There isn’t really such a thing as “a quiet year” in Nashville’s music ecosystem, but 2023 was pretty damn busy by just about any measure you choose. We take stock of it in our Year in Music issue, starting by sitting down with Bully’s Alicia Bognanno, who’s now a decade into her career as a widely respected rock ’n’ roll force of nature. We also run down our writers’ 10 favorite local albums, and take a closer look at happenings in hip-hop, country, rock and punk, as well as jazz, blues and R&B. We once again confer a distinguished panel to talk about the state of Black music in Music City. We check in with side players, remember people across Nashville’s music scenes who died this year and check out developments in the venue landscape. And in our annual Rock ’n’ Roll Poll, we hand the mic over to folks throughout the local music world for their take on just what “Nashville music” was like in 2023. —STEPHEN TRAGESER, MUSIC EDITOR
Catching up with Alicia Bognanno 10 years into her rock project’s ongoing evolution
From Bully and Be Your Own Pet to Allison Russell and Joy Oladokun, here are our favorite local LPs of the year
Talking with Kenny Smoov, Rashad Rayford, Erica Hayes Schultz and Jason Eskridge about the challenges facing Nashville’s Black music communities
Work by Six One Trïbe, Brian Brown and lots of others in Nashville’s hip-hop community is setting the stage for the genre’s next 50 years
Snooper, Be Your Own Pet and many more made 2023 a phenomenal year for punk in Nashville
Success for onetime underdogs like Zach Bryan, Lainey Wilson and Jelly Roll stands in contrast to hateful garbage from folks like Jason Aldean
From the Nashville Jazz Workshop to Easy Eye’s superb ‘Tell Everybody!’ compilation and beyond, local jazz and blues fans had a busy year
Another historic year in local rock featured releases by Annie DiRusso, Paramore, Be Your Own Pet, Bully, Ben Folds, and many, many more
Looking back at the lives of Jerry Bradley, Richard Griffin, Liz Theils, Frank Sass and others who made an impact on Nashville music
Talking with stellar instrumentalists Ellen Angelico, Spencer Cullum, Mike Hicks and Jo Schornikow
Developments in the ongoing stories of Exit/In and Cannery Hall punctuated a year overflowing with live music
The local music scene on the local music scene
Bully
