Annually, the last week of the year, singer-songwriter Dar Williams plays at a concert here in New York City. I really loved the one I attended in 2017, when I wrote,

I tried going to that concert in 2022, and it was crowded with poor ventilation and I was one of the very few wearing a mask; I think I spent most of it sitting in the foyer just outside the room, listening to the muffled music, balancing my COVID caution with my desire to hear. In 2023 I stayed home.

I longingly considered going to the 2024 concert, but realized I'd probably have a similar experience as I'd had in 2022. Instead I asked a friend who also enjoys her music if he'd listen to a playlist with me. He doesn't much care for End of the Summer and mostly has her earlier work; here's what we put together and appreciated together on New Year's Eve. Fourteen songs, 56 minutes. A lot of heartstring-pullers, as I realized partway through.

I am in that maudlin mood that hits at the turn of the year. I've been listening to her work for more than half my life, and there are lines that just reach in and wrench my heart -- "I'll join them now" from "Cold Missouri Waters", "their stumbling and their mumbling / And their calling out just like me" from "What Do You Hear In These Sounds", and probably 80% of "The Christians and the Pagans". And I wanted to be in a room with her and with an audience, together, singing along, crying together. But instead my friend and I sat in our homes, far from each other, and hit Play at the same moment, then Signal-text-messaged each other about particular bits that caught us, or resonances we noticed.

And it was something, to share that with him, and to mark the turn of the year.