Favorite albums of 2021

  1. Big Red Machine - How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?

  2. The War on Drugs - I Don’t Live Here Anymore

  3. Manchester Orchestra - The Million Masks of God

  4. Lucy Dacus - Home Video

  5. My Morning Jacket - My Morning Jacket

  6. Kacey Musgraves - star-crossed

  7. Kanye West - Donda

  8. Bleachers - Take the Sadness out of Saturday Night

  9. Brandi Carlile - In These Silent Days

  10. Pop Smoke - Faith

Honorable Mention: Yola (Stand for Myself), Bomba Estereo (Deja), Joy Oladokun (in defense of my own happiness), Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats (The Future), Rostam (Changephobia), Hiss Golden Messenger (Quietly Blowing It), Leon Bridges (Gold-Diggers Sound), Greta Van Fleet (The Battle at Garden’s Gate), Julien Baker (Little Oblivions), Young Thug (Punk), Taylor Swift (Red)

Best live performances I saw in 2021

  • Richard Thompson - Levon Helm Studios

  • Andrew Bird, Middle Brother, Jason Isbell, Waxahatchee, Nathaniel Rateliff, Yola, Joy Oladokun - Newport Folk Festival

  • Leon Bridges - Majestic Theater

  • Bleachers - Fillmore Detroit

Favorite books of 2021

  1. The Ministry for the Future - Kim Stanley Robinson

  2. Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe

  3. The Future We Choose - Christina Figueres & Tom Rivett-Carnac

  4. Vacationland - John Hodgman

  5. Interior Chinatown - Charles Yu

  6. Hidden Valley Road - Robert Kolker

  7. Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

  8. A Children’s Bible - Lydia Millet

  9. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez

  10. This Wheel’s on Fire - Levon Helm

Best places I ate in 2021

Favorite photos from 2021