I don’t feel like I can even attempt a fleshed-out wrap-up of 2020 and the lessons, trials, scattered wins, and growth it brought to my life and the world. It’s been too much. Just sitting down to write this little round-up of favorite records and events feels like a win, and though I know the stroke of midnight won’t signal a magical return to a normalcy that never existed to begin with, I can still revel in the fact that I, and we, made it. So, here’s a brief look at some of the bright spots of my year, and some expectations for the next one.
Favorite Records of 2020
New music was a great comfort to me during this strange and tumultuous year, and despite not meeting my (early 2020) goal of listening to and writing about new music each week, I nonetheless listened to more new music than I ever have before (I listened to 154 records released in 2020!). I blogged about some of these, and played a lot of them on my radio show. My blog petered out in the summer; I think weekly listening and writing was too much for me to keep up with in addition to all my other shit, but I’d still like to write about new music next year -- maybe just biweekly or monthly instead. We’ll see what shakes out.
Tre Burt - Caught It From The Rye
Imperial Triumphant - Alphaville
Revenant Marquis - Youth in Ribbons
The Innocence Mission - See You Tomorrow
Robert Haigh - Black Sarabande
Katie Pruitt - Expectations
Vladislav Delay - Rakka
Leo Takami - Felis Catus and Silence
Julianna Barwick - Healing Is A Miracle
Shirley Collins - Hearts Ease
Seeds in Barren Fields - Sånger som rämnar
Butcher - 666 Goats Carry My Chariot
Tyler Childers - Long Violent History
Lucy Gooch - Rushing EP
Mystras - Castles Conquered and Reclaimed
Charli XCX - how i’m feeling now
Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin kynsi
Henry Birdsey - Catacomb Relay
Dola - Dola
Kathleen Edwards - Total Freedom
Aubrie Sellers - Far From Home
Spice - Spice
Christina Vantzu - MultiNatural
Khthoniik Cerviiks - Æequiizoiikum
Hawktail - Formations
Thomas Koner - Motus
Adrasteia - Demo II
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - All The Good Times
Charlie Crockett - Welcome To Hard Times
Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters
The Tender Things - How You Make A Fool
AKB - Marianergraven
fra fra - Funeral Songs
Susan Alcorn - Pedernal
Label of the Year: Unseen Worlds. Everything they released was great; every email update about a new release gave me a surge of excitement.
Personal Wins in 2020
I made this illustration for my comrades on the #RizziForThe5th campaign to celebrate our win.
Working on Stephanie Rizzi’s winning School Board campaign. I’ve written a lot about this experience elsewhere, but this campaign, the work we did, and the relationships we forged were the absolute highlight of my year.
Knuckling down on hammered dulcimer and banjo, and completing #100DaysOfPractice on each. I had such immense growth on both of these instruments this year, and the experience of putting in the work and seeing results turned out to be just what I needed during the most challenging periods of quarantine.
Hosting a radio show. Thanks to Carol Olson, who has been trying to get me involved with the station for years now, I host the Monday Breakfast Blend on alternating Mondays (my co-host, hosting the other Mondays, is Carol) on WRIR 97.3. It’s felt good, especially with the death of my mixtape sharing project from 2019 (largely due to COVID), to share music in this new way.
Doubling last year’s sales and views at my Etsy store. 2019 felt like a year of growth for my store, and I decided to commit a little more time to it in the coming year. I wasn’t expecting to double that growth in 2020 with only minimal additional effort.
Me as a golden skeleton.
5. Surviving a really difficult and unexpected move. I don’t even want to talk about this shit tbh! Just know that it sucked and I made it.
6. Joining Studio Two Three and committing more fully to making things.
7. Becoming a member of Verso’s book club. Honestly the best value for money that exists on the internet in these times.
8. Having a great Halloween costume! This golden skeleton look was a tribute to one of my favorite albums this year, Imperial Triumphant’s Alphaville. I was super proud of it and it felt good to get dressed up at least once in what was otherwise a year of pajamas.
2021
Next year I hope to:
-Expand my shop, which I’ve recently renamed/rebranded Black Gum Print Shop (it’s nice to have a shop name that people can pronounce!). Shortly, I’ll be offering new items I’ve been working on like letterpress prints and posters, as well as new versions of things I’ve always offered like patches, stickers and pins.
-Make and share more recordings. I’ve been singing Appalachian and European ballads a lot lately, and think would like to record more of them and share them with people. I think I also have an ambient album in me, and might release more things of that nature. Maybe COVID-19 will end someday and I’ll finally be able to record with Beater (which we planned to do April of 2020) -- we’ll see! There will be recorded output from me this year regardless.
-Launch a newsletter (and maybe a Patreon?). I’d love to find a way to keep up with folks across distances and share what I’m working on across various disciplines. A newsletter would let me share music, political commentary, print project updates, playlists, and reading lists all in one place. One thing I’d like to do with a Patreon is have a monthly print club — as a subscriber, you could receive some prints/zines in the mail each month. Would you be interested in this? Let me know!
Thanks for reading and Happy New Year. <3
Emily