2024 has been a heart-opening and transformative year for me. The loss of both my parents and my longtime family home (a safe landing space for me, for almost 50 years) has been massive.
I’m sure many of you have traveled your own rites of passage this past year as well.
The music that grabbed my attention in 2024 was varied and inspiring. Here’s the result of the challenging exercise to narrow down to my top 10 favorite releases of the year. These songs soothed me, opened my heart, and made me smile. I hope you enjoy!
Image: Mom's Dickens Village collection set up on Dad's piano.
And for those who are interested, here is a 13+ hour playlist where I captured all the music that perked my ears up this year.
Some news:
John's 50th bash
To celebrate this significant orbit, I'm staging a mini-reunion of my old band Pro Audio. Born in 2001, Pro Audio is what we called indie nerd prog-rock — think Ween meets Weezer meets They Might Be Giants. I was the lead vocalist, one of the two main songwriters, and the bass player. We self-released several albums, and played our last show in 2008.
I'm excited that my childhood friend Ryan T will be on keys, my current bandmate JJ on drums, and Katie helping out with some harmony vocals. Will you be there to help us rock out?
If you're in the Boulder/Denver area the evening of Feb 1st and would like to join, please check out the details and RSVP here, and plan to bring a potluck dinner dish or a drink.
(No guarantee I'll have pink hair for this reunion.)
You can check out this sampler of a few of my songs that we are planning to reboot:
I am also deep in negotiations for an opening performance by the legendary improv lounge singer Samantha Trouble. Crossing fingers!
The night will be capped off with a special DJ set by my friend and protégé, the wonderfully talented DJ James Barry. (Check out his recently posted set from Burning Man.)
Thanks to those of you who will be helping make this the kickoff to my best decade yet!
Best of the 2020s so far
I recently took a trip through the last five years of my top ten lists, and very much appreciated saying hello to those tracks again. If you’d like to do the same, here they are for easy reference:
Wishing you and yours health and evolution, and much joyful musical appreciation in 2025!