Our 2025 year-end gift to you is music discovery! Explore and enjoy these lists of favorite albums from the past year, courtesy of our KCBX DJs. You can explore these albums at our KCBX Spotify page here. But most of all, listen to our KCBX shows to hear these and more discoveries every day on the air, and on our stream.
Neal Losey, Morning Cup, Night Train, Music Director
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m - Noon; Saturday, 9:00 p.m. - Midnight)
Blondshell - If You Asked for a Picture
Bar Italia - Some Like it Hot, especially the song Fundraiser
Janelle Younger, Broken Spoke
(Saturday, Noon - 3:00 p.m.)
Jeff Tweedy - Twilight Override
This is a huge album — 30 songs, some poignant, some loud, some twangy — all of them immediate and intensely real. There's even a spoken-word piece. This is Tweedy at his very best.
Jason Isbell - Foxes in the Snow
An intensely personal, lyrical collection of songs that stay with you long after the music is over.
Robert Plant - Saving Grace
This album finds Plant working with a stellar group of musicians who bring the music back to the roots. Plant says the group laughed constantly while recording the album, and that joyful spontaneity comes through in the music.
Mavis Staples - Sad and Beautiful World
Mavis has made a lot of music in her 75-year-long career, but this album sees her at the top of her game. Its thoughtfully chosen song roster provides the hope we need in these complicated times.
DUG - Have At It
Scottish American singer-songwriter Lorkin O’Reilly and California native Jonny Pickett join together to bring an edgy, modern take on traditional folk music.
BONUS: Brad Mehldau - Ride into the Sun
A passionate, nuanced take on the music of the late Elliott Smith.
What do you think has inspired your music taste, as a host and as a person?
Each one of us is shaped by such a unique mix of influences, and I am fortunate enough to have lived a long life with a lot of varied musical experiences, across a multitude of genres.
Why did you first become a music host for KCBX, and what has kept you as a music host for KCBX?
Because I can't imagine a world without public radio. It has shaped my musical tastes for my whole life. It's been 12 years since I started hosting the Broken Spoke, and about eight or nine years since I've been filling in on the Morning Cup. It's something I hope to do well into my crone years. The connection between the music we play and the folks listening never ceases to delight me.
Marisa Waddell, The Road Home, Program Director
(Thursday, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.)
Jason Isbell - Foxes in the Snow
This solo effort from singer-songwriter Jason Isbell features just his voice and his guitar. It’s simple and deep and elegant and poignant. Do yourself a favor and really listen to the lyrics. He’s a poet and a musical storyteller whose guitar playing is exquisite on this album.
Sierra Hull - A Tip Toe High Wire
Singer and virtuoso mandolinist Sierra Hull’s latest release is the album I played most this year on The Road Home — probably because every song is so doggone appealing. She self-produced it with her engineer friend Shani Gandhi, and it features more friends as special guests: Béla Fleck, Aoife O’Dononvan, and Tim O’Brien. Musically it ranges from newgrass barn burners to popgrass songs to a jazzgrass jaw-dropper, straight-ahead bluegrass ballads and more.
Mavis Staples - Sad and Beautiful World
The title says it all. This album is a woman of wisdom (and one of my heroes) looking at this life on this planet with grief and joy simultaneously. The songs are by other people — from Gillian Welch and David Rawlings to Frank Ocean to Curtis Mayfield — but they are all from her heart to ours. At age 86 her voice is still powerful, and more soulful than ever.
I’m With Her - Wild and Clear and Blue
It’s been seven years since Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan and Sarah Watkins released their first album together as a supergroup, and I’m so glad they decided to do another one. Their lush harmonies, beautiful songwriting and exceptional musicianship shine again on this album infused with bluegrass, pop, folk, and beauty.
Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ - Room on the Porch
This is a warm and delightful album of bluesy, folky tunes by both Taj and Keb’ along with songs by others (including some by Keb’s son Kevin Roosevelt Moore II). It just feels good to listen to this album by two contemporary blues legends. Treat yourself.
Bonus local album: Caleb Nichols - Stone Age is Back
Our 2025 San Luis Obispo County Poet Laureate Caleb Nichols released a wonderful, wide-ranging album this year with plenty of alt folk songs you’ll hear on The Road Home, and plenty of alt rock songs you’ll hear on other shows. Caleb is simultaneously an intellectual singer-songwriter and an emotional one who makes us think hard and feel deeply.
What do you think has inspired your music taste, as a host and as a person?
I’m fortunate to have parents with eclectic musical tastes who exposed me to many genres from the time I was a baby through adulthood. They shared their love of music with my older brother and me and took us to see live concerts from an early age. My brother also exposed me to music he discovered as we were growing up. Plus, I grew up listening to public radio, which opened vast musical worlds to me.
Why did you first become a music host for KCBX, and what has kept you as a music host for KCBX?
I was an avid listener of KCBX starting in the 6th grade, when my parents were volunteer DJs on the station. Then when I was a student at Cuesta College I got involved in the student radio station and loved being on the air, so I proposed to the KCBX program director at the time, Matt Elmore, that I would like to do a program of baroque music. He agreed to let me try, and I was thrilled that it became a popular show. I’ve been a part of KCBX in some form off and on (mostly on) ever since. I love the mission of KCBX to serve the Central Coast community. It makes me really happy to connect with, and share music and information with the people who listen to this station.
Brad Kyle, Across the Tracks
(Thursday, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m.)
