The Year in Marc’s Music Beat

It’s been quite a year for music, and I’ve been lucky enough to capture bits and pieces of the journey via this column. I wanted to highlight some of my articles from this past year:

• I caught up with Michigan-quintet Greensky Bluegrass, who told me about their first experience in a fully functional recording studio.
• I wrote about my debate about going back to Bonnaroo, which reeled me in with a lineup boasting the Red Hot Chili Peppers (one of my favorite bands in the world), Radiohead, Phish, The Beach Boys and more. I went, and it was an awesome time.
• Singer songwriter Matt Pless, a Catonsville native, told me about how playing an original song at a New York City Occupy Wall Street protest landed him on a star-studded Occupy music compilation.
• After covering Mitt Romney’s campaign appearance in Arbutus, I jotted down the songs that played as a packed town hall crowd awaited the presidential candidate’s speech. I attempted to decipher what it means that Romney had two KISS songs, Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross on his campaign playlist.
• Longtime Baltimore musician Kenny Liner started a nonprofit, Believe in Music, dedicated to bringing music education to low-income students in the city.
• I caught up with New Orleans-based musician Ivan Neville, leader of super funky group Dumpstaphunk, who kicked off a Hurricane Sandy benefit tour in Baltimore days after the storm moved through the area. Check out the story on the tour, a video interview with Ivan, and a photo gallery from the tour’s Baltimore and Washington, D.C., shows.
• I photographed funk bands Lettuce and Soulive at the 9:30 Club in between those two Dumpstaphunk shows.

I’ve selected some of my favorite photos from the Dumpstaphunk and Lettuce/Soulive shows and attached my video interview with Ivan Neville to this story in case you missed them.

Here’s to a rockin’ 2013!