Sam Sessa didn’t always dream of being on the radio—at least not in the role he plays today, as a DJ with Towson’s own WTMD. “Sometimes sports writers are failed athletes, and music writers can be failed musicians—that’s definitely me,” says Sessa, who cut his teeth as a journalist before becoming the Baltimore Music Coordinator and host of Baltimore Hit Parade.

He grew up playing the accordion, eventually pivoting to the keyboard and organ bass during college at the University of Maryland, where he performed with a local jazz and cover band. Upon graduation, the journalism major went on to cover the entertainment beat at The Baltimore Sun from 2005 to 2013, which “just happened to be at a time when Baltimore’s music scene became one of the best in the country. I got really lucky,” Sessa says, pointing to the storied rise and record deals of artists such as Beach House, Future Islands, and Dan Deacon at the time.

“In the ‘90s, we had Dru Hill and Sisqó, which were incredible success stories for the city,” he says. “But we didn’t have as large of an audience, with attention being spread out on so many different bands, like it was in the mid to late 2000s. It was like your home team coming out of nowhere to win the Super Bowl.”

On Thursday, May 19 at The Charles Theater—in the first of what will be several free public screenings in Baltimore—this historic arch will be on full display in Sessa’s directorial debut, Do Whatever You Want All the Time: The Baltimore Music Scene 2005-2020. Created during the pandemic and named after an album by local art-rock band Ponytail (one of Sessa’s favorites), the short documentary film chronicles how Baltimore made its way onto the national stage, from the late aughts, when the city’s musical milieu was dubbed the best in the country by Rolling Stone, through the 2015 Baltimore Uprising, which, Sessa says, “changed the whole conversation on the local scene.”

“The uprising was a reckoning for a lot of different communities, including the Baltimore music community,” he says. “We made the film in the year of George Floyd’s death, and to compare what was happening in the rest of the country to what happened in Baltimore in 2015—that gave us chills.”

Despite the challenges, there’s an overarching theme of optimism as Baltimore’s musicianship continues to evolve. “Between artists like Micah E. Wood, Outcalls, Super City, and Modern Nomad, we’re seeing collaboration in ways that weren’t that common in the mid to late 2000s for a bunch of different reasons—that really gives me hope,” Sessa says. “The Baltimore music scene is perhaps more connected now than it has ever been.”

The film features up-and-coming indie bands like Snail Mail and Peach Face, as well as veteran artists such as Abdu Ali, Lafayette Gilchrist, and Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak (plus images by Baltimore contributing photographer J.M. Giordano and an appearance by senior editor Lydia Woolever.)

Local cinematographer Julia Golonka, who filmed, edited, and co-produced the documentary with Sessa, wanted to make sure that every topic—in particular, racial themes—would resonate with viewers.

“I hope that people feel we did the scene justice,” says Golonka, who went to the same high school as Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan. “Growing up in Ellicott City, I’ve been listening to a lot of these artists for a while now. My Spotify Wrapped for last year was mostly the bands that are featured in the film. I just kept listening to them as I would edit. I hope the viewers feel inspired to do that too. This was a dream-come-true project.”

The same goes for Sessa, who refers to the film as “the bookends of my career, distilled into 24 minutes.”

“In 2005, we still had yet to even realize that the scene was a scene,” he says. “But to watch it coalesce over the years has been fulfilling to me. We’re thrilled to share this little time capsule.”

Filmmaker Theo Anthony hates the idea that his documentaries should “dig deep.” It’s an assumption that is made about his work—and the work of lots of nonfiction filmmakers, for that matter. But the metaphor bugs him.

“It kind of maps onto the language of oil extraction,” he says. ”That you gotta drill beneath the surface, you gotta dig deeper, you gotta really frack your subject to find a visible truth.”

Instead, he likes his films to be open-minded, curious, to cast a wide net. “What I try to do is understand the system or the process,” he explains. “Not necessarily looking at any one thing and squeezing it as tight as possible, but seeing how that thing interacts with other things. I try to understand the context.”

In short, Anthony has an endless fascination with the world and how it works. This fascination has served him well: His first two feature-length films, Rat Film and All Light, Everywhere—freewheeling, intellectual, and experimental documentaries, both set in Baltimore—have a cult following and have been critically revered. (The New Yorker film critic Richard Brody told me his films have “empathetic curiosity…bold imagination, and cinematic X-ray vision.”)

But Anthony says that filmmaking, which he loves, is not necessarily his primary passion. “I just think it’s the best way for me to learn more about the world,” he says with a shrug. “That’s at the root of it. [Filmmaking] has been a means to an end.”

Anthony, who is angular and handsome, with closely cropped hair and a quiet intensity behind his eyes, is speaking to me via Zoom from his studio/woodshop in the Catskills, about 10 minutes from Hudson, New York, where he currently lives with this fiancée, the filmmaker Zia Anger. (He maintains close ties to Baltimore and says he will always consider it home.) Woodworking is a relatively new passion of his.

“Whatever Theo gets into, he really gets into,” explains Riel Roch-Decter, one half of the team at the motion picture studio Memory that produces Anthony’s work.

Anthony describes how his woodworking passion evolved. “Over the first summer of the pandemic I built a fence for our yard and I felt, like, this sense of accomplishment that I honestly haven’t felt in any other art form or practice in such a long time,” he says. “Because I was outside, I was talking to my neighbors more, and all of a sudden, I had this fence and I realized it would be better if my neighbors came inside this fence and hung out, but we needed a table, so I built this table. We also needed chairs around the table, so I started building these chairs and these benches. And I just got like really obsessed with woodworking, but also the way in which it was so entwined with our lives. I was building this environment and also having my neighbors over for dinner. It became this community practice as well as a creative practice.”

That’s the way Anthony’s “builds” his films, too. One idea grows out of another—a process of evolution and openness and discovery. His life has had a similarly searching quality. He’s very self-conscious about being “the man behind the camera”—and the artificial power that affords him. He thinks a lot about power structures, and his own role in them. Sometimes he finds it exhausting. Which is why the woodworking is so necessary. And which is why he has recently explored yet another career path. But we’ll leave that plot twist for later.

Theo Anthony was born in 1989in Washington, D.C., and raised in Annapolis. His mom, Iris Krasnow, was a journalist at UPI news service and a professor at American University. His dad, Charles Anthony, is an architect. As a kid, Anthony was very into math and physics and astronomy. “I was a big science nerd,” he admits. But he also liked reading novels (Kurt Vonnegut and Jack Kerouac were early favorites) and making and viewing art. While he loved living on the water in Annapolis and attending the progressive The Key School, he was also drawn to Baltimore, to its music scene and vibrant pockets of creativity, in particular Whartscape, the underground arts fest co-founded by Dan Deacon.

“[FILMMAKING] IS THE BEST WAY FOR ME TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WORLD. THAT’S AT THE ROOT OF IT.”

“Artistically speaking, creatively speaking, I was drawn to that sort of collective art making and community making in the midst of a city that was as complex and historical as Baltimore,” he says.

He was also learning how to make films—sort of. His friend Ben had tons of video equipment and they would shoot their buddies riding around on skateboards in Annapolis, getting down low to the ground, following them on longboards, just for fun. Anthony knew about photography and image making, but editing was a whole other story. When he attended Oberlin College, where he double-majored in creative writing and cinema studies, he realized that he wanted to make movies himself, but almost had to start from scratch. He downloaded tutorials from YouTube.

After graduating in 2012, he moved to Baltimore, where he lived first in Station North, and later in Waverly. When his New York-based girlfriend got an assignment to travel to Africa with the magazine/broadcasting company VICE, they pitched a series idea about covering the war-torn region so they could live there together.

“We kind of oversold our qualifications. I was extremely naïve,” he says. The editors at VICE bit and sent the couple to Africa. It was like being thrown into the deep end of a pool.

“I have a lot of complicated feelings about that project,” he admits. “At the end of the day, they sent me and my partner to the Congo with no experience to an active conflict zone to cover a war which I don’t think we were suited to cover.”

It was a formative time, to say the least. Anthony calls it his version of film school. He soaked up everything he could from the more experienced journalists he was working alongside, like a “barnacle.” But he also began to question his role there, his part in some industrial complex of journalists who would drop in on a country and claim to understand it in any sort of meaningful way.

“I’m still learning lessons from that experience, and so much of my work now—sort of looking at how images work and how they circulate and how they uphold certain power structures—comes out of my time there,” he says.

Even today, he’s reluctant to focus on the danger of that experience. “Something I’m very conscious of is, I don’t want to glorify or make my experience in the Congo seem more dangerous or harrowing than it actually was,” he says. “Being there, you realize that people are just living extremely normal lives. Like, yeah, there were dangerous situations. But I’m always cautious about amplifying that one perspective.”

Shortly after returning from the Congo, around 2014, he and the girlfriend broke up. Anthony was back in Baltimore, now working at Woodberry Kitchen, bussing tables. He was still making short films and videos on the side. But he didn’t have a clear career path. Then a short film of his got accepted to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). He quit his job at Woodberry and decided to focus all his energy on film.

“I remember saying, ‘I have to take this chance.’ I was in a fortunate enough position to be able to do that,” he says. “I could always go back to bussing tables. I took the leap into being a full-time filmmaker.”

The risk paid off. At TIFF, and other film festivals, he started making connections that continue to be valuable to this day.

But it wasn’t until he returned to Baltimore that the seeds of his first feature film took root.

If Anthony’s experience in the Congo was one of the most formative of his life, you could say he had an equal and opposite experience back home during the Freddie Gray Uprising in 2015.

“I had traveled all over the world telling other people’s stories, and for the first time, during the Uprising, I saw the whole world coming to my backyard to tell the story of Baltimore,” he explains. “When the media came and occupied Baltimore after the Uprising, I couldn’t criticize them because they were a mirror of me.”

Like those journalists in the Congo, the swarming media were only focusing on Baltimore’s most sensational, least savory aspects. The experience also gave Anthony some perspective on how little he knew about his own city. “I felt like, if I’m going to live here, I should really know more about the place where I live.”

At first, the idea for Rat Film didn’t seem to naturally overlap with the thoughts that were swirling in his head about Baltimore and segregation and exploitation. It had simply come to him one day when he saw a rat crawling out of a trash can in his yard. “I took out my iPhone and filmed that rat in the trashcan. It’s literally how the film starts,” he says.

Then he found out about the Rat Rubout Team, which seemed cool, “like the Ghostbusters, for rats.” And then, because he was checking out the Rat Rubout Team, he found out that rat poison was literally invented in Baltimore. These are the kinds of serendipitous connections that Anthony stumbles upon. But then again, maybe they’re not so serendipitous, maybe you just have to look. And, of course, you can’t talk about rats in Baltimore without talking about poverty. Anthony was reading two books at the time, Dawn Biehler’s Pests in the City and Antero Pietila’s Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City. He found the books strangely connected.

“Having these two ongoing inquiries [in my head] about pest control and racist housing policies that were engineered in Baltimore, I realized it was the same question,” he says. “It just was this organic evolution. It was about finding these parallel lines of inquiry until they’re not parallel anymore. Until they’re the same thread.”

The resulting film, Rat Film, is about rats, for sure. But it’s also about all those other things—poverty, racial segregation, and the endless resilience of the people in Baltimore. It has a probing score by none other than Dan Deacon.

What had started as admiration for the eclectic local music maker turned into a friendship and, ultimately, a collaboration between like minds. “Dan is also interested in process, and is a nonlinear thinker like me,” Anthony says. “Dan makes music by setting up all these initial conditions and letting the chaos unfold and finding patterns in that chaos. So there’s a lot of resonance between our approaches.”

Deacon has scored both of Anthony’s films, as well as Subject to Review, the ESPN 30 For 30 documentary Anthony made in 2019 about the tennis instant replay cam, Hawk-Eye.

Deacon says he loves the open-ended nature of Anthony’s process. “We have this nothing-is-precious approach,” Deacon says. “Everything is malleable, or can end up on the [cutting room] floor…We’re both always down to see what else is available. Why don’t we try this? Or this? I think that’s the most exciting part about working with Theo, that we don’t necessarily know what the outcome’s going to be. It puts us in this great and weird space of: Everything is amazing and everything is dust.”

Anthony sent a working version of Rat Film to two producers from Memory studio he had met at the Rotterdam Film Festival a few months earlier, Riel Roch-Decter and Sebastian Pardo. They were blown away by it.

“It was exactly the kind of filmmaking we wanted to be involved in,” says Pardo. “It was fresh, contemporary, formally adventurous, thoughtful, funny—it was new.”

