As the year comes to a close, we take a moment to remember some of the musicians we lost in 2025—artists whose voices and instruments shaped the music we carry with us, often without realizing how deeply they’d settled in.

There were so many losses this year that I could have easily put together more than one show. The music you’ll hear tonight is a culling—not by importance or influence, but by resonance. These are the songs that stayed with me, the ones that surfaced when I sat quietly and listened back.

Today’s show isn’t meant to be comprehensive. It’s personal. This is dedicated to all the people we’ve lost in 2025.

We’re living through a time in this country marked by noise, confusion, and a kind of willful ignorance and cruelty that makes everything feel louder and harder than it needs to be. The challenges are real. The suffering is real. And some days it feels like we’re drifting further from one another instead of closer.

In moments like this, music doesn’t fix anything—but it reminds us that care, imagination, and human connection have always existed alongside the madness. These songs carry evidence of that.

The show ends with Brian Wilson performing “Love and Mercy.” As 2026 approaches I believe that choosing to practice love and mercy in the new year is a rational response to a complex, wounded world, because they reduce conflict, preserve human dignity, and create the conditions in which real understanding and change can still occur.

Happy New Year my friends.

Dave

Dear Friends,

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of visiting my dear friend John Abramson in Boston to collaborate on a show. John and I had been friends for over fifty years, sharing countless moments and, always, a deep love of music. Growing up in Forest Hills, Queens gave John a direct line to both the Doo Wop tradition and the folk music of Greenwich Village in the 1960s, and he spent much of our friendship turning me on to both genres. His knowledge was encyclopedic, his passion endless. This show grew out of that collaboration.

Just a few days after we recorded it, John was hospitalized, gravely ill. He returned home on Friday to be with his wife and passed away on Saturday night. This show is dedicated to John— to our friendship, to our shared passion for all kinds of music, and to the love I carry for him.

Thanks for listening,

Dave