Every year, the Nashville Scene graciously survey’s “Nashville’s finest rockers, rollers, rappers, bookers and more” to get their take on the best happenings of the year for their Annual Rock ’n’ Roll Poll. We are humbled to be invited to partake in this poll and put forth a conscious effort to be inclusive of as many of the great things we heard and saw over the year as we can. The results are always an entertaining read and I suggest you spend some time with it. The results are also, understandably, edited. Not everyone’s full answers can be included nor should they be. The Scene has to make some cuts along the way and that’s perfectly fine! However, it’s an opportunity for We Own This Town to share their full answers – just for the sake of transparency, clarity and general fun of sharing.

All that said, below you’ll find the prompts from the Scene and my complete answers to each one. I tend to be somewhat verbose but tried my best this year to scale back my answers. I want to be perfectly clear, I struggle with the notion of “Best Of” anything. These kinds of lists are completely subjective and no one person could have heard everything released in a calendar year to be able rank it against anything else. It makes sense that the Scene gathers these insights in aggregate to see what bubbles to the surface. These are just one person’s opinion and I feel it necessary to caveat these answers with the fact that I can’t possibly even remember everything that impressed me in a year. That’s a compliment to the Nashville music scene as a whole; there’s so much of it, it’s literally impossible to track.

All that hand waving aside, here are my answers…

Michael Eades – Curator at yk Records & We Own This Town

What local artist/band ruled Nashville in 2022?
Twen, Negro Justice, Total Wife, Wulven, Six One Tribe, Mike Floss, Volunteer Dept, Bez, $avvy, Sean Thompson, Caitlin Rose – way too many to name. It was an absolute avalanche of great music this year.

What local artist/band is going to rule in 2023?
Sugar Sk*-*lls, New Man, KMQ, Zook, Venus & The Flytraps, SuMo Dope, Ron Obasi, Jordan Xx, Thomas Luminouso, Anna Orchid, Heaven Honey. Oh, and I’m confident a blast from the past will excite folks in 2023.

What’s your favorite discovery this year, musical or not?
Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” contains a resonant frequency that can crash laptop harddrives.

What’s your favorite story in music — local or not — in 2022?
The blossoming of both WNXP and Third Man’s Blue Room has been an undeniable boon to Nashville. Seeing the onslaught of coverage from No Country for New Nashville, Nashville Indie, Nashville Show To-Go, and everyone else covering local music is stunning.

What’s one thing you hope we leave behind in 2022?
Embracing pessimism above all else. Change is hard (and unfortunate at times) but Nashville’s future is bright!

What’s one thing you hope to see in Nashville music in 2023?
Can we revive Next Big Nashville already? Please? If that’s not possible, I’d love to see more local music coverage in the fine pages of the Nashville Scene. How about a weekly article of 5 new worthwhile releases?

Who in Nashville deserves more coverage than they got in 2022?
So many! Lawndry, Crave On, Sundaes, Gardening Not Architecture, STACIAN, faster is faster, Sonatore, Amber Woodhouse, vast ness, Brainweight, bloopr, Love Montage, Virghost, BeHoward, Peachy, cosmic collective, Trash Man.

What’s your favorite local record of 2022?
Negro Justice: Chosen Family
Twen: One Stop Shop
Total Wife: A Blip, Forget Cassettes: Salt (Reissue)
Namir Blade: Metropolis
The Medium: For Horses
Again, the list is long – don’t pick just one!

What’s your favorite local song of 2022?
There’s no way to pick ONE!
Joe Kenkel “Sweeping”
Berlue “Going Nowhere”
Erin Rae “Modern Woman”
Negro Justice “No Throwaways”
Twen “One Stop Shop”
Peachy “Waiting”
Namir Blade “Mephisto”
Venus & The Flytraps “Boys are Cuter When They’re Crying”
Ron Obasi “VILLELIKEMOOKIE”

What’s the best performance you saw this year?
Lucy’s Record Shop 30th Anniversary show at DRKMTTR was as bonkers as it was heartwarming; big time on both counts.