“It was the freshest, most innovative work we had ever seen, and we continue to feel that way about everything Theo brings to us,” adds Roch-Decter.

They have gone on to produce both of Anthony’s feature films and are eager to produce whatever he brings to them next. But they might have to wait a bit.

Okay, so here comes the plot twist. Anthony’s second film, All Light, Everywhere, deals with bodycams and spycams and the myth of objective video footage. Anthony was given extraordinary access to both Baltimore Police Department training sessions and the Axon company headquarters where bodycams (and tasers!) are made. It’s a perfect film for Anthony, combining his endless fascination with the people behind video cameras, including himself, with an exploration of systemic racism and oppression.

While working on that film, he learned so much about bodycams, he felt he wanted to lend his expertise to the local Hudson government. “So, with that in mind, our mayor in Hudson put together a police accountability advisory committee, and for seven months I was on this advisory committee, meeting with other organizers, the mayor, the mayor’s aides, and some members of the police force really kind of overhauling [the city’s] use-of-force policy and their body camera policy,” he says.

He found that he liked shaping public policy. So much so that he decided to run for office. He ran unopposed.

“You’re looking at the next fourth ward alderman of Hudson, New York,” he says with a slightly sheepish grin.

No, he’s not exchanging film cameras for lecterns—not entirely at least. He’s simply excited to put his activist energy toward something concrete. And he believes it will free him up as a filmmaker. “It will allow me to be more exploratory or freewheeling in my art practice again,” he says. “I feel like I’ve become so narrowed in on these serious political questions that making images is almost not fun for me anymore. I need to love it again.”

The alderman seat is a two-year term. But it won’t stop him from exploring and researching new ideas. That’s just who he is.

“Filmmaking is an arbitrary way to get at the things that interest me. It’s just one way of going up the mountain,” he says. “The woodworking. The politics. They all just feel like different sides of the same thing.”

With postponed or cancelled concerts being announced across the city, we’ve expanded the latest edition of The Big Baltimore Playlist to include 10 songs by local musicians to listen to right now, ranging from punk-infused hip-hop and dance-worthy pop music to meditative soundscapes. Check back each month for new top songs of the moment via our Spotify playlist and continue to support hometown acts by purchasing their music or merchandise.

“Woke Me” by Chiffon
This beloved experimental R&B duo (now trio with the addition of bassist Will Ryerson, also of Other Colors) is back with their first new single in five years off their upcoming four-track EP. It’s a dreamy, seductive slow jam featuring sparkling layers of digital beats and singer Amy Reid’s ethereal vocals speaking to long-distance romance. All the more fitting a listen in an era of social distancing.

“Become A Mountain” by Dan Deacon
This might be the most inspiring song of 2020, with electronic maestro Dan Deacon guiding us toward a triumphant awakening on his new album, Mystic Familiar. Amidst swirling synth, building piano, and orchestral peaks, it’s chock full of advice about opening up your imagination and finding your inner strength, making it one we’ll likely turn to for a long time to come.

“Our Pathetic Age” by DJ Shadow ft. Samuel T. Herring
Somehow we missed this song when it was released last fall, but earlier this week, thanks to WTMD’s Baltimore Hit Parade, we discovered what instantly became one of our new favorite tracks of spring. The Cali-based DJ Shadow enlisted Future Islands frontman Sam Herring for this nostalgic dance track, with a steady funk-infused disco beat grooving beneath his distinctive vocal croons. All we can say is, thank you.

“Raspberry Gun” by Dyyo
We told you last fall that this up-and-coming experimental rapper was one to watch, and his new exploratory album, featuring a full live band, drives that very point home. It’s a powder keg of kinetic tracks that fuse hip-hop with genres like grunge, punk rock, and jazz in an improvisational way. We particularly like this sixth track for its old-school flavor, free-flowing vocal play, crashing drums, and the occasional flutter of brass.

“Sweet June Nectar” by Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon
Listening to Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon’s original “Almost Heaven,” which garnered him national attention via American Idol, you knew the Catonsville singer-songwriter had staying power, and this second single off his upcoming debut album, Namesake, proves exactly that. With raw piano, reverberating strings, and soaring vocals, the feel-good anthem captures the essence of youth, young love, and warm weather—all things we’ll gladly repeat in our minds like a mantra for weeks to come.

“Black-Eyed Susie” by Ken and Brad Kolodner
This weekend, father-son acoustic duo Ken and Brad Kolodner released their new album, Stony Run, named for the Baltimore waterway that runs between their respective homes. It’s full of energetic originals and inventive takes on Americana classics, like this seventh bluegrass-inspired track. As Brad’s warm vocals move to the forefront, an unlikely combination of instruments, the hammered mbira and gourd banjo, craft a hard-driving tune that gives a glimpse into what could be the genre’s future.

“Day2Day” by Micah E. Wood ft. Bobbi Rush
Baltimore’s resident troubadour Micah E. Wood returns with a new single and love song we’ve been waiting for all along. With an infectious pop melody and airy R&B backup vocals from singer-songwriter Bobbi Rush, two of the local scene’s up-and-coming artists tackle the overwhelming uncertainty of new romance, rejecting the doubt induced by former heartbreak, embracing the healing powers of love. Through groovy guitar chords and an uptempo dance beat, its final lyrics leave you with an unwavering sense of hope.

“Cry Like A Baby” by Movakween
Singer-songwriter MovaKween makes music for spiritual guidance, and this new slow jam feels especially timely for its message: giving everyone the space to handle hardship in their own way and time. Speaking to love, specifically, she humanizes the pain that comes with its loss, as her honeyed powerhouse vocals reach new peaks over a smooth, sultry R&B melody that gives homage to the genre’s greatest hits. If you don’t already, consider Movakween an artist to know now.

“Mother” by Outcalls
This new track by Britt Olsen-Ecker and Melissa Wimbish contemplates a dynamic topic: motherhood, with distant, dream-like vocals asking a big, ambiguous question—“Better now, but better when?”—ultimately leaving the answer, too, up to listeners. Made in collaboration with singer-songwriter/producer Jennifer Pague of L.A.’s. Vita and the Woolf, it’s a spacious, surreal melody that builds with a staccato beat, lush synth, and the ladies’ always-impressive operatic pipes.

“We” by The Soft Pink Truth
Looking for a song to get lost in? Consider this new track from The Soft Pink Truth, the solo project of Drew Daniel from celebrated local experimental duo Matmos, a meditative gift in these strange times. Off the upcoming album, Shall We Go On Sinning so That Grace May Increase?, it’s a soft, sparse, sparkling soundscape, dancing between sublime minimalism and a trance-music rave, inspiring listeners to find moments of self-care and healing. It couldn’t have arrived at a better time.

Over the past 15 years, electronic artist Dan Deacon has become one of the most important figures of the Baltimore music scene, putting the city’s DIY spirit on the national map and cementing himself as its resident mad genius maestro along the way.

In many ways, the classically trained artist’s new album, Mystic Familiar, out January 31, feels like the Dan Deacon album we’ve all been waiting for. Of course, it’s been a long time in the making—after four other acclaimed, cult-followed records, as well as multiple short and feature film scores, and collaborations with renowned symphonies and ballets—maybe even, you might wonder upon first full listen, his entire life.

Simply put, this new, fifth feat is a sort of magnum opus—11 climbing, cascading, all-consuming songs that sweep your senses, tug at your heartstrings, and tap on your inner psyche. Fusing his signature merry-prankster chaos with newfound practices of meditation and mindfulness, Deacon creates a symphonic window into the pivotal moments that takes place as we get older, and at the midpoint of an artist’s career, particularly in these strange, modern times. With vocals at the forefront, he appears more open and vulnerable than ever before, each melody shifting through myriad emotions, and imaginative lyrics that take us through ruminations on life, death, age, time. A record of self-discovery, best listened to as a whole, it is a deeply human epic, even in its digital clothes. He fights fear, doubt, and darkness, and finds a luminous sense of hope.

To many, this will be the moment that Deacon officially arrives. In Baltimore, we’ve known that this sort of masterful artistry has been here all along.

We sat down with Dan to talk about his new album, and how he got there:

You once told us a great analogy, comparing the creation of an album to growing a tomato. That first, you put seeds in the soil, then water and feed the seedlings, and eventually, a plant grows, and a tomato forms, and then you pick the fruit, and hopefully share it with your friends. With Mystic Familiar, what was the seed?
I wanted to make an album. I’d been writing so much music for other projects: scores, commissions, co-writing with Ed Schrader’s Music Beat. I loved the collaboration, but I also really needed to write music that was mine. I found myself starting to feel the need to write new, for lack of a better term, “Dan Deacon” songs. Then, of course, I was like I’m all alone, as I had really grown accustomed to it. When I was the only one in the studio, there was a lot of doubt, and it took a lot to regain that confidence, which is why I think it took four years [since Gliss Riffer in 2015]. It took a long time to set my intentions. I used these extremely esoteric Oblique Strategies cards from Brian Eno…

Like tarot for artists?
Very much, but they really did help. And meditating helped a lot. I’d try to start each session by meditating. Then I’d start thinking, well, did this session start with my intention to meditate, or the moment I hit the chord? And I record in my house, so I was like did the session ever end? Is it still going? Because you’re thinking about the record all the time. It became very consuming, and that’s what I loved about it. But like anything, you have to be able to walk away.

You did end up collaborating with many artists on this record, like much of your past work. What was that like this time around?
I wanted to engineer and produce this record by myself, but I don’t know if I’ll ever do that solo again, because there was a lot of inefficiency. You can grow too attached, and to a negative idea, like this isn’t good enough. Time is finite, so having another set of ears in the room is important to be like, no, it’s good, let’s move on. And I like the ideas that other musicians bring. They can completely change and shift a song. There are a couple longtime collaborators on this album, especially Andrew Bernstein.

Were you the maestro, or did these arrangements stem out of improvisation?
Both. I wanted specific instruments and textures, but when I score film, I put together ensembles and bring them into the studio like, okay, let’s only play these four notes, and only play them frantically, or forlorn. Or, okay, now, everyone except for this instrument, or this one do a solo, or only play when another instrument plays—these kind of Fluxus concepts I was obsessed with in college. You essentially create this large sample bank or library, which is fun for the players because the options are endless, there’s no way to make a mistake. That’s the beauty of collaborating. I go tubing a lot, so I think about that with music. You don’t know where the river is going to go. You’re flowing one way, and then you bring in someone else’s tributary, and it completely changes the direction. And then when you’ve archived 200 channels…

How do you finally decide which way to go?
You start to hear it. You take something out and you long to hear it again. You add something, and it feels like a flavor that hasn’t merged, so you take it out. Sometimes it takes hundreds of listens to find the one you like the most. You could paint a room in your house over and over, but eventually you have to decide, this is the color. And once you do, you can start decorating it. Form was the hardest part, but I think because of editing film scores, I was able to see that less can be more.

Did those film scores seep into the music in other ways?
They 100 percent bled in. It felt like when I had studio members in Wham City. Their projects would influence mine, and all of my collaborations started to influence this new record. There’s no way that Rat Film or Ed Schrader’s Music Beat or Mind On Fire or the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performance aren’t in it. If it was a garden, the rows of crops would be interwoven and chaos.

Speaking of the BSO, this album has such an epic, symphonic sound to it. Was that part of the idea?
I like a big sound, and I like the idea of playing with a lot of musicians. I think that’s why I do so much audience participation, because I usually play solo, but it creates this theatrical environment, and justifies the reason to have a stage. I wanted to make sure the record’s sound had that quality, but I didn’t want it to just be big, layered electronics. I wanted to think about it like sections of an orchestra. A percussion section, a brass section, strings. And I knew, with “Become A Mountain,” I wanted to start the record with solo voice and piano. I’m known as an electronic artist, but I don’t make EDM and I don’t make indie rock and the genre of “indie-tronica” makes sense to no one. I’d never made a piece of music that was completely acoustic before, but I was feeling really vulnerable, and going through a big period of becoming more in-tune with my own mental health, so I thought I should embrace that in the arrangement.

What is a “mystic familiar”?
The first time I heard the phrase was with [friend and illustrator] Kevin Sherry. He’d been designing his board game, Scales & Tales, and I like playing tabletop board games, especially Cave Evil. A familiar is a magical entity that a person can communicate with, like Merlin’s owl, or the cat in Sabrina The Teenage Witch. A mystic familiar can cast spells, or transport itself. That idea started shaping the lyrics.

