Culture
Suggested Listening 2024: Ian Saint
By: Ian Saint
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WOUB Culture’s Suggested Listening series highlights the music that resonated with WOUB Culture contributors and regional artists in 2024. Today we spotlight WOUB Arts & Culture correspondent Ian Saint.
Ian Saint is an Arts & Culture correspondent for WOUB Public Media. He splits his time between Dallas, where he just emceed the State Fair of Texas music stages, and his home state of Ohio. Follow him on Instagram @ian.saint.
Tiera Kennedy — I Ain’t a Cowgirl
When I interviewed Tiera on CBS’s CMT Music Awards red carpet last year, she was ebullient to release her completed debut album. She was later gutted when her label unexpectedly dropped her; but then Beyoncé called, and Tiera crooned on Cowboy Carter. Riding the wave of newfound prominence after a gut-punching crash, I Ain’t a Cowgirl is Tiera’s triumphant first release as a newly-independent artist — an emotional encouragement to soldier on.
Kassi Ashton — Made from the Dirt
It’s felicitous that 2024 ACM Awards’ New Female Artist of the Year nominee Kassi Ashton hails from the one-traffic-light-town of California, Missouri, as she evokes both states. The title track of Kassi’s 2024 album sounds like it’d fit neatly on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours — in the vein of Dreams, but seasoned with small-town twang. It’s an irresistible anthem for folks with conviction to overcome steep odds.
Foreigner — Juke Box Hero
After 23 years of eligibility, “arena rock” forefathers Foreigner were finally inducted to Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year. When I interviewed Foreigner’s soaring vocalist Lou Gramm, he shared his tumultuous recollection of recording Juke Box Hero with blockbuster producer “Mutt” Lange. Lou’s wish to perform his signature song — which literally depicts an “arena rock” tale — at Foreigner’s induction was perplexingly denied, but Ohioans were compensated with Lou’s unforgettable delivery at Warren’s historic Robins Theatre.
Jackson Dean — Heavens to Betsy
One of grief’s toughest aspects is wondering what your deceased loved one would say — especially if your relationship was fraught, a dynamic that Mike + The Mechanics explored with 1989’s #1 hit The Living Years. Nashville newcomer Jackson Dean croons from the opposite realm, as an alcoholic absentee father seeking to console his bereaved daughter. Heavens to Betsy is a songwriting masterpiece, beautifully addressing complicated feelings about what could’ve been with a troubled loved one, boasting lyrical and vocal maturities that belie the Y2k-born troubadour’s age. The track’s heightening tempo and volume compliment the listener’s heightening emotions.
Green Day — Dilemma
Billie Joe Armstrong wrote Dilemma while drunk, and wrestling with shame about his relapse after five years of sobriety. The song’s beginning sounds evocative of the 1950s, when issues like addiction were stigmatized and glossed-over, and ends with a blistering “I don’t want to be a dead man walking” refrain — that I witnessed echoed by stadium crowds on Green Day’s Saviors Tour. Dilemma was accompanied by full performances of 2004’s American Idiot and 1994’s Dookie, continuing Green Day’s long tradition of creating decade-defining rock classics with songs that smash stigmas.
Leigh Nash feat. Tears For Fears’ Roland Orzabal — Unraveling
2024 finds Leigh Nash in a sweet spot of artistic past and present: amid triple-Platinum certification of 1998 single Kiss Me — and Sabrina Carpenter’s cover igniting interest from successive generations — Sixpence None The Richer reunited for an acclaimed EP, and Nash released a single with a rock titan. In what could be dramatized as a quarter-century follow-up to Kiss Me‘s initial courtship, Unraveling is an ode of gratitude to a companion who uplifts their partner in tough times, delivered in a duet between Nash and Roland Orzabal of Tears For Fears. Their crescendoing harmony in the magnificent chorus is spellbinding. (PS: my interview with Tears For Fears’ Curt Smith remains a favorite!)
Vanita Leo — Si Dios Quiere
Latin music is burgeoning in the mainstream; from Bad Bunny being Spotify’s 2022 most-streamed artist, to Americanafest 2024 hosting a Telemundo-covered Hispanic Heritage Month showcase in Nashville. As I emceed the State Fair of Texas’s music stages, I fell in love with cumbia; and Vanita Leo presented a delightful highlight. Even if you don’t speak Spanish, Si Dios Quiere will have you swaying along and playing “air cowbell” — which I discovered is a thing.
Kyshona, feat. Nickie Conley & Maureen Murphy — Heaven Is a Beautiful Place
Kyshona’s Legacy album is a commemoration and celebration of her heritage, and part collaboration with family both living and transcended — including Heaven Is a Beautiful Place, written by her late paternal grandfather, Hawthorne “H.T.” Armstrong. Preceded by a recording of Grandpa singing it with The Church Elders, Kyshona’s modern recording with a full band in Memphis is extraordinarily vibrant; Legacy was co-produced by Rachael Moore, whom I’d recognized in 2022’s Music Highlights as Music Director for Showtime’s George & Tammy soundtrack.
Having lost my own paternal grandfather in 2024, and feeling the gravity of all the poems and lineage writings that Grandpa left for us to curate, I’m deeply moved by Kyshona’s project — and the impact of Kyshona’s Legacy resonated across the world, as it’s garnered Americana UK’s International Album and Song Of The Year nominations.
Charley Crockett — Visions of Dallas
Charley Crockett is an Americana titan today — nominated for Artist of the Year at Americana Awards in both the USA and UK — but I first saw him perform a free show at Dallas’s Twilite Lounge bar in Deep Ellum. $10 Cowboy isn’t a fictional aesthetic; it’s authentic to Charley’s music performance roots, and Visions of Dallas is a lush homage to where it all began. Given my Deep Ellum dive bar memories of him, it was quite surreal to see Charley and the similarly Texas-hailing Blue Drifters band performing Visions of Dallas at their sold-out Red Rock Amphitheatre headlining show in September.
Rolling Stones — Start Me Up
In 1981, The Rolling Stones were nearing-to-well-over 40. Skeptics might’ve predicted that the Stones’ stands would be empty, as the teenage demographic that powered their launch flipped generations; but Start Me Up shot to #2, and their concurrent Tattoo You tour was attended by many people born after the Stones’ first releases — including my father. Back then, the notion of octogenarian rockstars might’ve been unfathomable; but in 2024, the Rolling Stones packed Cleveland Browns Stadium. Watching them open with Start Me Up, alongside my father — a high-schooler at 1981’s Richfield Coliseum concert, and grandfather today — was profound.