Thanksgiving is one of my most favorite holidays - and it is so often overlooked. It’s one of the only days of the year when everything is closed and there are no distractions to take our attention away from family, friends, and all of the things that we are the most grateful for. Last year, we had to look hard to find the silver lining after being dealt a hard hand over 2020. Last year, in many ways, was one of the most beautiful Thanksgivings yet, because, after losing many things, we all truly got to see what we actually have. Not things, not plans, not new gadgets or clothes - but the people who stuck by us during the hardest of hard times, the simple beauties of every day life that we got to see once forced to slow down, the wonderful things that were born of forced creativity, and the hope that all we had lost over 2020 would return in a magnificent way. This year is a continuation of that, because on Thanksgiving Day 2021, though the future is still uncertain (isn’t it always?) and we’re not quite out of the woods yet, we have gotten back what we have lost - for me, live music - and that’s something to be incredibly thankful for.

The upcoming new year means a lot more than usual this time around, at least to me. With 2021 on the horizon, a Covid vaccine in the works, and the promise of warm weather and the possibility of gathering with friends in the future, I’m cautiously seeing a light at the end of the tunnel - and it makes my heart swell with hope. The new year is also a tried-and-true time for reflection - and we have much to reflect on this year. In 2020, we faced countless obstacles as a human species. We came up against a foe not as nation against nation, religion vs. religion, or any other man-made construct of confrontation, but as humans with the need to band together to get through a year so rough that it sometimes seemed as though we were living in the matrix. What will we learn from this? How will we grow from it, as individuals and as a group? Will we take the lessons learned to heart, or throw them out as soon as things return to normal? While we walk this line between hope and reflection, Graham Good and The Painters will give us the perfect soundtrack for both. The feel-good kings of NoCo are set to release their debut full-length self-titled album early next year. They haven’t set an exact release date yet, but you can look for the album in the first few months of 2021. I got the chance to hear the new record ahead of time, and I’m so excited to give you a preview of the good things that are coming.