Often when I’m in the woods or meditating, I like to ask a tree a question. Most people, myself included, think about nature as this very stoic and reverent entity. But really, if you’re going to attribute human qualities to nonhuman things, I think there are also going to be dickheads. They’re going to challenge you. Like one time, I asked this tree, what should I do…, and it was sort of mockingly like, what should I doooo. And I was like what! [Laughs.] But the tree was like, why do you think you could even ask me that, let alone that I would give you the answer. I think trees are ancient and wise, but if there’s anything that comes with wisdom, it’s a good sense of humor. I kept thinking about that, and whenever I’d have challenging thoughts, I’d go to a tree and try to imagine it being more like a jester than a sage.

Is the record meant to be listened to in full?
It’s like a forest, in that you can walk through and see the entire woods, or you can look at one tree. “Sat By A Tree” is the single, and it frames how people listen to the record, but in my mind, when they first hear “Become A Mountain,” that’s how it should be listened to. Lyrically, there’s definitely an arch. I start by talking about waking up and already feeling depressed and a sense of doubt. Am I going to seize the day, or waste it scrolling on my phone? That was literally the dialogue I was having myself at the time. Then trying to work through that, and finding ways to deal with it—some healthy, some insane. “Bumblebee Crown King” is a credits-rolling epilogue.

Your music is rooted in digital technologies, but your lyrics are very human. What has that writing process been like for you?

I used to not be a very lyrical listener—on Spiderman of the Rings, half the lyrics are gibberish—but I became one toward the end of Gliss Riffer. I got a lot of emails about “When I Was Done Dying” from people who talked about how that song helped them process the loss of friends and family members. It was very heavy, it makes me emotional to think about. But I started thinking about, not the responsibility, but the opportunity of lyrics, to speak to people. One of the only good things about social media is that it gives people the ability to know that other people feel bad and anxious a lot, too, and it’s okay to feel those things, and you don’t have to feel bad about feeling those feelings. There’s a vulnerability to talking about things like that, but being an artist is to be vulnerable. Embracing that made it a little bit easier.

Recurring themes seem to delve in the likes of life, death, age, time.

Since Bromst, I’ve felt that I can’t just write more candy. I love candy, but I want to write meals. I want to make music that you can savor.

There are places on this album that feel akin to the guided meditations you lead your fans through during your live shows. Was that intentional?
I don’t think I’m the right person to ask. The music is for me to make, but it’s not for me to listen to. I didn’t really even realize those were meditations until someone told me. I had thought I couldn’t meditate; I’m a little scatterbrained, frantically pinging between a million things. But I had started to do these visualizations during my sets and eventually I found myself thinking, maybe these are meditations. Like, I can meditate, I do meditate, I am meditate! It’s a practice, and it’s okay to be bad at it at first. There were a lot of self-discoveries—realizations, relationships ending, changing, growing—in the process of this record.

How do you not get mired in those sorts of feelings of doubt now?

I definitely still do, but the weather always changes. You can’t force it to be a certain way. Even if it’s raining every day for a week, it’s going to get sunny at some point. I try to think about even when I’m happy—I will not be happy forever—so when I’m feeling down or anxious or mentally lost, it’s good to know these feelings will pass. I don’t know when or how, but when I stop putting the pressure on myself to stop feeling that way, it tends to be easier. If it’s cold outside, you can’t will it to be hot. You put on a coat. So find whatever coat you can wrap around your brain, whatever self-care you can do. And in regard to doubt, you just have to trust yourself. And if you have peers or friends and you can ask and trust their opinion, do.

The record ends with a similar sense of hope.

I wanted it to feel like opening your eyes after they’ve been shut for a while. Certain things coming into focus, while other thoughts drift out.

Every year, we’re seriously impressed by the amount of artistic talent in Baltimore, and 2019 was no different, with top-notch music coming out of the city—making its way onto both the local and national stage. It also felt like a year where the musical community came into its own. No, Rolling Stone didn’t name us the best music city in America again (not that we need that recognition to know that we are), but there were numerous moments of reckoning, if you will. Rising artists finally got their due. Established acts performed epic homecoming shows. Hallowed institutions wrestled with their futures. There were both losses of legends and celebrations of lifetimes, and each reminded us of the great impact this city has had, and continues to have, on the musical form. Here, we round up some of the most memorable moments of 2019. And we recommend keeping your ears perked for all that is to come in 2020.

Ethel Ennis passes away.
This past February, Baltimore’s “First Lady of Jazz” passed away at age 86. During the late 1950s and 1960s, the West Baltimore singer recorded for major labels, toured Europe, headlined the Newport Jazz Festival, and performed regularly with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Duke Ellington. As a child, she learned to play piano at the Ames United Methodist Church in Sandtown-Winchester and later became a mainstay at the Red Fox on Pennsylvania Avenue. Disillusioned by the music industry, Ennis ultimately eschewed national stardom and returned to Baltimore for a more simple life, where she performed until her later years. Her mark on the greater musical world remains.

Dan Deacon performs with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
It felt like fate had somewhat of a hand in the moment when Dan Deacon first took to the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall stage with members of the BSO this spring. At the time, the orchestra was in the midst of a contentious contract dispute that would eventually lead to a summer-long lockout of the musicians by the organization’s management (see below), while the electronic artist—15 years after moving to Baltimore and forever changing the local music scene—was quietly working on a new record about overcoming doubt, and reckoning with age and death and time. For a few hours, the two iconic musical acts, seemingly from opposite of the sonic spectrum, though Deacon studied composition in college, came together for a night that would become a gift to the city. The musicians filled the halls with hope, as concertgoers got out of their seats, ran down the aisles, and started an impromptu dance party in front of the venerable stage.

Abdu Ali releases FIYAH!!!.
Over the last several years, few musicians have been as influential and integral to the Baltimore music scene as Abdu Ali. From the glory days of their all-inclusive, underground Kahlon dance party at The Crown to national coverage by the likes of The New York Times, The New Yorker, and NPR more recently, the avant-garde rapper has helped put Baltimore’s DIY culture on the map, remaining deeply rooted to their hometown city along the way. This spring, the release of their studio debut, FIYAH!!!, took their artistry to a new level, fusing hip-hop and Baltimore Club music with jazz and punk. The record and its release solidified Ali’s star power with a full-band lineup, led to a sold-out show at the Ottobar, and helped them nab a well-deserved “Artist of the Year” award from City Hall.

André De Shields wins his first Tony.
As a cherry on top of a 50-year acting career, 73-year-old Charm City native André De Shields took home his first Tony Award in June, winning best featured actor in a musical for his performance of the god Hermes in Hadestown. De Shields grew up in West Baltimore, one of 11 children, and graduated from City College before moving from regional theater to Broadway. He would go on to gain renown for his roles in shows like The Wiz and The Full Monty. A few weeks after the Tonys, he was also presented with a mayoral salute and key to the city by Mayor Jack Young. “This is what you get when you blow them out of the water,” he said during his acceptance speech, showing the crowd his Tony. “I did it the only way you could—the Baltimore way.”

Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon slays on American Idol.
If you don’t watch American Idol, you might have missed, in our opinion, one of the most special stories of the television show’s history. If you do watch American Idol, you’ve already been a Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon fan for months. The Catonsville singer-songwriter placed sixth in the competition, wowing judges and viewers with his sensational falsetto, his original song “Almost Heaven,” and his backstory, the son of a Baptist pastor who discovered he was gay at age nine. This fall, Harmon released his debut album and this winter, graduated from Towson University, where he studied vocal performance.

Beach House gets sentimental at the Hippodrome.
In June, dream-pop duo Beach House returned to the city for their first big hometown performance since the Windjammer music festival at Pier Six in 2015. Taking over the hallowed stage of the Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, singer Victoria LeGrand and guitarist Alex Scally put on a powerful show to promote their latest album, 7, with some old favorites thrown in along the way. Typically stoic performers, they both spoke sentimentally about the city, even referencing the Orioles. Opening acts were also must-see sets by Dan Deacon and Future Islands’ William Cashion.

The Ottobar persists and, as The Windup Space closes, Rituals opens in its stead.
Two big changes took place at local music venues this year, with the announcement of sales and closures stirring fear for a scene that already lamented a dearth of creative space. But a few months after the Ottobar announced that its longtime owners were selling the business, it was revealed that longtime bar manager Tecla Tesnau would be taking over the Remington rock club in late summer, keeping it in local hands, and it seems that little has changed. And just weeks after word surfaced that The Windup Space would be closing its doors, news broke that the location would be reopened as Rituals, a bar and venue that would keep the same all-inclusive, DIY tradition alive and well, allowing the arts community to let out a collective sigh of relief. There, lineups have included local favorites like Lower Dens, Eze Jackson, and Chiffon.

TT The Artist pays homage to Baltimore Club.
This summer, TT The Artist made her directorial debut with the sneak peek premiere of her upcoming music documentary, Dark City: Beneath The Beat. Despite relocating to Los Angeles, the beloved rapper has long been a fierce advocate of, and an active participant in, the city’s hometown musical genre, Baltimore Club—the story of which she tells in her unique, colorful film. Featuring cameos and music by fellow local artists such as DDm, Eze Jackson, Mighty Mark, and Rufus Roundtree, it now enters the finishing-touch and fundraising stages in hopes of joining the festival circuit in 2020.

DDm drops Beautiful Gowns.
This summer, DDm released his debut full-length album, Beautiful Gowns, which, unsurprisingly, turned out to be one of the most fun, infectious records to come out of Baltimore this year. That’s thanks to the pure showmanship of the city-born rapper who has brought bravado, wit, humor, and heart to his music and live performances across the city for years, from the local battle rap circuit through his Bond St. District duo and now in his solo career. A year after his planned debut, Soundtrack To A Shopping Mall, was nixed, these 13 tracks stood testament to DDm’s determination and dauntless creativity. Self-released, locally produced, and spread without the help of local radio, singles like “He Say She Say” and “Pull Up”garnered thousands of listens on Spotify and views on YouTube all on their own. We personally love the bright, buoyant ballads of “Hooray” and “Forever 21.”

Future Islands rocks out at Union Collective.
In early September, thousands of Baltimore City music lovers packed into the parking lot of Union Collective for a night to remember by local dream-pop darlings Future Islands. Much like their impromptu Hampdenfest performance in 2014, the band’s free live show took place outside as the sun set, featuring both new material off their upcoming album and fan favorites like “Seasons” and “Balance,” with frontman Sam Herring’s mercurial dance moves out in full force. Opening acts included Baltimore artists Smoke Bellow, Joy Postell, and DJs Jason Willett and Jay Buim, and the brewery’s neighbor, The Charmery, sold three Future Islands-themed flavors of ice cream to support city non-profits.

The BSO survives a tumultuous year.
It was a long, strange trip around the sun for the century-old Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: ongoing contract negotiations that tumbled into labor disputes, the cancellation of the summer season, a highly publicized lockout of the musicians by BSO management, followed by months of player protests outside the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. But this fall, both parties reached a one-year agreement that resulted in the meeting of many players’ demands and the on-time opening of the fall schedule. The organization has also since launched their newly formed vision committee and brought in outside help from arts-org “turnaround king” Michael Kaiser, so things are looking up. (Except for maestra Marin Alsop hinting at her departure.)

JPEGMAFIA continues to soar.
It’s been another big year for JPEGMAFIA. The alternative rap artist, known as Peggy, toured the U.S., to many sold-out crowds. He performed at the likes of Afro Punk, Firefly, and Coachella, where rolling stone called his set one of the best of the festival. He opened for big-name acts like Vince Staples and Flume. He garnered national press and profiles by the likes of Billboard, The Guardian, and Paper. And this fall, he released his latest album, All My Heroes Are Cornballs, to national acclaim— a colorful, cacophonous collage that takes us on a trip into his beautiful, manic, often NSFW dream world. All the while, even though he has since relocated to L.A., Peggy always gave love back to Baltimore, his former city, selling out two nights at the Ottobar, hopping on Abdu Ali’s latest record, and bringing fellow rising local rapper Butch Dawson along on his tour. For that, for as long as we can, we’ll continue to claim him as our own.

Morgan State’s marching band leads the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The holidays came early this year when it was announced that Morgan State University’s Magnificent Marching Machine would be leading the iconic procession of marching bands in the 93rd annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, making MSU the first of Maryland’s historically black colleges to perform in the parade’s history. Ahead of a giant Snoopy balloon, the college band, led by band leader Melvin Miles Jr., marched triumphantly in blue and white uniforms for nearly three miles from the Upper West Side, around Central Park, and down to the famed namesake department store on Herald Square. Millions of viewers watched from the city streets and on their television sets at home.

