Oh good, we're back

When I started JackJams last year, I was bored but also supremely unmotivated. I thought forcing myself to create content would get me out of a creative rut, but all it did was make me feel worse about how little I felt that I had to say.

And as I said to my wife yesterday, pretty much nobody is less-suited to dole out parenting advice than me. I read one book before Jack was born and it was written by a man. I’m also not sure I finished it, so needless to say childbirth was one surprise after another.

So. Let’s try this again.

I wanted to come up with an angle that could do two things 1.) Inspire me to actually want to write and 2.) Not force me to come up with a new name and website and all that crap.

I have hit upon such a topic, and I am so pleased to announce the brand new JackJams. Each week I will listen to one (1) new album and then share one (1) of those songs with Jack to get his opinion. (Note: The album does not have to be “new” in the sense that it came out in 2025, just new to me.) We’ll see if we agree, disagree, or if this is considered some form of “child entrapment.”

Writing about music has always been my first creative love, and sharing music with Jack has also been an unexpected blessing of becoming a parent. He shares my inclination to be extremely opinionated, so this should work out for us perfectly. I’ve created a new playlist called “Nu Rock,” because I am not clever, and if we agree on a song, it goes on the playlist. Easy in theory, but I will clearly never learn my lesson when it comes to relying on a toddler to help me accomplish a task in a timely manner.

So why this? In my younger years, I was constantly discovering new music, and I was also one of those people who always said, “I’ll never stop finding tunes! It’s so easy.” Well, dear reader, have you ever had a child during a pandemic? It’s a muscle I haven’t really flexed in a long time, and so I expect this to take a few issues for me to have an opinion beyond, “Cool guitar.” But the journey is the destination!

So I hope you’re ready to talk about new music, not new music, music that shouldn’t be music, and everything in between. And also hear the thoughts of a 4 year-old who just yelled “Oh balls!” when he dropped his water bottle.

The fun starts next week, but in the meantime, here’s my favorite song of the moment (and it’s actually from 2025).

Self Esteem: “Focus is Power,” from her upcoming album A Complicated Woman

See you next week, and sorry I stopped writing for like 4 months. Pray for me.

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