I’ve been making what I call a Christmas mix — that is, not holiday songs but a mix made at the holidays — since 1997; first they were tapes, then for a few years cds, and finally, in the digital age, the last seven nine ten years have been downloadable zip files, and this year is no exception. These are songs — frequently but not necessarily released in 2014 — that meant something to me this year, for various reasons, and they are for you. The whole shebang is available as a zip file [here] (135MB, .zip).

Happy holidays, happy 2014, happy these are great songs — whatever floats your boat. This is from me to you. 2014, I am glad to see your back end, but I am also glad to know I am strong enough to survive the kind of bullshit that got flung in my direction. Also, I fell in love and the world gave me 1989 so I can’t complain. That’s all you can expect: good, bad, love, Taylor Swift. That’s all I know.

If you creep about lurking and you only comment on one post all year, this would be a good one. I’m just sayin’. ♥

1. Ani DiFranco – “Joyful Girl”: i do it for the joy it brings / because i’m a joyful girl / because the world owes me nothing / and we owe each other the world
2. Frank Turner – “The Corner” (Cory Branan cover): down on the corner of what i want / and what i tend to get
3. Noah Gundersen – “Cigarettes”: you remind me of cigarettes
4. Caleb Caudle – “How’d You Learn”: how’d you learn to calm the storm, how’d you learn to make a cold heart warm
5. Mason Jennings – “Brand New Old Friend”: hello my brand new old friend / so glad to see you again / we must go way way back / don’t it just feel now like that
6. The Wild – “Dreams Are Maps”: don’t let the deeds your past become a trap
7. The Avett Brothers – “Open-Ended Life”: i spent my whole life talking to convince everyone / that i was something else / and the part that kinda hurts / is i think it finally worked
8. Thea Gilmore – “Start As We Mean To Go On”: when trouble comes we’ll start the drums and leave it in our wake
   
9. Oh Honey – “Be Okay”: i’m wide awake, so what’s the point of dreaming when your life is great?
10. Lake Street Dive – “Bad Self Portraits”: a lonesome highway / is a pretty good subject / i’m gonna make myself make use of this thing
11. Cory Branan – “The No-Hit Wonder”: it is what it is, boys, it is what it is
12. Old 97’s – “Longer Than You’ve Been Alive”: love is a marathon / sometimes you puke
13. Lydia Loveless – “All I Know”: all i know is that i’m going to see you again / all i know is that i’m going to be with you again
14. Taylor Swift – “New Romantics”: baby, we’re the new romantics / the best people in life are free
15. Vance Joy – “Riptide”: i wanna be your left hand man / i love you when you’re singing that song and / i got a lump in my throat ’cause / you’re gonna sing the words wrong