A star is born in Maggie Rogers.
In the 12 months of 2019, Eastern Shore native Maggie Rogers released a debut album via Capitol Records, starred as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, sold out her U.S. tour, performed at the likes of Coachella, attended the Met Gala, and garnered her first Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. While still a student at NYU, the singer-songwriter got her first taste of fame serendipitously, when a video of Pharrell Williams going ga-ga for one of her songs went viral. But everything that came next, and all that lies ahead, has undoubtedly been the result of her own talent and star staying power.

Check out our Spotify playlist below for Lydia’s Top 30 songs of 2019.

In the latest iteration of The Big Baltimore Playlist, we found five local songs to listen to now, ranging from breakneck bluegrass and comeback indie rock to masterful electronic music. Check back each month for new top tracks of the moment, and follow our Spotify playlist as we continue to build a soundtrack for our city.

“Crystal Geyser” by Al Rogers Jr.

Leave it to Al Rogers Jr. to drop the most infectious song of autumn so far. This first single off his new album, SwoozyBaby, titled for his trademark mantra for spreading good vibes, is giving us summer energy with its almost tropical, rat-a-tat beat, chiming bells, and smooth, swift vocals. Play it on repeat (trust us), then dig into the rest of the West Baltimore rapper’s record for even more one-of-a-kind inspiration.

“Sat By A Tree” by Dan Deacon

This morning, electronic wizard Dan Deacon announced his upcoming 2020 album, Mystic Familiar, with this first single and its accompanying creepy, crawly music video. Looking into the topics of life and death, this bright, buoyant melody is full circle in its familiar touches and techniques from both his most recent and earliest work. It’s peak Deacon—a beautiful opus—and it leaves us eager to listen to the rest of the record.

“Reverie” by The High & Wides*

This song came to singer Marc Dykeman almost entirely in a dream—hence the name. But it’s a perfect example of the natural talent of this rising bluegrass quartet, whose debut Lifted made the Billboard top-ten charts last year for its genre. With their sophomore Seven True Stories due out this December, this track is a sneak peek of the ways in which their abilities—fast-flying fingers, vocal and instrumental harmonies, creative storytelling—only continue to grow.

“Dogs” by Joyero

Wye Oak’s Andy Stack has struck out on his own under a new debut solo project, Joyero. For the first time, the drummer’s voice moves to the forefront, and it’s a cool, calming sound. Now based in Marfa, Texas, the sparse yet saturated melody captures the transition between his different cities, relationships, and lifetimes—a dreamy, electronic reel-to-reel. Trappings of his old bands are there, but it’s wholly all his own. Plus, it might have the best music video, of all time.

“Local Honey” by Mary Prankster*

If you’re of a certain age, you might not know the name Mary Prankster. But for those Baltimore music scene veterans, and musicians in the know, the genre-jumping singer-songwriter was an alt-rock cult icon here in the 1990s. Now back after taking more than a decade off from recording and touring, her new album, Thickly Settled, drops this weekend, which she calls a “rollicking cross-country road trip.” Consider it a comeback with this first single—’60s and surf-inflected, backed by some of the city’s best musicians, into pure, don’t-make-it-like-this-anymore indie-rock.

*Not yet on Spotify. We’ll add it when it becomes available.

This March, Baltimore band Beach House quietly announced a summer show—their first big hometown performance since the Windjammer music festival at Pier Six in 2015—and at none other than the hallowed Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center in downtown Baltimore.

With the show set to start at 8 p.m. on Tuesday night, the dream-pop duo will be performing as part of the North American tour to promote their seventh and latest album, aptly titled 7, which was released last spring. The luminous record carries the trademark trappings that first put them on the national map more than 10 years ago—Victoria LeGrand’s haunting vocals and lush synth and Alex Scally’s searing guitar—as well as a fresh dose of newfound energy and urgency that marks a subtle but significant evolution in their decade-long perfection of the dream-pop genre.

A sort of Windjammer encore, the lineup also features other local music legends of the last decade who performed at the waterfront festival four years ago, with opening acts including electronic artist Dan Deacon, as well as a solo set by Future Islands bassist William Cashion, who also performs as a part of instrumental duo Peals.

In what will surely be an iconic Baltimore performance, Beach House will play a mix of new songs and greatest hits from over the course of their 15-year career. In a sneak peak of the set list, Scally shares some tidbits about a few of the band’s favorite tracks.

“Drunk in LA”
Released last spring on the band’s seventh record, 7, this hypnotic song stems out of the production of their previous full-length release. It’s a blossoming song that unfolds as if watching the world through a haze, which, it turns out, they were. “The lyrics to this song were written in Los Angeles while mixing our album, Depression Cherry, and during an inspiring afternoon in the studio,” says Scally. “We were drinking a lot of wine and feeling both alive and very dead.”

“Myth”
Off the band’s 2012 sophomore record, Bloom—dubbed one of the best records of the year by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and NPR—this classic Beach House song continues to be one of the band’s most-listened-to tracks. “We wrote this song in 2011, but it still vibrates in the ‘right’ way, so we keep its light burning,” says Scally.

“Lemon Glow”
The first single off of 7 captures the fresh energy and innovation found on the rest of the new record. It’s one of the many songs that speak to the beauty in contrast, as the glitchy beat climbs into a shimmering crescendo and then abruptly ends, leaving the listener wanting more. “This is a song about love, but we use the ugliest keyboard sound ever for it,” says Scally. “It’s really fun to make ugly sounds work in a song.”

“Dive”
The second single off of 7, this signature slow-burner builds before erupting in a newly potent moment of thunderous live drums and lustrous guitar. “This is the last song we wrote for 7, and to us, it feels like a runt from a litter of puppies that jumps in the backseat of a car and charms everyone,” says Scally.

“Levitation”
The opening of the band’s gorgeous 2015 Depression Cherry sets the stage for the entire fifth record—a lush, lilting collection of songs that are at once sparkling, nostalgic, sad, and hopeful. As we wrote all those years ago, it rises like the light at dawn, all slow and dewy and soft. “The end and the beginning often have a similar feeling,” says Scally, “and we feel this song captures that paradox.

It’s not every day that a brand-new band so quickly captures the sound of its home city, but in the case of Chaunter, you could say these songs have been nearly a decade in the making.

Founded by Station North stalwarts Brooks Kossover, on vocals and flute, and Jenghis Pettit, on guitar, the duo’s debut record, Dream Dynamics, is a celebration of the DIY scene in a Baltimore, and its idiosyncratic spirit is fleshed out by guest appearances from a league of local musical legends. Think electronic artist Dan Deacon, Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring, Lower Dens’ Jana Hunter, guitar-pop group Super City, and rapper 83 Cutlass, to name a few.

Swirling in synth and smoldering with live-wire guitar, the songs harken back to the days when Rolling Stone named Baltimore’s music scene the very best in the country, but the bandmates follow the sound of their own woodwind into a sort of deep, dark, mythical dream world.

Before their release show at the Metro Gallery on March 29, we talked with the duo about friendship, freakwave, and finding inspiration in Baltimore.

How did Chaunter come to be?

Brooks Kossover: Jenghis and I have been friends for a long time, but we really bonded over music. We hit it off over this shared love of prog-rock and you almost never meet anyone, especially our age, who is into, like, Jethro Tull. I specifically remember seeing him in a Rush t-shirt and being like who is this kid? From there, he introduced me to visual kei, this Japanese form of rock from the 1990s that really influenced Chaunter. The music is very thematic and dramatic and not just one particular sound. When you see us live, you know what I mean. We wrote this album and rehearsed it for half a year before ever playing a show.

Anyone from outside of Baltimore might wonder how this brand-new band got all these legendary local musicians on their debut record. But as regulars in the local arts scene, they just so happen to be your friends. How did the album come to be?

BK: It kind of all started with my paintings. In making these large portraits, I met all of these different artists and musicians and ended up collaborating, and even living, with some of them. Putting out music together just felt like the natural next step. . . . I wanted this first album to be a testament to the Baltimore arts scene. We wanted to come out strong like this is who we are, these are our friends, this is Baltimore music, and make as big of an impact as possible. Our first album is a concept album in a weird way. I wanted it to be like waking up in a dream, and in the end, you fall back into reality.

Jenghis Pettit: No matter what the genre is, a lot of the different sounds out that come out of Baltimore have this dreamlike quality to them.

BK: Moving forward, our music will be much more band-driven—Jenghis and me—and later in the year, we’ll be putting out an EP that will have a finer scope that truly defines us. We just want to put out cool songs and hopefully put Baltimore and freakwave on the map.

Ah, freakwave—the new Baltimore genre. Also used by local quintet Super City.

JP: It’s his favorite word. [Laughs.]

BK: Hey, I’ve only said it once this whole interview! [Laughs.] It’s a very performative, melody-driven form of music. Just one of those things you need to see live to really feel the energy of it. I just love the idea of another genre being born out of Baltimore. I know I’m not from here, but I’ve lived here for about eight years now, and it’s changed me so much.

Jenghis, you grew up in West Baltimore. How did you got involved in the DIY music scene?

JP: My freshman year of high school, one of my friends gave me a guitar. I taught myself how to play by sitting and playing along with the radio. I went straight into metal and prog rock. Later on, I was living at Bell Foundry with Qué [Pequeño] and we started the band Melanin Free, which took on a life of its own. Melanin Free is a form of activism for me. After 2015, the Uprising was something I felt I needed to bring into my music. Even in certain places with Chaunter, it comes out in certain ways and I’m not going to try to hide it. It feels good to be able to show my Baltimore and put my two cents in. For me, this first album revolves around old memories from when I first started doing the whole art thing.

Are there any songs that are particularly meaningful to you?

BK: For me, it’s “The Copycat.” Jenghis lives there now, I lived there for a long time, we started [the art gallery] Terrault there. All the time spent in that building, what that building has meant to the city, the music that’s come out of it. I wanted this song, and the first album, to be an ode. I wanted them to be reminiscent of all those different sounds and people and memories and experiences coming together into one place.

JP: It has a lot of backstory. Frank, the superintendent of The Copycat, who is my landlord right now, is featured on the intro as well. It’s just a really good song.

In celebrating the past, where do you find inspiration in this city today?

JP: A few years back, there was a lot of hype, and then it kind of disappeared. But everyone just decided to focus on making good work, and through that, we’re starting to get real, genuine recognition that I think is a lot more sustainable. Looking at friends like Butch [Dawson], Joy [Postell], and Al [Rogers Jr.] putting out these insane projects—it’s just like, alright, I have to really go hard to try to keep up with them. I think if we can all stay together and continue to collaborate, we can make something for ourselves here that can’t disappear.

In the latest iteration of The Big Baltimore Playlist, we found five local songs ranging from dance-ready folk-pop and punkish hip-hop to an adrenaline-pumping electronic score. Check back each month for new top songs of the moment, and follow our Spotify playlist as we continue to build a soundtrack for our city.

“The Breakway” by Dan Deacon

Maybe you caught the premiere of Time Trial during last year’s Maryland Film Festival. If you did, and you’re anything like us, you found yourself undeniably drawn not just to the documentary film’s visceral story of resurrection and redemption for Tour de France cyclist David Millar, but also its captivating score, released late last year. Baltimore electronic artist Dan Deacon has been flexing his composer skills over the last few years, with this being his second via Domino Records. (See also 2016’s Rat Film.) This pump of adrenaline is Deacon’s digital mastery at its finest, building in small, pulsing tones before bursting into a sparkling dreamscape. It draws the listener inward while creating a vast, vivid portrait of the physical endurance required by this limit-pushing ride. We’re equally and anxiously awaiting both Deacon’s upcoming electro-pop record and his next score.

“Hustle” by F City

A great under-the-radar record from last year was the dual personality of Agenda/World of Good by local supergroup F City. Founded by singer Lala Anderson, drummer Landis Expandis, and drummer Paul Joyce, the genre-busting trio puts 12 tracks divided between a punkish A-side and an electronic B-side. Whichever side you land on, you’ll appreciate the songs’ raw energy and no holds-barred funk. This particular track, situated in the latter, is a throwback to early hip-hop rhythms and rhymes that’s all about hard work, featuring one of the city’s most dogged rappers, Eze Jackson. Follow him and the trio as they wander the city streets of Baltimore in the song’s old-school video, released last month.

“Bear The Burden” by Haint Blue

There’s folk music, and then there’s Haint Blue. The local sextet’s bold take on the Americana genre lands somewhere in the eye of the storm—between calm and chaos—a lilting chamber orchestra meets a holy roller gospel choir. This first single off the upcoming Overgrownembodies that ethos. It’s a tight tour de force with valleys and peaks as frontman Mike Cohn bares his soul. Each song on this new record is a reckoning with the singer’s flight from a fundamentalist upbringing and his fight through serious drug addiction, and that sort of internal digging gives these melodies a deep and hearty authenticity. In the three years since the band’s debut EP, their chemistry has coalesced into a crescendo of emotion and talent. You feel their rich harmonies, of voice and instrument, in your bones.

