When was the last time Nashville had a truly “slow” year in music? It feels a bit like 2025 said “hold my beer” on encountering the regular pace of activity hereabouts.
To help us get perspective on all that went down in the broad territory of Music City music this year, we talk with Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams, who came up with an unconventional rollout for her third solo LP and first for her own label, the Grammy-nominated Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. We also check in with a selection of ace instrumentalists in our Side Player Side Bar Survey, and we run down Scene music scribes’ favorite releases of the year in our Top Local Albums Critics’ Poll.
Then we offer up a catalog of notable events across scenes. And we hand the mic over to folks representing many of those scenes in our annual survey — which, by the way, we renamed from “Rock ’n’ Roll Poll” to “The Scene on the Scene,” since it was never solely about rock anyway. Thanks for reading us all year. Cozy up by the fire and dive on in! —STEPHEN TRAGESER, MUSIC EDITOR
Checking in with the rock star about making her third solo LP ‘Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party’
From Hayley Williams and William Tyler to The Kentucky Gentlemen, Starlito and Don Trip and beyond, here are our favorite local LPs of the year
Running down venue news, standout releases and developments across a variety of scenes and more
Our fourth annual chat with ace instrumentalists features Megan Jane, Sean Thompson, Matt Glassmeyer and Linwood Regensburg
Musicians, bookers, producers and more respond to our annual survey about music in Nashville
Hayley Williams
