March “Nashville Artist of The Month” is former Nashvillian Ron Gallo. We asked him to create a playlist of music for WNXP listeners, and he gave us this deliberately eclectic glimpse into his musical mind:
This is my beginning of springtime playlist — rebirth, everything in bloom and hopefully steps closer to a better future.
- Chickpee – two trees – this song can represent the end of winter. It’s an incredibly beautiful song Chiara wrote for her family in Italy who she hasn’t seen in over a year because immigration won’t allow her to leave the U.S.
- MF DOOM – “Perfect hair” – R.I.P. to the greatest. From one of my favorite albums of all-time. Ultimate wordsmith.
- Parcels – Lightenup – I discovered this band by random on YouTube auto-play – a COLORS session of this song popped up and it blew my mind, one of the tightest most technically ridiculous bands out there.
- Juan Wauters – “Todo Termino” – Juan is my entrance to springtime jams. It’s become clockwork over the past few years. It makes me reminiscent of being on tour, specifically being in Austin in mid-march for SXSW and it feels like the first days of spring.
- Remi Wolf – “Woo!” – Been keeping up with Remi Wolf for a while now and it’s cool to see it cutting thru because it’s an approach to “pop” that I find really intriguing and speaks well to my ADHD brain.
- Parquet Courts – “Pretty Machines” – another big springtime nostalgia jam. One of my favorite modern bands, lyricists and writers.
- Binki – “Seasick” – Another super new artist I found when he had one song out early last year and immediately latched on to it. It’s a unique blend of stuff I love and gives me a 90’s optimistic feeling.
- Notorious B.I.G/Mase/Diddy – “Been Around the World” – This is just the best. Pure joy. I’m immediately back to the middle school pool party. This was in the first few CD’s I ever had as a kid.
- Kali Uchis – “After the Storm” – Three way collab. Between Kali, Tyler the Creator and Bootsy Collins, yes please. Also a very positive message and feels applicable right now as maybe the clouds are starting to clear?
- Sports – “The Look” – Love this band, courtesy of Chiara who turned me onto them a couple years ago. So many bangers and I’m also very excited about a collaboration we have coming out this springtime. 🙂
- Sidney Bechet – Si Tu Vois Ma Mere – A 70 year old recording but probably mostly known as “The song from ‘Midnight in Paris’” – I’m big on jazz and I love that movie and have watched it multiple times over the past year. The combination really transports me and I’ll take any of that I can get these days.
- Caetano Veloso – “You Don’t Know Me” – I love a lot of Brazilian music, this being one of my favorites. This song also shares a title as my favorite Ray Charles song, but is an entirely different song.
- Ms. Lauryn Hill – “Mystery of Iniquity” – Lauryn Hill is an absolute genius, and the words and amount of words in this song are miraculous. It really hits hard, especially this year. On my birthday a few years back drove 100 hours to see her and Nas in Houston and it was great.
- The Smiths – “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” – I had trouble getting into The Smiths and Morrissey for most of my life, but it finally clicked. This song I particularly find hilarious and it’s a blend of the major 7 jazzier chords with new wave/punk that is a blend I feel like I really wanted to explore on the new record and more in the future.
- Yellow Days – “Gap in the Clouds” – One of a few super young UK kids that are way beyond the years and making awesome shit. Probably my favorite of all of his jams, but there are many good ones.
— Ron Gallo