“Past Life” by Maggie Rogers

Maggie Rogers might not be from Baltimore, but we’ll continue to root for this Eastern Shore singer-songwriter as our own. Her debut record, Heard It In A Past Life, out now via Capitol Records, is an emotional catharsis, reckoning with the earth-shaking transformation she’s experienced over the last two years while becoming a bona fide folk-pop star. It’s an outright fun, fiery, dance-ready feat—listen to “Retrograde” and “Burning” to see what we mean—but we personally love the quiet moments that remind us of the Maggie we fell for before her face was sprawled across billboards and bright-light marquees. This title track was reason enough for an entire record. She bares it all and stands stronger than ever before.

“Money Don’t Grow On Trees” by Sneaks

Keep this MICA alum and now D.C.-based singer-songwriter on your radar. Eva Moolchan’s (aka Sneaks’) third album, Highway Hypnosis, now streaming via NPR First Listen and out soon via Merge Recrds, is garnering a bunch of hype for its singular sound—a feminist fusion of hip-hop and post-punk that’s as much M.I.A. as it is Priests, though completely all her own. It’s easy to get hooked on her hushed vocals and repetitive spoken-word lyrics that create a sort of mantra for each track, such as this song’s title chorus. With bare-bones instrumentation and a staccato, bass-forward beat, she creates a soundscape that immerses you and, in its mere two minutes, leaves you wanting more. See also “Beliefs” and “Hong Kong to Amsterdam.”

When Dan Deacon makes music, he likes to think about more than just the individual notes and their complex arrangements. These days, the local musician often finds himself bouncing between writing his signature electronic music, full-length solo albums, and intricate, acclaimed film scores—each approach influencing the way he thinks about the next, leaving him to ponder big questions.

Like, “What is the role of an album, or a concert, or a score? And how and where are people going to listen to it?” poses Deacon. “When you’re at home listening to music, it’s like furniture—it enhances the living experience. When you go to a show, it’s like theater—you’re supposed to watch and become immersed into another world. With film, the score helps keep you within a specific universe. . . . It’s like when you make a meal. You think of who’s coming to dinner, where you’re eating it, if it’s a fancy dinner or a casual get-together or a pot-luck.”

Big things to think about on the eve of a feast: his debut performance at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall as part of BSO Pulse, the innovative concert series, now in its fourth season, that pairs indie musicians with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Pulse has featured other notable performances by Baltimore acts, such as Lower Dens and Wye Oak, but as a founding father of the city’s DIY music scene, Deacon’s performance feels like the series’ pinnacle.

“Thinking about that gigantic stage, in an acoustically perfect room, how to fill out the space and find a way to utilize the seated audience in a beautiful way—it became very exciting to think about all the possibilities,” says Deacon, calling the whole thing a big experiment. “We’ll see on Thursday night.”

At the same time, for a classically trained composer who studied musical composition with a computer music concentration at SUNY Purchase in New York, performing with a full orchestra is a sort of capstone as well. The average listener might not know it, but Deacon’s music has long been influenced by his education—though “I never really had any interest in 18th- or 19th-century music”—with his early albums inspired by minimalist composers such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley, featuring both orchestral arrangements and multi-part suites. It seems as if his entire career has been building toward a moment like this—each record growing in vision and virtuosity, from exuberant party-starters to avant-garde opuses.

The Meyerhoff is a far cry from the warehouse venues that Deacon first performed upon arriving in Baltimore some 15 years ago, but he’s no stranger to hallowed stages, either, having performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Waterloo Symphony in Canada. (His music has also been adopted by the New York City Ballet.) But this will be the first time the musician will be sitting down to play alongside a full philharmonic orchestra.

Co-hosted by WTMD, the Pulse performance will begin with a set by the BSO (including classics by Sebastian Bach and Erik Satie and a contemporary work by Du Yun), followed by a solo set from Deacon (including a few tracks from his 2015 Gliss Riffer), concluded by a collaborative set with both acts. For the main event, Deacon will also include his own 24-person ensemble, which he has performed with in past shows and on previous records, featuring instrumental arrangements by local composer Patrick McMinn, as well as a new vocal choir, featuring vocal arrangements by Allison Clendaniel of experimental classical music collective Mind On Fire. In total, there will be more than 40 musicians on stage.

“The whole spirit of the night is about the Venn diagram of what we [Deacon and the BSO] both do while also being willing to reach into the other side,” he says. “These shows take so much work—months. You could fill a wing of the Enoch Pratt with just the emails. We’re not just showing up and setting up our equipment. Everything about this night is from the ground up.”

“Working with Dan has already been a hugely rewarding collaboration,” says associate BSO conductor Nicholas Hersh. “The [final set] will truly be the centerpiece of the show, much more extensive and integrated than in past Pulse programs. We are all ridiculously excited to take on this challenge and witness months of preparation come to fruition.”

Both locally and internationally, Deacon has become known for his infectious live shows that typically incite some sort of interactive dance-off among the audience. If you attended his performance at Space 2640 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his debut Spiderman of the Rings in 2017, you know what we’re talking about. (If not, just watch his NPR Tiny Desk concert to see what we mean.) Of course, this creates a predicament in a 2,443-seat symphony hall that commonly draws an older crowd. That grand, gilded room will play host to only the second seated show Deacon has ever performed in Baltimore, counting the Windjammer concert with Future Islands and Beach House at Pier Six as his first.

But during their collaborative set, Deacon and the BSO will be performing “Pink Batman” and “Snookered” from 2007’s Spiderman of the Rings and 2009’s Bromst, respectively, as well as his lush four-part suite “USA” from 2012’s America and a world premiere of a new work. “To me, you’d listen to all of those pieces sitting down,” says Deacon. “I don’t want people to feel like sitting is bad. I love sitting. With 40-plus musicians on stage, there’s just going to be a lot to look at, a lot to take in. I’m just imagining myself sitting in a chair in that room, which is so rich, in and of itself, hearing that sound from the stage, and having it bounce off the walls, and the ceiling above me.”

But he hasn’t ruled anything out: “I can’t help myself. I have no idea what I’ll do.”

Since moving to Baltimore after college in 2004, when he helped found the Wham City arts collective at the Copycat Building in Station North, Deacon has fostered a sense of creative freedom and community in this city, across a wide mix of artists and genres. After seven records, international tours, and opening sets for the likes of Arcade Fire and Miley Cyrus, Deacon still calls the city home and continues to support both old friends and up-and-coming artists. Last year, he curated the lighting during an Abdu Ali show at the Metro Gallery; celebrated the release of Riddles, the acclaimed new album by local post-punk duo Ed Schrader’s Music Beat, which he co-wrote and produced; and headlined the Believe In Music Halloween party at the Maryland Science Center.

Today, he sees the local music scene much “how I’ve always seen it, which is just full of amazing, incredible talent,” he says. “It’s a really driven and diverse ecosystem. The hardest part is getting anyone from outside of town to pay attention. But I feel like that’s changing. I just wish there were more venues and opportunities for people to play in front of larger audiences . . . But that’s what makes this show so special—it opens up the door to people who wouldn’t normally be in a space like this, and I hope they continue the series and open it up to more Baltimore artists.”

That altruistic ethos is embodied in the evening’s pre-show lineup, where Deacon has asked a handful of local artists to be part of a special performance, with five solo sets by saxophone player Jamal Moore, electronic artists Amy Reid and Alex Silva, and experimental musicians Amanda Schmidt and Stewart Mostofsky taking place simultaneously in the Meyerhoff lobby starting at 7 p.m.

Of course, this performance comes just two days after the expiration of the BSO’s contract negotiations between players and the administration, which aims to reduce the symphony’s schedule, effectively eliminating the summer season and decreasing musician salaries. The move has the potential to demote the “full-time, world-class orchestra into a part-time regional orchestra,” according to a statement from the musicians.

“I just want to state that I back the players entirely and support what they are putting themselves on the line for,” says Deacon. “Imagine if the Baltimore Museum of Art closed for a significant portion of the year, having wings closed and the art shifted out. When you think about it in any other context, it’s clearly a massive mistake. Imagining Baltimore without the BSO would be a shame.”

For him, after the show, he’s back to work, finishing up two more film scores and a new record—his eighth—by this spring. But for now, he’s looking forward to Thursday night, to the very moment when the show begins.

“The whole point is to be completely and utterly present—to kind of forget that time is moving,” says Deacon, an artist whose mind is in constant motion—thinking, assessing, reassessing, connecting dots, breaking them apart again—a visionary composer, and a benevolent conductor of the Baltimore music scene after all these years. “Much of the show will be the orchestra and the ensemble and all the players, so I can step back a little bit more than usual and just be.”

Visual Art

Raoul Middleman: Watercolors & Monoprints
An artist’s passions are explored with frenetic mono-prints and impressionist watercolors in this new show from Baltimore native Raoul Middleman at C. Grimaldis Gallery. From his studio 19 floors above the city streets, Middleman has documented the changes in daylight as well as changes in the skyline itself. Back on the ground, his inky depictions of horses and burlesque capture motion and beauty in two distinctly different venues. Opening reception 6-8 p.m. Jan. 17; on view during gallery hours Jan. 17-Feb. 16. C. Grimaldis Gallery, 523 N. Charles St.

Art and Healing with WombWork Productions
Explore The Walters Museum’s historic property at 1 West Mount Vernon Place, and enhance your experience of this storied residence with a performance from local social change theater group WombWork Productions. One of WombWorks’ goals is to use art as a method for healing, and this new work will seek to connect the present to stories from 1 West Mount Vernon Place’s past. 7-8 p.m. Jan. 24, The Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles St.

Music

BSO Pulse: Dan Deacon
Two forces of Baltimore’s music scene will combine their talents for one night only during the next iteration of the BSO Pulse series. Come early for Deacon-curated entertainment from Jamal Moore, Amy Reid, Stewart Mostofsky, Alex Silva, and Amanda Schmidt in the Meyerhoff lobby and stay to hear the world premieres of new compositions blending acoustic and electronic sounds. 6-10 p.m. Jan. 17, Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St.

Kentavius Jones Album Release w/ Brooks Long & Mad Dog No Good
An Eastern Shore native releasing his long-awaited album and the return of Brooks Long & The Mad Dog No Good? Count us all the way in. Join singer-songwriter Kentavius Jones as he celebrates his new album, The Bohemian Beatbox, at Creative Alliance. He’ll be joined by CA curator of special projects Brooks Long and his rock and soul band for a full night of homegrown hits. 8-11 p.m. Jan. 25, Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave.

Super City, Chaunter, and Soul Cannon
Embrace the “freakwave” sound of Baltimore’s Super City as they return home after dancing their way through the south. You’ve probably heard tracks off the band’s latest project, Sanctuary, by now, but nothing compares to experiencing these guys’ rock anthems and expert choreography live. Local acts Chaunter and Soul Cannon will also join the party at the Ottobar. Doors at 8 p.m., show at 9 p.m. Jan. 26, Ottobar, 2549 N. Howard St.

Theater

Thank You, Dad
His twisted legacy has been immortalized by filmmakers, songwriters, authors, and poets. Now revisit Jim Jones’ deadly Peoples Temple with the world premiere of this collection of three plays by Aladrian C. Wetzel. Performed by Rapid Lemon Productions Artistic Director Lance Bankerd, this trio of works based on the life of Jones will kick off RLP’s 2019 season, which explores the power of belief. Jan. 11-20, Baltimore Theatre Project, 45 W. Preston St.

Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Dive into a world of pure imagination with Charlie, Willy Wonka, and the rest of Roald Dahl’s colorful characters in this musical based on the beloved work of children’s fiction. With colorful costumes, classic songs, and plenty of twists and turns, this tale is sure to be a delight for all ages. Just be sure not to slip Slugworth any trade secrets on your way out of the theater. Jan. 22-27, The Hippodrome Theatre, 12. N. Eutaw St.

Film

Who Will Write Our History
When lies and hate took over their world, a group of journalists, scholars, and community leaders fought back with the only weapons they had left—their words. This new documentary from Roberta Grossman exposes the secret band of writers known at Oyneg Shabes, who documented life under Nazi rule in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Drawing from the group’s writings, new interviews, dramatizations, and archival footage, Grossman has crafted a film that carries on the legacy of this brave group determined to ensure their stories would survive. The Who Will Write Our History screening at Landmark Theatres, Harbor East is one of several around the world that will take place as part of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 1 p.m. Jan. 27, Landmark Theatres, Harbor East, 645 President St.

