It's 2026 Now
Or: Looking backwards and forwards
It’s January now, and one of my favorite things to do this time of year is listen to older music. More specifically, I’ll find an artist whose catalog I haven’t spent much time with and take the plunge. Last year it was the studio albums of the Grateful Dead which I found very fruitful. I’ve listened to multiple bootlegs, too, but that is a surface I have yet to properly scratch (and probably never will?) In the last week or two I found myself ensconced in a few bands from the 1980s whose catalogs I feel I need to do the deep dive on: maybe something that I will do and can present here?
This January is different in that I have a full time job again, for which I am grateful. I’m not working multiple jobs at odd hours to make ends meet. It’s also different in that, for the first time in a decade, there isn’t an episode of This Is Not A Show1 to begin to assemble. Still I yearn to do something: a friend of mine told me they found the end of my radio show saddening, and didn’t know what they’d do to look for new music.
I started to ask myself some questions:
What do I do now to stay in touch with new music? I mean, I still have all the avenues that I was collecting new music from. I still work in the music industry, but I still feel that there is a itch I need to scratch to present my musical findings to folks. I no longer feel beholden to just new music, though: I still have that passion and drive for new music discovery, but maybe it isn’t just new anymore as it can also now be new to me. Maybe it’s that Passive /|\ Active becomes not a monthly digest of musical discoveries, but a weekly / bi-weekly thing? Is this something you would want, dear reader?
There is a new project coming from yours truly and two of his best friends in 2026. We’re not ready to announce it yet, but hopefully soon?
Also a question to you: What can I, Rusty, do to stand out in 2026, amongst the sea of beloved journalists / critics / fellow music lovers? I’m not sure anyone has the answer here, but I really want to write more, talk more, about music.
So - there will be things here on the Ruststack. This world has gone to Hell, so if I can be a place for folks to escape and talk about music (or at least an alternate spot for those becoming disillusioned by social media) I’ll do my best to be here for you, no money required. This is where I stop typing and maybe grab my pen and paper and make lists, or sketch out what I want this exactly to look like. Thanks for being here, I appreciate you.
What Else
Excited for Steven Hyden’s Catalog Club launch this week. I actually have Happy Woman Blues by Lucinda Williams on right now, the first album I have heard in 2026. Find me in his comments section tomorrow?
This Is Not A Show, known by the people as TINAS, was my new music radio program that broadcast on WERA out of Arlington, VA from 2016-2019, and on WHUP out of HIllsborough, NC from 2020 until a few weeks ago.