Peace, Be Still

It’s weeks like this that make it hard to care about listening to new music and making playlists and writing about new albums or what songs are rolling around in my head.

It can feel like a waste of time when there are much higher stakes, when people’s lives are tragically destroyed, and when the people in power are blatantly unwilling to do anything about it. There is so much I could say, but people have been saying so much of what I have to say for years, decades. I’m angry. I’m disheartened. And writing a newsletter about music is the last thing on my mind.

At the same time, I need music. I need it to help me process the absurdity of it all, to give voice to the rage and despair that overwhelms me this week, to seek hope. So I don’t have much else to say right now, maybe the words will come over time. But this
has been my go-to playlist this week. It’s a playlist I’ve put together to help me through bouts of anxiety and hopelessness in recent months. May it be a comfort to you as well as we seek a better way of living together in this broken country and broken world.

Another note: Some of you may tend toward much angrier musical expression in times like this, and the following playlist might not be what you need right now. I get that. I go back and forth between the need for peace and the need to scream. And if I had a playlist ready to go right now for the latter, I’d share it as well. I don’t have one put together currently, and I don’t have the energy for it this week. But if there are songs that are helping you express your rage, send them my way. Maybe I’ll get one put together for next week.

Be well.