Literature

Roxane Gay With One N
Loyola University’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation always brings incredible personalities with powerful stories to Baltimore, and this year is no exception. For the 26th annual event, author Roxane Gay will discuss feminism, body image, and social justice at Reitz Arena and end the evening with a book signing. Though the event is free, you’ll want to register early to secure your seats. 7-9 p.m. Jan. 22, Loyola University Maryland, 4501 N. Charles St.

Polar Bear Plunge
Jan. 26. Sandy Point State Park, 1100 E College Pkwy, Annapolis. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Prices vary. Ever since Stephan Timchula adopted his “Major Offense” superfan persona 10 years ago to honor the Baltimore Ravens’ (sometimes) strong offense, it has become his way of reminding fans that sports go beyond wins and losses. A longtime member of the Ravens Roost 115 and the Pro Football’s Ultimate Fan Association, Timchula shares the Special Olympics Maryland’s creed—that sports create new opportunities for people with disabilities—and he’s supported the nonprofit by proudly wading into the chilly waters at Sandy Point State Park for the past five Polar Bear Plunges. “Most importantly, it’s a day dedicated to the Special Olympic athletes, and watching them have fun rubs off on everyone else,” says Timchula, who will take the plunge again on January 26. “It makes jumping into the icy-cold water worth it.”

Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Jan. 21. 830 E Pratt St. Times vary. $5. In honor of what would’ve been Martin Luther King Jr.’s 90th birthday, commemorate the life and legacy of one of the most influential civil rights activists in American history at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum’s annual remembrance. Bring the whole family to the downtown museum to celebrate King’s powerful vision of freedom and peace through music and dance performances by local acts, readings by Baltimore-based author Kevin Shird and Baltimore Center Stage actors, and kid-friendly activities.

Between Spirits and Sisters
To Feb. 2. 2224 N Charles St. This month at Galerie Myrtis, view works by mixed-media artist Delita Martin that explores womanhood and the power of narrative impulse. Inspired by oral traditions and vintage photographs, this Texas-based artist uses printmaking, drawing, sewing, collaging, and painting techniques to bring portraits of African-American women to life.

Black & White Party
Jan. 19. The Assembly Room, 316 Guilford Ave. 8 p.m.-midnight. Since the Pratt Contemporaries’ first Black & White Party a decade ago, this all-night affair has become one of the city’s most anticipated see-and-be-seen parties of the year. This year’s theme of Studio 54 will transport guests back to the disco days of the iconic ’70s nightclub with live music, festive eats, and themed cocktails flowing all night long. Pro tip: Mark your calendar for January 4—the day tickets go on sale—as general tickets typically sell out within minutes.

Baltimore Restaurant Week
Jan. 11-20. Prices vary. After a whirlwind year of openings and closings in the area dining scene, the city’s winter restaurant week is the perfect time to try out new spots, revisit neighborhood standbys, and get your foodie fix without breaking the bank. Nearly 60 local spots will be on board for this 10-day deal, which offers prix-fixe menus priced between $12-20 for brunch and lunch and $20-35 for three-course dinners. Map out your must-try meals, make your reservations early, and take advantage of this annual culinary celebration.

Super City
Jan. 26. 2549 N Howard St. 9 p.m. $12. After playing their latest album, Sanctuary, to audiences in every corner of the country, this Baltimore-based “freak wave” band is back home and ready to remind us what we were missing. Pack the Ottobar to hear this rising indie-pop group play showstopping hits such as “Artificial Sin” and “Find You,” and get there early to catch sets by homegrown acts including songwriting duo Chaunter and hip-hop collective Soul Cannon.

BSO Pulse: Dan Deacon
Jan. 17. Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St. 8:30 p.m. $25-55. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has collaborated with acts ranging from big-name indie artists to up-and-coming groups for its BSO Pulse series, but this month’s joint performance with local legend Dan Deacon is a can’t-miss marriage between two iconic figures in the city’s music scene. Hear this genre-defying artist debut several new joint compositions with the BSO during this electronic-acoustic performance.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade
Jan. 21. Locations vary. 12 – 2 p.m. Free. For the past 18 years, the city of Baltimore has commemorated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy with an all-out parade that starts on King’s namesake boulevard and winds down to Baltimore Street. Find a spot along the parade route to wave to local community bands, color guards, dance squads, and other civic organizations as they pass by.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Jan. 22-27. 12 North Eutaw Street. $72-199. Times vary. Gather your everlasting gobstoppers, Oompa Loompas, and golden tickets for the sweetest production of the season. For six days, the Hippodrome Theatre will transform into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory for this family-favorite musical that brings new life to songs from the original film such as “The Candy Man” and “Pure Imagination.”

Baltimore Orioles FanFest
Jan. 26. 1 W Pratt St. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. $12. As the saying goes, there is no offseason in baseball. Put last year’s abysmal season in the past and kick off the Orioles’ 2019 season with a day-long celebration at the Baltimore Convention Center. Orioles FanFest offers games and press conferences for kids, one-of-a-kind memorabilia for purchase, and autographs and Q&A sessions with select players from the team.

What started out as an experiment—exposing people to concert symphony orchestra music by way of indie rock—has gained such rapid popularity, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Pulse concerts have become some of the most sought-after events to attend in the city.

In its fourth season, the series pairs an indie music act with work by a composer that complements it, performed by the BSO. These are three-set concerts: a first set by the BSO (almost like an opening act), the next by the indie artist, and a third by the indie artist backed by the BSO. Between sets, WTMD’s Alex Cortright talks with the artists onstage.

The BSO continues to push the boundaries with this season’s lineup, featuring Dan Deacon, Rhiannon Giddens, Kelela, and Parquet Courts.

As BSO associate conductor Nicholas Hersh, who conducts the shows, puts it, this season will offer “perhaps our most daring and diverse lineup of musical talent yet,” as each artist represents a unique genre.

Ethiopian-American singer-songwriter Kelela kicks off the season October 25 with her soulful vocals; post-punk rockers Parquet Courts will host a fun, upbeat show on November 29; Baltimore’s electronic-music icon Dan Deacon will bring his DIY aesthetic and eccentricity on January 17; and Grammy-nominated banjoist Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who is recognized internationally for her original songwriting and vocals that blend gospel, jazz, blues, and country, will play May 16.

Past seasons have brought the likes of Esperanza Spalding, Wye Oak, and Valerie June to the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall stage.

“It’s supposed to be flexible,” says Hersh, who co-curates the series. “We don’t want to do the same thing over and over, so we get feedback and implement changes.”

Attendance has been up for the shows, which have also proven to draw a younger audience to the symphony hall.

These casual concerts—where you can buy beer and bring it to your seat—kick off with a happy hour in the lobby, where local musicians perform in a party-like atmosphere.

Every October, the Maryland Science Center transforms into what might be the biggest Halloween party to pop up in Baltimore City. By day, its dinosaur, space, and electricity-themed exhibits entice tots to learn about all things science, but by night, the institution turns into a full-on music festival in the Inner Harbor, featuring more than a dozen bands, a wild costume contest, and overflowing craft beer, all to benefit the center and youth education nonprofit Believe In Music.

While its only July, the event, now in its seventh year, has just announced its 2018 lineup, featuring familiar faces who have performed at past parties and exciting new acts. On Saturday October 27, some 22 Baltimore bands will perform across seven stages, from the planetarium to the rooftop to beneath a gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex.

“In the same night, you can see a bluegrass band, an electronic band, and dance to James Nasty on the roof,” says Kenny Liner, founder and director of Believe In Music. “There will be so much to do and there will be so many talented, different people from Baltimore who deserve to be highlighted. I just wish we could include more.”

The main stage will feature big-name headliners: soulful sextet J Pope and the HearNow, funky jam band Electric Love Machine, and the main event, mad-scientist electronic artist Dan Deacon. “Dan is the perfect fit,” says Liner. “His shows are so fun and interactive. He makes the crowd feel special and allows them to have a really good time.”

Meanwhile, the Friends of Friends (Records) Stage will highlight rising DIY acts such as soulful R&B singer Joy Postell, experimental duo Wume, post-punk rockers Natural Velvet, and indie trio Outer Spaces, while the planetarium will host a handful of techno artists. As in years past, the Charm City Bluegrass Stage will be dedicated to Americana musicians, such as CCBG Battle of the Bands winner The Dirty Grass Players and folk bellwether Caleb Stine, and both DJs Rob Macy of Save Your Soul and James Nasty will be back on the ones and twos for an epic dance party into the wee hours of the nights.

Exhibits will be open throughout the evening, as will the IMAX theater, where electronic group Deltanine will perform a live score to an immersive film. Tickets usually sell out and are now on sale for general admission ($35) and VIP ($75).

“The best thing about this party is that we’re coming together to support Baltimore,” says Liner. “As much as the city needs to support organizations like Believe in Music, it needs to support institutions like the Science Center. Without it, there would be a huge void in Baltimore for kids to learn and experience cool science stuff. My daughter is only eight months old and she already absolutely loves it. In Baltimore, we’re all in it together.”

In the latest iteration of The Big Baltimore Playlist, we found five local songs ranging from electric R&B and honey-coated indie to rabblerousing post-punk rock. Check back each month for new top songs of the moment, and follow our Spotify playlist as we continue to build a soundtrack for our city. 

“More To Love” by Bobbi Rush

This is such a pretty song. It begins with a lush wave of synth that sweeps in as a violin lilts about and local singer-songwriter Bobbi Rush’s breathy voice seems to appear through some dream-like mist. Hushed and honey-coated, it is imbued with the familiar feelings of being lost in love—or having love lost. Produced by local musician Micah E. Wood, it is a piece of ’80s-infused R&B perfection, even as its brought into the 21st century with fuzzy layers of trap-style beats at the bridge and chorus. The melody, and Rush’s siren-esque vocals, fill your ears and consume your senses, leaving you, too, wanting more.

“Dunce” by Ed Schrader’s Music Beat

It’s been four years since Ed Schrader’s Music Beat released their last full-length album, and boy, is the experimental punk-rock duo coming back with an aggressive bang. This lead single, off their upcoming March album, Riddles, is as raw as a razor’s edge, rolling at a race pace with Devlin Rice’s heavy bass and Ed Schrader’s haunting, visceral vocals akin to a sludgy punk Billy Idol. With in-your-face production by local legend Dan Deacon, this fearless track is a rollicking tour de force, densely packed with power and rever, that culminates in one clarity: Schrader has been doggedly performing in Baltimore for more than a decade now—and we think 2018 is finally going to be his year. 

“Bad Dreams” by Hexgirlfriends*

We weren’t prepared for the impact that this song would have on us. Bewitching and boundless, it is such a gentle beautiful thing for how tough of a topic it tackles. In that sense, it’s hard to listen to, relishing in its beauty before realizing what it’s actually about. But maybe that’s the point. The “electro-femme un-pop” duo’s minimalist melody—a few plugs of bass, a touch of keys, a trill of electronics—is a rumination on the act of cutting and abusive relationships—on the ways in which we cope with emotional damage and their sometimes physical manifestations. What starts as faint lyrics pushed through tapping tonal pulses that fall like drops from a leaky faucet then builds into an echo chamber of rhythmic beats, swelling with emotion before finding a final watershed moment of peace. Keep your ears tuned to Sondra Boyle and Hannah Holt. Creating music as affecting as this—so simple yet complex—is no easy feat.

“Baby I’m Bleeding” by JPEGMAFIA

It’s been almost two years since JPEGMAFIA released his politically ripe Black Ben Carson, and his just-dropped follow-up, Veteran, pushes all boundaries with equal zeal. The Baltimore-based rapper is a force to be reckoned with, and on this first new single, he captures the frustrated, distorted feel of the current social and political climate, filled with frenetic loops that dizzily ricochet between your ears as the artist unleashes a stream of loaded (and explicit) lyrics. JPEGMAFIA approaches everything he does with unbridled intensity, and this apocalyptic noise-rap track is as unnerving as it is infectious. The New York transplant has quickly become a fixture of the local music scene, and his bold music making has our (and the nation’s—see Spin, Paper, Paste, Noisey, etc.) attention.

“Horror Movie” by Wildhoney*

Don’t let the title fool you—this track is anything but ominous. Instead, the indie-pop quintet returns after a two-year hiatus with a sweet, loud, shimmering shoegaze sound that reminds us how gorgeous unadulterated music can be. As a genre, “indie” music has become laden with digital touches—a sampled beat here, a drop of 808 there—but Wildhoney proves that less is more with its energetic guitar riffs, gated drums, and lead singer Lauren Shusterich’s weightless, golden pipes. This sunny DIY melody is a little bit ’60s girl group, a little bit ’80s punk, with a touch of psychedelia. Despite expert craftsmanship, it has an effortless feel. It makes your heart pang. And your toes tap along to the beat. It has us hopeful for a full new album in 2018.

