Music That Moved Me in 2022

The Show On The Road with Z. Lupetin

How can I try and summarize the soundtrack to my life this year? Indeed, we are in year three (!) of this endless pandemic and I find I am more and more drawn to pure escapism, fantasy and what I might call the “new nostalgia”? Personally, I don’t go more than a few hours in the day (or during sleep at night) without something on, whether it’s playing on my bluetooth speakers around the house, or in headphones as I walk the dog or the toddler around the neighborhood, or in the car rolling to the next spot.

As I teeter towards 40, I admit I love old school radio - while driving especially - and while most of the year has felt like a bit of a creative slog, I was thrilled to finally launch my own radio show on actual airwaves which you can listen to on Saturday mornings. And as a new dad, I am not ashamed to say that playlists like morning classical chill or sadgirl piano background are what actually got me through.

But what about the songs that moved me? I live for a new song that knocks me out of my reverie: unexpected lyrics, or ripping solos, or funky beats that slap me across the face and make me go, "WHAT. WAS. THAT?" And there are some songs in the list below that surely did that. But does one song sum up a whole year? A year that began with me almost losing my wife to a horrifying rare syndrome while giving birth to our daughter? Of seeing her recover courageously and witnessing my daughter growing like a grinning weed that careens from room to room like a joyful banshee? Or traveling the country playing songs I wrote to sometimes empty or sometimes full theaters or festivals or saloons of happy or heckling strangers? Or talking to dozens of hard-working bands and songwriters with my mic from Nova Scotia to London, from Minneapolis to New Orleans, or right in the front bar of LA’s hallowed Troubadour? How can songs, like short stories, be stitched together to create the novel that is your life?

Maybe one can’t really sum up a year like 2022 with a few songs. But if you are curious about some of the music that did truly move me or make me smile or got me through, this is it! I truly love these tracks. I will always love them. Are all of these safe for your to blast at work? Probably not! But let’s get started.

Songs featured in this episode:

Anna Moss feat. Rainbow Girls, “Big Dick Energy”

The Deslondes, “Five Year Plan” (Ways & Means)

Melissa Carper, “Makin’ Memories” (Daddy's Country Gold)

Seratones, "Good Day" (Love & Algorhythms)

Ondara, "An Alien in Minneapolis" (Spanish Villager No. 3)

Onda Vaga, "Milagro"

Silvana Estrada, "Tristeza" (Marchita)

The Heavy Heavy "Sleeping On Grassy Ground" (Life and Life Only)

The Cactus Blossoms "Hey Baby" (One Day)

Dustbowl Revival "Be (For July)" (Set Me Free)

Monica Martin "Go Easy, Kid"

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