Sunday Supper: 12/27/20

With 2020 blessedly winding down and few highlights to recount this year, at least there were numerous musical moments to give us solace. On this week's "Sunday Supper" I'll share my Top 10 songs of the year (in advance of the annual WFUV Listener Poll coming on Thursday).  Several groups, from folk-rockers The Mammals and The Nields to national stalwarts the Indigo Girls and The Jayhawks, lifted our spirits with their tunes.

It was a year when current events supplied much grist for the mill for songwriters, with Tim Grimm, Lennie Gallant, and Tom Prasada-Rao among the most outstanding. A multicultural artist with a message, Raye Zaragoza, broke through as my discovery of the year, while Abbie Gardner of Red Molly fame raised her game with a brilliant, dark single timed for Halloween. And Elvis Costello proved as unpredictable as ever with a release that defied genre and geography.

It was also a year of unfathomable loss, none greater than John Prine's death from COVID. We were blessed to receive a valediction in the form of his posthumous single, "I Remember Everything." Of course, we also remember Rita Houston, who was a friend of Prine, as well as artists and music lovers everywhere.  We close out the year with a toast to Odetta, who would have turned 90 on New Year's Eve. Her last album, Gonna Let It Shine, was a 2005 recording of a WFUV members concert, hosted by (who else?) Rita. 

As the days grow longer, with a new (and hopefully better) year on the horizon, let your light shine from 5-6 p.m. EST at 90.7 FM and wfuv.org or anytime in the WFUV Weekend Archives, on the WFUV app or festive smart speaker of your choice.

(Photo by J. Baran)