring. The collection of songs about love often blur the lines between romantic love and his Christian faith. It’s part confessional and part mourning and elegantly showcases his ethereal, indie-folk roots.
- Killing Cartisano – “The Drunk Man.” Italian singer/songwriter/composer/multi-instrumentalist Roberta Cartisano is Killing Cartisano. “The Drunk Man” is a rocker with a huge guitar hook that sounds like something that could have been performed by Led Zeppelin and Alabama Shakes.
- Jenny Lewis – “Puppy and a Truck. It’s an almost perfect pop song. It’s cute and catchy. The sound is a little like “Margaritaville” (minus the steel drums) and it opens with the line “My forties were kickin’ my ass, and handin’ to me in a Margarita Glass” and like the Buffett classic, seems to be about coping and living your best life. For Lewis though it’s more about self-empowerment and solace via a puppy and a truck.
- Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway – City of Gold. This album was produced with Jerry Douglas and features co-writes with Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show. Golden Highway is made up of some of the best string-players in the genre. The sum of City of Gold, somehow manages to be greater than even those parts.
- Margo Price – Strays. Moving away from her Nashville past, Price was inspired by experimenting with psilocybin and listening to records for an album that blurs the line between Americana and rock and roll. In addition to Strays, Price was part of 2 big tribute albums this year singing “Shotgun Willie” on a tribute to Willie Nelson and “Stranger in a Strange Land” in tribute to Leon Russell.
- Free Creatures – While We Can. If I had to pick one favorite, it’s this. Additionally, they released a groovy cover of Van Morrisons “Moondance.” The Southern Oregon trio with upright bassist/vocalist Emily Turner, MC Marv Ellis on vocals and beats, and guitarist Skylar Skuglio, blends jazz, world beat, hip-hop and funk with conscious lyrics for a sound they call “Umami Music.” It’s catchy and accessible with enough depth to keep those digging for more interested listen after listen.
Thanks for listening to us in 2023. We hope you enjoyed the mix as much as we enjoyed spinning it. We look forward to what's new in '24.
