If that episode whets your appetite for more local holiday music, we got you covered! As you are preparing family meals, wrapping presents, partaking in a long drive or just generally chilling out, queue up these episodes. We’ve called this “a veritable sack full of goodies for your ears” in years past and that still seems apt!

2022: Volume 334

2021: Volume 283

2020: Volume 229

2019: Volume 175

2018: Volume 123

2015: Volume 72

2012: Volume 58

We’d love to play absolutely everything being offered by local artists for this time of year but that would result in a podcast so long, no mere mortal could possibly listen to it all the way through. Okay, maybe that’s not true but there are plenty more offerings out there if you’re interested. Here’s a handful:

• Black Market Dub – A Black Market Christmas
• The IT City – Have It All This Christmas
• Allison Russell – “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
• David Argyle Thacker’s – Mouth Trumpet Christmas Album
• PETTY – A Christmas Album
• Little Bandit – Christmas Alone
• Party Town Hospital
• Moral Support – Christmas Delights
• A Very Wick-It Christmas, Vol 1
• Gummy Soul Christmas
• Liz Longley – A Little Magic
• Youth Empowerment for Arts & Humanity Holiday Mixtape
• Charity Compilation 2017
• Joe Pisapia – Cosmic Christmas
• G.E.D. Super Soul Records – Soul Christmas compilation
• Multiple volumes of Sons of Old Town Xmas Extravaganza
• Birdcloud’s – “Cool Christmas”

Have a great, safe, holiday and be sure to keep your soundtrack local. There’s no reason not to.

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.