Aug 17: 2020 - COVID year

We are getting close to the present day now and 2020 was a year when we saw the world change.

The UK's first national COVID-19 lockdown began on March 23, 2020. Boris Johnson ordered the public to "stay at home," only permitting residents to leave for essential shopping, medical needs, one form of daily exercise, and travelling to work if absolutely necessary. My school stayed open for essential workers' children and we had months of fine weather where we were confined to in and around the village apart from heading to queue to get into the supermarket to buy food (and hopefully some toilet roll). A local village shop in Castle Acre did a great job of supporting local people who were shielding and avoiding contact.

Music became important to many people... I listened to it while working from home, and while cooking, which became a bigger part of life. I got to know the local fields and woods around my village well and saw the full growing cycle of crops from sowing to harvest. Everyone was concerned for their health and the health of family.

Mary Chapin Carpenter released an album recorded live without an audience, but then shared this excellent track, which she hasn't bettered since...

Between the Dirt and the Stars. The guitar solo on this is excellent...

Produced by Ethan Johns (Ray LaMontagne, Paul McCartney, Kings of Leon) and recorded entirely live at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Bath, in southwest England, the album finds the 5-time GRAMMY Award-winning singer-songwriter pondering life’s intimate, personal moments and exploring its most universally challenging questions at an unprecedented time. 

Written at her rural Virginia farmhouse before stay-at-home orders became the “new normal,” the songs celebrate invaluable experiences and irreplaceable wisdom, while also advocating exploration of the best in all of us.

Tangerine Dream released an excellent album at the end of 2020 capturing the sound of the original band, with three members who worked really well together...

Here's a 2016 version of the track 'Proton Bonfire' from this album.

Bob Mould closed out the year with 'American Crisis'.

What music kept you going through COVID? 

Please let me know...