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The Roundtable

Will Hermes - Best Music of 2023

By Sarah LaDuke
Published December 28, 2023 at 11:10 AM EST

Will Hermes is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, a longtime contributor to NPR’s All Things Considered and The New York Times, and the author of "Love Goes to Buildings on Fire." This year, FSG released his new book “Lou Reed: The King of New York” - and now - he’s joining us to talk about music he enjoyed in 2023.

Playlist on Spotify.

Will’s list:
boygenius — the record
Once More: Jenni Muldaur & Teddy Thompson Sing The Great Country Duets
Wednesday — Rat Saw God
Jason Isbell – Weathervanes
Kavita Shah - Cape Verdean Blues
Jamie Branch — Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))
Lisa O’Neill — All of This Is Chance
Lankum — False Lankum
Mitski — The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
Cat Power – Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert
Wilco – Cousin
SZA – SOS
Jamila Woods – Water Made Me
Caroline Polacheck – Desire, I Want To Turn Into You
Kelela - Raven
Yaeji — With a Hammer
Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily – Love In Exile
Sofia Kourtesis - Madres
Anohni — My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross
Noname – Sundial
Sampha – Lahai
Jess Williamson – Time Ain’t Accidental

Sarah’s additions:
Merrily We Roll Along new Broadway Cast Recording
Matt Rogers - Have You Heard of Christmas?
Scott McMicken and the Ever-Expanding - Shabang

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Sarah LaDuke
Sarah has been a public radio producer for over fifteen years. She grew up in Saranac Lake, New York where she worked part-time at Pendragon Theatre all through high school and college. She graduated from UAlbany in 2006 with a BA in English and started at WAMC a few weeks later as a part-time board-op in the control room. Through a series of offered and seized opportunities she is now the Senior Contributing Producer of The Roundtable and Producer of The Book Show. During the main thrust of the Covid-19 pandemic shut-down, Sarah hosted a live Instagram interview program "A Face for Radio Video Series." On it, Sarah spoke with actors, musicians, comedians, and artists about the creative activities they were accomplishing and/or missing.
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