*Not on Spotify. We’ll add it to the playlist when it becomes available. 

As for many of us, 2017 was a year of introspection and growth for the Baltimore music community. Familiar faces returned home, launched new ventures, or released seminal albums. New artists popped out of the woodwork and made their mark on the local scene. Collaboration was prolific, emotions were liberated, and a sort of homegrown catharsis ensued. A sense of change is in the air, and with the amount of talent we saw this year across all genres, we can’t wait to see what the future has in store for 2018. We couldn’t fit them all, but here are a handful of our favorite musical moments from the tumultuous past 12 months.

Abdu Ali launches a podcast.

This fall, Baltimore native/rapper/writer Abdu Ali got to add a new title to his resume: radio show host. In October, the local artist launched his first-ever podcast, DrumBooty Radio, in iTunes via Mask Magazine. Using his background in journalism, Ali talks with fellow creatives of color about the African-American experience. With five bi-monthly, hour-long segments now under his belt, Ali has interviewed the likes of local writer/editor Lawrence Burney of True Laurels, writer/social justice advocate Bilphena Yahwon, and writer/filmmaker Nia Hampton on topics such as the importance of therapy, being black in the DIY scene, and owning your own narrative. Through this new medium, featuring one special song per episode, Ali continues to craft compelling art in the audible form and shine a spotlight on our city.

Brooks Long sings “Blues for Freddie Gray.”

Local jazz legend Lafayette Gilchrist released a new album this spring with a powerful single titled “Blues for Freddie Gray.” Riddled with Gilchrist’s pounding piano keys, a full brass section, and the soulful vocals of old-school virtuoso Brooks Long, the song is post-2015 Baltimore in a bottle. The lively, driving number is full of energy and emotion, with audio samples from actual television footage following the death of Freddie Gray and subsequent officer trials. But despite the opening police sirens and closing whirr of a Foxtrot helicopter that both speak to the lack of closure in Gray’s case, Gilchrist ends on a hopeful note. “I want to know that there’s a day that’s coming soon and fast,” howls the ever-talented Long. “I want a justice and a peace that’s made to last and last. Don’t ya tell me that we can’t all get it done.” 

Dan Deacon celebrates Spiderman of the Rings.

A lot has changed for Dan Deacon since the release of this seminal record some 10 years ago. He’s grown from a quasi-known experimental musician to a nationally acclaimed artist. His music has become a soundtrack for the New York City Ballet; his mad-scientist compositions have scored award-nominated documentary films. And yet, to celebrate the anniversary of this record, Deacon returned home to perform at the kind of DIY space that started it all. At 2640 inside St. John’s United Methodist church, his exuberant melodies led the city’s most die-hard music lovers through a journey back in time. They danced. They sweat. They stood in awe of Deacon’s humble musical mastery, along for the ride and forever thankful that he is and maybe always will be ours.

Future Islands performs four nights at the Ottobar.

When Future Islands announced a series of shows at the Ottobar this spring to commemorate the release of The Far Field, it seemed like the whole world was vying for a golden ticket in the heart-racing online lottery. When it was all said and done, Pitchfork was there, tuning the entire country in to hear the trio’s heartbreaking new record, but Baltimore was all in tow—John Waters and a medley of other notable hometown musicians included—to welcome the boys home. Through new hits (“Ran”) and old favorites (“Little Dreamer”), frontman Sam Herring sashayed across the stage, William Cashion plugged those iconic riffs on bass, and Gerritt Welmers let that swirling synth fill the sold-out room, it felt like our old hearts—full of local love—just might explode.

Good Fridays makes Baltimore dance again. 

Over a year ago, then-Baltimore arts and culture editor Gabriella Souza was on the phone with John Waters when she got an idea. The local auteur noted that his hit film Hairspray! had been inspired by the variety and dance television shows of the mid-20th-century that had sadly gone the way of the buffalo. Wouldn’t it be great, they mused, if people could get together—regardless of age, race, or class—to just dance like that today? With the help of PipeDreamz’s AC Miller-Abdullah and Baltimore contributor Cassandra Miller, Good Fridays Baltimore was born, bringing all walks of city life together for live music by the likes of Al Rogers Jr., Wendel Patrick, and Eze Jackson, local art by Shan Wallace and Aaron Maybin, and a free-for-all dance party featuring local DJs into the wee hours of the night. As the event continues to grow, we can’t wait to see what—and who—comes next.

J Pope and the HearNow release its long-awaited debut.

After years of performing around town, this alt-soul collective released its debut in June. Produced by local beat wizard Wendel Patrick, Soul Searching captures the dynamic sound of this prolific live-performing sextet—a unique fusion of soul and hip-hop with a touch of R&B and blues. The record highlights the honey-coated lyrical flair and fast-paced finesse of frontwoman Jasmine Pope and showcases the masterful improvisations of her dexterous band mates. From the highs of frenzied funk rhythms to the lows of slow burning jazz numbers, the HearNow touches on the ups ands downs of living as a working artist. This album is Exhibit A of the talent, dedication, and hard work it takes. 

Local musicians spin at Idle Hour.

Last fall, Friends Records began a new residency at our favorite vinyl-slinging dive bar, Idle Hour, in Riverside. With the watering hole newly reopened, we weren’t sure if the famed record player would live on, but thanks to the bar owners and Jimmy MacMillan’s roster of local artists, the ones and twos are alive and well curated. Hometown favorites like Blacksage, Natural Velvet, and Surf Harp have spun handpicked selections from their various genres of electronic R&B, post-punk, and indie rock. In 2018, we’d buy the bar a round of pickle backs to hear Bond St. District’s Unkle Lulu, Microkingdom, or Peals.

Micah E. Wood makes dating easier.

Perhaps our favorite album of the year goes to See Me by Micah E. Wood. On this new record, the local songwriter and music photographer tackles the trials of modern love, pulling our heart strings as he rolls through the tribulations of 21st-century romance with honesty, humility, and humor. In the poignant “Match,” Wood candidly delves into the brutal honesties of online dating. In his first single, “Without You,” his anthemic chorus sums up the jubilant feeling of finally getting over a breakup. In the buoyant “Something,” his bubbly beat embodies the beauty of letting your guard down and liking someone again.  We especially love the additions of fellow heart-pullers Joy Postell, :3ion, and the aforementioned Al Rogers Jr. Through tender electronic melodies and charming talk-sing vocals, Wood and company make our stone cold hearts—thanks a lot, Tinder—finally feel human again.

Natural Velvet drops a timely album on feminine rage.

We couldn’t have realized how much Natural Velvet’s new Mirror to Make You would resonate in 2017. But with a strong focus on “feminine rage,” as frontwoman Corynne Ostermann puts it, coinciding with the nation’s “silence breakers” that have shed fresh light on widespread sexual harassment and assault throughout multiple industries, we can’t help but find new meaning. Each song is a rebellious declaration of feeling and fury with unabashedly frank lyrics that dissect femininity and endorse the power of the female. Whatever your gender, listening to these songs is cathartic. You finish with the full weight of three small lyrics to live by from “Kronos.” “I am. I choose. I chose.”  

Opera singers unite to form Outcalls.

We love the ladies of Outcalls. With their glittering get-ups, engaging social media presence, and ambitious attitude, Peabody grads Britt Olsen-Ecker and Melissa Wimbish have catapulted themselves onto the local arts scene and created their very own genre along the way. While the band has been around since 2015, the classically trained singers have carved out a sort of baroque indie-pop music on this debut-like record, combining the classics of shimmering synth and shoegaze guitar with ethereal soprano harmonies and robust electronic rhythms that are as hypnotic as they are awakening. Witchy, somewhat tribal, and even a little bit dusty old Spaghetti Western, “Skip to Sunrise” has become one of our top songs of the year. 

Snail Mail shoots to stardom.

It wasn’t long after the 2016 release of Snail Mail’s debut album that Lindsey Jordan and her two band mates started to get national attention. The band’s lo-fi indie rock music was suddenly in the web pages of Pitchfork and, before long, sprawled across a feature in The New York Times. The trio sold out the Ottobar, recorded a NPR Tiny Desk Concert, went off on tour with indie darlings Beach Fossils, and then signed a deal with Matador Records. (We also awarded them a Best of Baltimore for “Rising Star.”) Fresh out of high school and already well beyond their years, it’s safe to say that they are, officially, the next big thing.

Super City get synchronized in infectious music video.

This year, the Baltimore music scene has really upped the ante when it comes to music videos, with few more shining examples than that of this playful spring take on Super City’s most recent single, “Artificial Sin.” The indie slow jam gets star treatment with fresh outfits and unexpected choreography as the band’s five musicians don white jumpsuits and leather Chelsea boots and use coy dance moves to tap, twirl, and even, in one moment, drop it like its hot in a room full of turtle-necked backup dancers. Special guests include Paul Hutson of Bond St. District and Olsen-Ecker and Wimbish of Outcalls, to name a few. You can’t watch it without wishing you were there, too. 

The Cardinal Sheehan Choir performs “Rise Up.”

In September, Baltimore middle schoolers went viral after a video of their choir rehearsal featuring a powerful performance of Andra Day’s “Rise Up” made its rounds, in the millions, around the Internet. Within a couple of weeks, they were performing live on “Good Morning America,” with Day herself responding with a special message for the students: “Your video was so powerful and moved me so deeply and is moving the entire nation right now…We appreciate you so much.” One of the more heartwarming moments of an otherwise turbulent year, the students later performed for Baltimore in their Loch Raven gymnasium, while choir director Kenyatta Hardison shared the back-story of their shot to fame. This below video went viral for us, too.

The Ottobar turns 20.

Two decades is an eternity in the lifetime of a rock club, let alone one in Baltimore where it seems like every old-school establishment is quickly being replaced with a glitzy sky-rise apartment building. But this September, the Ottobar turned a whopping 20 years old. From the rabblerousing rock years downtown on Davis Street to the wide-ranging lineups on Howard Street in Remington today, our dark, dingy, perfectly-imperfect music venue has remained the go-to spot for artists of all genres, still sticking to its unapologetic, underdog guns as more massive arenas open in D.C. and across the country. To celebrate, legends of the past—J. Roddy Walston, Wye Oak, Roads to Space Travel, Candy Machine—stepped back onstage to relive, and continue, the glory days.

WTMD launches kid-friendly Saturday Morning Tunes concert series. As a young father himself, Sam Sessa saw the conundrum: what happens when music lovers grow up and have kids?  They can’t just go see a show any old night of the week anymore. They have bedtimes—and pajamas to put on. Can they not have fun anymore? Enter Saturday Morning Tunes, Sessa’s brainchild concert for both the young and the young art heart. With a smattering of sold-out shows at both the Towson studio and Senator Theatre, and future plans to include more notable Baltimore bands that are otherwise not associated with the “kindie” genre, these weekend morning shows have quickly become a new favorite family ritual. Best of all, like sifting through an old record collection with your mom or sharing that old cassette tape with your son, it’s even an better opportunity for parents—however cool they used to be—to bond with their (hopefully) music-loving kids. 

Not By The Numbers

Preston Street
September 16

“I know the next performer  because he’s staying at my house—we’re volunteer-run,” host M.C. Schmidt tells the packed house at the 19th-annual High Zero festival before introducing improvisational guitarist Sharif Sehnaoui. “He’s from Beirut and so today, I explained Juggalos,” Schmidt continues, referencing fans of the rap group Insane Clown Posse, who had recently made headlines.

One of the largest experimental music festivals in the U.S., High Zero was launched by John Berndt and a cadre of enthusiasts who began hosting shows at Normal’s Books and Records in the ’90s. As in the past, the four-day festival attracts some of the world’s finest experimental musicians, including Sehnaoui, who doesn’t pick his guitar—which sits across his legs—but taps it, like a percussion instrument, with small metal mallets to build shimmering vibrations.

Sehnaoui’s set is followed by a five-person improvisational effort, featuring nationally acclaimed Baltimore composer Dan Deacon, who has reconfigured a piano to play robotically from his laptop. Joining Deacon are a Maine-based voice artist (not a singer) with the nom de guerre Id M Theft Able, Japanese guitar player Kazuhisa Uchhashi, New York drummer Eli Keszler, and Baltimore dancer Lynn Price. Their strange sounds, along with Able’s disquieting vocals and Price’s, at times, fraught movement, create something that resonates like an aurally dark dream. 

