Paramore at the Grand Ole Opry House, 2/6/2023
It’s been another banner year for rock in Nashville — arguably even better than 2022, which gave us more great rock records than any year in the city’s history.
Looking back on 2023, there was a recurring theme: Women fucking rock. Paramore, led by one of the city’s most high-profile rockers, Hayley Williams, released This Is Why, their first new album in six years. The record, which received Grammy noms for Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Performance, finds an older and wiser band successfully expanding their popular post-punk sound. Be Your Own Pet, who like Paramore rose to fame in the Aughts, reunited for Mommy, their first album in 15 years. The punk quartet fronted by Jemina Pearl returns with a tighter, more mature sound, but has not lost any of its edge.
Be Your Own Pet at The Blue Room, 9/16/2023
Alt-rocker Alicia Bognanno released her project Bully’s most radio-friendly record to date, Lucky for You. The LP includes the single “Lose You,” featuring Sophie Allison, aka Soccer Mommy. Speaking of which, Soccer Mommy’s Karaoke Night EP features an inventive reimagining of five songs by the likes of Pavement and Taylor Swift.
Working with producer Rob Crowell, The Minks — fronted by bluesy lead vocalist Nikki Barber — made a significant sonic leap on their second album Creatures of Culture. On Raving Ghost, Olivia Jean hit a home run with an updated garage-rock vision informed by classic hard rock, surf rock, goth and punk. Thelma and the Sleaze, who bill themselves as “The Greatest DIY Queer Southern Rock Band of All Time,” released Holey Water, the most cohesive and accomplished recording to date by guitarist-vocalist Lauren “L.G.” Gilbert and her crew.
Annie DiRusso at Vinyl Tap on Record Store Day 2023
Against a backdrop of distorted guitars, indie rocker Annie DiRusso’s provocative debut EP God, I Hate This Place served up five tracks that are raw, rebellious and real. Meanwhile, Venus & the Flytraps — aka Ceci Tomé and Brenna Kassis — released Venus in Love, an EP that features a delightful blend of punk and pop.
Three other bona fide rock stars affiliated with the city released impressive recordings in 2023. Piano rocker Ben Folds released What Matters Most, a brilliant record that explores the titular question through the lens of the pandemic when the whole world came to a near standstill. The Arcs, a psychedelic-rock side project fronted by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, released Electrophonic Chronic, a soulful collection that may well represent Auerbach’s finest moment as a vocalist. Also, Greta Van Fleet dropped Starcatcher, which further established the quartet as leading proponents of psychedelic blues rock and prog rock.
Roots rockers shined in 2023 as well. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit released Weathervanes, another superb collection of sophisticated, country-inflected Southern rock. Bluesy rockers Ida Mae — husband-and-wife duo Chris Turpin and Stephanie Jean Ward — released their best album so far, Thunder Above You. Local rock legend Tim Carroll released Different Day, which features a dozen tracks of Carroll’s signature punk-influenced blues-rock, while Country Westerns delivered their second LP Forgive the City, a terrific set of heartland rock.
A number of noteworthy reissues and previously unreleased recordings also saw the light of day this year. The Features’ The Mahaffey Sessions 1999 was recorded just before the turn of the millennium with Self’s Matt Mahaffey producing. Their label shuttered before the album could be released, leaving this inspired collection of power pop on the shelf for more than two decades — until YK Records’ Michael Eades stepped in. (YK is also set to reissue The Features’ 2008 album Some Kind of Salvation.) Another previously unreleased gem is Todd Snider’s Crank It, We’re Doomed. For artistic reasons Snider pulled the plug on the record — which foreshadowed much of his acclaimed work that followed — after it was ready to be manufactured in 2007.
With the reissue of The Contenders’ long-out-of-print 1978 eponymous LP, an important slice of Nashville rock history was preserved. The same can be said for reissues featuring Shadow 15 and Stone Deep. Days of Innocence: 1983-85 collects all the studio recordings of alternative rockers Shadow 15, while rap-rock pioneers Stone Deep reissued Gangs and the Govt, the second of their out-of-print 1993 EPs. They reissued Nashville, the first of those EPs, in 2022.
Two rock instrumental albums stood out. Robyn Hitchcock released his first album of instrumentals Life After Infinity and reminded us he’s much more than a brilliant wordsmith. William Tyler and the Impossible Truth’s Secret Stratosphere, recorded live at a show in 2021, evokes the best of jammy classic rock and Southern rock.
And there’s plenty more. Producer, songwriter and studio owner Robin Eaton stepped into the spotlight on Memories of a Misspent Youth, his first solo album in four decades, and the result was the surprise rock album of the year. Steve Poulton, the city’s leading purveyor of soulful psychedelic rock, dropped two noteworthy releases in 2023 — the beautiful Hearts Around the Moon with his band The Altered Statesman and also the captivating solo EP Exit 204. The Pink Spiders returned with Freakazoid, a 10-song set of the quartet’s trademark punk-influenced power pop. Led by frontman Simon Kerr, who hails from Northern Ireland, The Wans released Magical Touch, a superb hard-rock set that echoes the U.K.’s classic-rock era. And just before press time, Nashville power-pop elder statesman Bill Lloyd released Look Into It, a substantial collection that finds him integrating other musical inclinations into his classic pop-rock sound.
Talking with Bully’s rock ’n’ roll polymath Alicia Bognanno, counting down the year’s top local albums and more