The short film format is an unsung hero. Sure, everyone loves a full-length movie but the short film gives a filmmaker the opportunity to work with atypical formats, smaller settings and, perhaps, more personal reflections. “Horny Kid“, the latest short from director Josh Whiteman, is an excellent example of that expression. In just over 7-minutes, Whiteman seamlessly weaves together media, crafts a genuinely hilarious tale and manages to squeeze in a touch of poignant personal insight.

The setup of the film is simple; Whiteman makes a call to his mother to have her recall stories from his childhood; specifically those around his fascination with women. He casts himself as the titular “Horny Kid;” a tiny little man with suave obsessions. We won’t spoil the specifics as the back-and-forth unfurling is the real treat of the piece – masterfully presented with actual footage from each anecdote. Who among us wasn’t obsessed with a popular TV character or commercialized toy? Whiteman’s youthful behavior isn’t extraordinarily abnormal but it is incredibly entertaining to see it played out in real time. As the stories wrap up, Whiteman’s mother shares her wishes for his happiness but is clear that she isn’t pushing for him to partake in any sort of traditional nuclear family. The visualization at the end is a real cherry on top but it’s his mother’s sentiment to simply be happy that makes the journey so wonderfully fulfilling.

If this is your first experience seeing a Josh Whiteman production, it’s a great place to start. We’re big fans of his work and suggest you use this as a jumping off point to watch more of it. There are music videos for Full Mood, Love Montage and Heaven Honey that are sublime. The Live at Josh’s House sessions are compelling, unique and quintessential to anyone that enjoys the Nashville music scene. We like him so much we actually premiered another one of his short films, “Ignoramus, just over a year ago. Subscribe to his work on YouTube and follow him on Instagram.

“Horny Kid” could be viewed as a goof; nothing more than a funny excuse to dive into some VHS recordings and reflect on days gone by. It is that but there’s a meaningful heart at its core that should not be overlooked. Whiteman is proving that he understands how to balance entertainment and reflection in just 7 short minutes.

TLDR: Thursday, December 15th at 5:30pm at Vinyl Tap – Lilly Hiatt & John P Strohm join a panel discussion for a live podcast recording. First drink free from Good People. See you there.

Devalued is our podcast dedicated to discussing the intersection of art and money. Hosts Michael Ackley and Caroline Bowman sit down with artists and creators to find out how can you make it in this day in age? What even is making it? They’ve chatted with the likes of Steve Albini, Kurt Wagner & Mary Mancini, Tristen & Liza Anne, Gee Slab & Namir Blade, Suzanne Cianni and more more to work through these questions. There’s no definitive answer but asking those questions is essential to figuring it all out.

Podcast episodes help to dig into these questions in-depth but we want to expand this conversation beyond the one-way transmission. To that end, we’re having our first Devalued Live event over at Vinyl Tap on Thurs, December 15th. Guests Lilly Hiatt and John P. Strohm (Rounder Records) will be joining for a talk about the topic Does Anybody Make It Anymore?

Aside from the crucial insights we’ll all again from their perspective, it’s an opportunity for anyone that is endeavoring as an artist to come together and meet one another. At the heart of any successful undertaking is community and we can all help to boost each other. So, come by and have a free drink from Good People, meet some other like-minded creatives and chat it all out!

See you there!

It’s Bandcamp Friday! For every month that the music distribution service waives their fees and gives all proceeds to artists, we compile a list of potentially worthwhile releases on the service to check out. We’ve been doing this for quite awhile, so feel free to go back into the archives and peruse previous lists.

If you found yourself complaining about Spotify Wrapped and how streaming services pay a pittance to artists for all the streams they gather, now is your chance to make good. With Bandcamp Friday, your money goes directly to the artist and none of it is shared with the service. The rest of the year, Bandcamp is still an incredibly well balanced revenue share but today provides maximum impact. If you did not complain about Spotify Wrapped, you can still pick up some music. It’ll be available in your Bandcamp App so you can stream it or you can hoard it away on your external harddrive and listen to it in Winamp whenever you want.

As usual, we’ll post about some selections over on Twitter that are worthy of your dollars. It’s not a list of everything you should listen to by any means but it’s a place to start. We’ll embed the list below as well, be sure to scroll through that and enjoy!