“I feel like my unconscious is going to be messed up for a week,” an audience member whispers afterward. 

Following a brief intermission, Chicago cellist Tomeka Reid and London pianist Tania Chen produce some of the most beautiful and weighted music of the evening, albeit with Chen occasionally banging away at her instrument in frenetic passion with different parts of her body.

Not every set clicks, acknowledges saxophonist Andrew Bernstein. When it does, however, the result can be revelatory. “I can’t describe it,” Bernstein says. “Experimental music doesn’t really translate into language. I guess the best way to put it is that it gives sound to things we don’t have words for.”

Get It Together

Putty Hill Avenue
September 10

The giant inflatable guitar at the entrance to the Putty Hill Shopping Center is hard to miss, as is the sea of baby boomers, in a mix of Ravens gear and throwback concert T-shirts, dancing in the parking lot to a cover of “Something in the Air” by 1969 one-hit wonder Thunderclap Newman.

We’ve got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution’s here, and you
know it’s right.

Welcome to Parkville’s fifth-annual Stanstock, the brainchild of 62-year-old former saxophone player Stan Gibson, whose previous claim to fame was sharing a stage with John Denver in 1971 on WBAL’s Kerby Scott Show. For the past two days and nights, hundreds of middle-aged Baltimore rockers have been partying and reminiscing inside McAvoy’s Sports Bar & Grill—and outside in the lot-turned-concert-venue—to tunes from popular local bands of decades past.

“Stan could play the sax like you never heard before in your life,” says former bandmate Ronnie Malvaso, standing next to Gibson during a break. “When he kicked in, we wanted to stop and listen.”

Because of a neurological birth defect that eventually forced him into a wheelchair, Gibson had to give up playing as a relatively young man. Struggling in recent years simply to attend live music events and nearly paralyzed today, Gibson started a Facebook page—Baltimore Bands from the 70’s 80’s 90’s—to keep in touch with his musician pals and friends. That effort morphed into Stanstock, which has hosted, among others, old-school Baltimore favorites such as Crack the Sky, Face Dancer, and the Rayvns.

Not that everyone here was a hard-rock fan back in the day. “We were disco queens,” laughs Debbie Mowry, swaying alongside 60-something girlfriends.

The groups play for free, Gibson notes, with net proceeds—more than $55,000 over the first four years—going to charity.  

“My family told me doing this would kill me,” says Gibson, strugglng to speak audibly. “But it’s what keeps me going.”

One-Track Mind

Falls Road
September 11

Two years after graduating from the Maryland Institute of College of Art in 2011, Cary Gray hopped on a unicycle and took off for South America, attempting to break the world record for the longest trip ever on a single-wheel, pedal machine.

“I did, too,” Gray recalls before his talk this afternoon at Baltimore Bicycle Works. “I’d broken the record when I got to Columbia [with the help of a kayak] and was going to double it by reaching Argentina when my bag—with my GoPro, GPS, passport, and witness signatures to prove to Guinness I’d set a new record—were stolen. I couldn’t document what I’d done.

“I flew home. I had to let it go.”

Along the way, he tells the small crowd of bike-camping soon-to-bes that the Mexican people, in particular, were hospitable. “So friendly, I was overwhelmed. Aggressively friendly.” He adds, however, he did briefly fear for his life once in Mexico when an armed farmer approached him while he was camping. “He was protecting his property; it was an area with a lot of drug trafficking,” he says. “The unicycle diffused a couple of situations.”

Since those initial 11,000-plus miles, he’s ridden an additional 10,000 miles through 30 states and 11 countries, planning to tackle other unicycling records now. At 28, he admits his parents wonder when he will begin a “real” career. Gray insists he already has, self-publishing a children’s book, Luno!, which he illustrated with his feet for fun, and a non-fiction e-book for adults called The Naked Unicyclist, which chronicles his tire punctures, bouts of extreme dehydration, and food poisoning, along with other mishaps and joys. “The title is a metaphor,” Gray says, with a smile. “It’s about being vulnerable and open to the world.”

Someone asks if he felt like quitting. 

“Yeah. And I did. Several times.” Gray responds. “Usually when I was cold, wet, tired, and hungry in the middle of nowhere. The problem was that I still had to get somewhere dry, get somewhere to eat. Then I’d feel better and forget I had quit.”

In this fourth iteration of The Big Baltimore Playlist, we feature five local songs we can’t get enough of, ranging from glittery pop remixes and chill-wave raps to experimental electronica and lauded indie-rock. Check back each month for new top songs of the moment, and follow our Spotify playlist as we continue to build a soundtrack for our city. 

“Sightsee” by Blacksage ft. :3ION (Moss Of Aura remix)*

Talk about a quadfecta. Blacksage’s Josephine Olivia and Drew Scott produced a pretty stellar album last fall, with its debut Shivers, featuring this sexy snaking number and a handful of other lovely, dark ballads. But in this just released remix, 2016’s “Sight See” gets a euphoric, orchestral new look in 2017. The original melody floats through the luminous mist of Moss Of Aura (aka Gerritt Welmers of Future Islands), bringing the angelic vocals of futuristic R&B singer :3ION to the forefront, wrapping the warbling coos of Olivia into a featherbed of synth, and infusing Scott’s initial, deep beat with a hefty dose of light. By the end, it transforms from a lust song into a sort of love one. 

“Dead Man Draggin’” by Butch Dawson

If you dig Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, or Tyler The Creator, you’ll want to follow Butch Dawson. The local producer and frontman for Basement Rap Records is a reservoir of smart, sophisticated, slow burn rhymes, and he stands on his own as one of Baltimore’s sharpest rappers. The beauty of his beats lies in their contrast, as his tranquil melodies are studded with hard-hitting ruminations. On this number (featuring some NSFW lyrics), the jangling chill-wave beat and shimmering timber of hi-hat drums meets lyrics that are listless in their delivery yet complex and contemplative in their content. Through verse and chorus, Dawson seems to address the struggles of our city (“Something ain’t right right now, nothing can save my town”) and the predicament of being a young black man in Baltimore (“Gotta give it up, I’m just a dead man . . . Can’t do much when you’re a dead man”). In short, don’t sleep on his upcoming album, Swamp Boy.

“Wham City” by Dan Deacon

When this song first came out 10 years ago, Dan Deacon was a quasi-known experimental musician, best known for his Wham City arts collective at the Copycat Building in Station North, still years away from becoming a local household name. Now, Deacon is wedged somewhere between Beach House and Future Islands as one of the biggest and brightest acts to come out of Baltimore. At nearly 12 minutes, this recently re-released track takes you on a journey, from its exuberant bookend melodies through its race-pace electronic heart. In the end, we wind up where we are now: standing in awe of Deacon’s musical mastery. Back then, as in today, he turns the unexpected into a beautiful cacophonous symphony.

“Without You” by Micah E. Wood

Last year, we fell for Micah E. Wood’s infectious song “Go Away,” featuring the aforementioned Butch Dawson. We also adored his prolific portraits of Baltimore musicians bathed in afternoon light, like Joy Postell, Abdu Ali, and Al Rogers Jr., which seemed to be popping up everywhere. Naturally, we were extra excited to hear about Wood’s upcoming album, See Me, out September 22, and this new single, featuring a brighter brand of his trademark talk-sing electro-pop. This catchy, bass-heavy beat builds and blossoms into an anthemic chorus that pretty much sums up that jubilant moment of finally getting over a break-up: “I feel alive without you,” he sings, drawing that five-letter adjective out into eternity. Even if you’re in a relationship, this song makes you feel like you are full of life.

“Thinning” by Snail Mail

This song has been around for a year, but we’re adding it to the list anyway in celebration of Snail Mail’s badass inclusion in last week’s New York Times. In a rad roundtable titled “Rock’s Not Dead, It’s Ruled by Women,” frontwoman Lindsey Jordan keeps it real and, as in her music, comes across as well beyond her 18 years. Over the past few months, this breakout single has caught the attention of everyone from Pitchfork to SXSW to, now, the Gray Lady. It’s potent and pure, and its lush, lo-fi melody is laying forth the groundwork for a new era of indie-garage rock. It’s everything you felt at that coming-of-age moment before your twenties—her openhearted lyrics read like your internal diary, those gritty guitar chords pull at your heartstrings—and yet it continues to resonate, whatever your age might be today. 

*Not available on Spotify yet. We’ll add it when it comes online.

Two years ago, a rustic summer camp in Darlington transformed into a millennial hippie’s daydream. For one weekend, Fields Festival parked its metaphorical RV and threw a celebration of local DIY—an umbrella term for Baltimore’s vibrant arts scene that dances across genre, medium, and style. Hundreds of art students, music lovers, and merry pranksters flocked to the rustic grounds of Camp Ramblewood to see scores of area artists, musicians, and performers. Tents were pitched. Art was hung. Donut rafts filled the pool, Dan Deacon started dance parties, and cans of Natty Boh were crushed beside campfires. It was messy, magical, and uniquely Baltimore, and this month, it returns Aug. 19-21, bigger and better than ever. With everything from sets by Future Islands and TT The Artist to camping and lakeside yoga, here’s what you need to know for this Bonnaroo-meets-Burning Man-meets-Wet Hot American Summer weekend.

1. Relive your summer camp glory days by renting an old-school cabin.

2. Or get in touch with nature by glamping in your very own tent.

3. Required attire is up to interpretation. Sundresses, bathing suits, boas, bro tanks, jorts, hula hoops, face paint, glow sticks, bare feet—you name it, it’s all welcome.

4. Be sure to BYO: Natty Boh, grills, guitars, firewood, fanny packs, sunscreen, snacks, and campsite decorations.

5. Across 200 acres of campground, there are plenty of grassy knolls to lounge upon.

6. Sing “Kumbaya” around the campfire pit.

7. Take a dip in the pool with rafts all day and concerts at sunset.

8. Center your chakra with lakeside yoga and a wellness area for all the massage, acupuncture, and astrology your heart desires.

9. With six stages, don’t miss big names and up-and-comers like Future Islands, Dan Deacon, Lower Dens, TT The Artist, Abdu Ali, Flock of Dimes, Ed Schrader’s Music Beat, Chiffon, Horse Lords, Wume, Nudie Suits, etc. Plus, the eclectic costumes and cosmic jazz of the iconic Sun Ra Arkestra.

10. Get to know local creatives through art installations, theater, film, and poetry, including the likes of Wham City Comedy, street artist Reed Bmore, and members of Le Mondo, EMP Collective, and Best of Baltimore-winning Balti Gurls, to name a few.

11. Stop and smell the roses with décor at the entranceway and throughout the festival by local artists Beth Hoeckel and Becca Morrin.

12. Food Avenue will include tacos from Clavel, Vietnamese spring rolls by chef Stefano Porcile of Colette, Thread Coffee from Red Emma’s, plus falafel, pizza, and farm-to-table fare.

13. Show your skills with tennis and basketball courts open game for festival-goers.

14. Sorry: No children or fireworks allowed. Things might get a little wild as is.

Light Installations

(all located at the Inner Harbor)

Dear Baltimore (Thick Art Studios, Baltimore)
While you’re strolling the harbor, art might whizz right by you. Keep your eyes out for a jumble of neon letters propelled by bicycles that spell out phrases composed of the letters from “Dear Baltimore.”

Pipelines (Luminous Intervention, Baltimore)
This piece “really brings home the social justice component of the festival,” says Light City co-founder Justin Allen. It consists of a large-scale projection mapping at McKeldin Fountain that presents some of the issues that Baltimore faces: police violence, recreation, education, and housing. Along with the piece, the artists have arranged forums and musical performances to relate to the content so we can continue the dialogue surrounding this important work.

Peacock (Tim Scofield and Kyle Miller, Baltimore)
When this illuminated fowl unfurls its tail to stand 20-foot-tall and 40-feet-wide, it will be quite the sight to see.

Diamonds Light Baltimore (Cheon Kroiz, Artist and Architect Collaborative, Baltimore)
The 15, diamond-esque structures that will surround the harbor will use light to do more than just highlight these geometric shapes. At 10 p.m. each night, the lights will change from white to blue, to signify the curfew that went into effect after the unrest following the death of Freddie Gray. You can walk inside and around each structure and you ponder what has changed and what hasn’t since last April.

Labyrinth (Ian Brill, Pittsburgh, PA)
Mazes have frequently been thought of as metaphors for a spiritual journey. In this case, they become a symbol of the transformative power of art. Festival visitors are encouraged to get lost in this installation, whether together or separately, and you might be amazed to be immersed in something made solely of light and sound.