Boom - Sierra Hull
Sierra Hull's first album in five years is self-produced, and the first that features her touring band on it. It’s also her first album released independently. You can clearly hear that she’s enjoying the freedom that step provides and she says it helped her grow. This release is a welcome back for an artist who has done a lot of guest spots on other folks' recordings for the last few years.
The Doohickeys - All Hat No Cattle
After meeting while studying at USC and working on a satirical news program there, Haley Spence Brown and Jack Hackett found common ground in writing silly country songs and comedy skits, and thus the Doohickeys were born. They released their debut album this year and developed a pretty strong social media presence. I’m always drawn to songs with a good satirical bent and musicians who can be funny.
Poi Rogers - Twilight Blues
2025 brought another new project courtesy of Carolyn Sills. This one is a duo featuring Carolyn on vocals and stand-up bass with her Carolyn Sills Combo bandmate/husband Gerard Egan on his handmade acoustic guitar and cool 1954 fender triple-neck steel. Together they blend timeless harmonies with a wink of the eye. This is another great offering from some very creative people out of Santa Cruz. The song You're All That I Need is standard romantic country fare at its best, while Why Oh Why Have I Not Been to Hawaii provides a good example of their signature charm and wit.
Joshua Ray Walker - Stuff
It’s been a rough year or so for Joshua Ray Walker, as he has been battling serious illness that cut short a tour a couple of years back, but he has bounced back in a big way and he’s returned with a fascinating new record called Stuff. The album contains songs written from the standpoint of things in your house — an ambitious concept for sure, starting with the title track Stuff and working its way through the house to the song Home. You’re gonna find something interesting in this collection.
The Hens - Hen Sounds
Coming together in 2015 and based in Austin, The Hens are known for some fun songwriting, great singing and playing, and they incorporate a lot of different styles into their music from klezmer to Texas honky-tonk. This is a great band out of a city known for great music.
Honorable Mentions:
Alex Williams - Space Brain
Willie Nelson - Working Man
Waylon Jennings - Songbird
Steve Jenkins, Citizen Sound
(Sunday, 11:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.)
Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power
Deafheaven returns to their extreme roots with a full-throttle black metal assault, taking direct vocal inspiration from Ihsahn (of Emperor fame) and coupling it with dissonant riffs and tireless blast beats. This concept album is a refreshing and charged return to the "blackgaze" hybrid genre the band helped define, expanding their dark universe through themes, visuals, and a relentlessly focused sound that is decidedly not radio-friendly.
Blood Orange – Essex Honey
Essex Honey feels like a profound and collaborative interior monologue, navigating the heavy themes of shared trauma and the fractured attempt to piece together memory and find recovery after years of collective isolation. Released seven years after his last work, the album is both devastating and beautiful, capturing an emotional atmosphere that resembles a spontaneous, communal gathering of friends who are rediscovering each other, all slightly marked by experience. The whole album feels communal and deeply personal at the same time.
Nourished By Time – The Passionate Ones
The Passionate Ones is a quietly intimate and deeply solitary album, perfect for late-night reflection and private dance parties, hitting with a distinct and melancholy emotional atmosphere. The sound is marked by deceptive intros, soulful croons, and a sampled choir that fills the room, creating a sense of a private conversation between the listener and the artist, even as the beat kicks in.
Mangled State – Learn to Suffer
This release is a raw and ferocious highlight of hardcore punk, featuring an apt title for the genre and the current era. Released on the seminal DIY label Youth Attack Records, the album is a high-energy explosion of sound that lives up to its intense name, proving to be one of the most vital and memorable extreme listening experiences of the year.
Discovery Zone – Remote Control (2025 Vinyl Reissue)
A glittery, experimental synthpop package, Remote Control is fragmented and playful, sounding like a sentient robot gaining consciousness for the first time amidst confusion, joy, and existential dread. The production features reverb-drenched dreamscapes, subtle plucks, and Julee Cruise-like soft vocals, capturing the nostalgic fun of the early internet before it became haunted by algorithms, making it a spiritual successor for fans of experimental, dreamy synth music. Favorite lyric: “Forever is an unbroken chain of nows." Shout out to Neal Ramirez at Boo Boo Records for the great recommendation.
Rick Matthews, Freedom Jazz Dance
(Monday, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m.)
Terri Lyne Carrington & Christie Dashiell - We Insist 2025!
Another brilliant work from Carrington, one of the best drummers in jazz, joined by vocalist Dashiell and a superb international, multi-generational band. Not really a "Cover Album", this is a powerful reimagining and updated interpretation of Max Roach's 1960 classic statement on the socio-political turmoil in the mid-20th century civil-rights era (We Insist! - Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite).
Christian McBride Big Band - Without Further Ado Vol. 1
The incredible bassist, composer, bandleader, Radio host, educator, and music director has another outstanding effort, featuring guest vocals from across the spectrum of jazz vocal art. From Samara Joy to Jose James, Cecile McLorin Savant, Dianne Reeves, even Sting! Great arrangements of classic songs, appealing to a general audience and jazz heads alike.
Out of/Into - Motion II
This is the second album by this all-star group of young artists recording for the Blue Note record label. All original compositions, modern yet accessible, that emphasize interplay and originality. Each member is a band leader/composer and together they collaborate at a very high level. It’s an embodiment of what Blue Note has excelled at since 1939 — but fresh!
Tyreek McDole - Open Up Your Senses
Debut album from this Haitian-American vocalist whose belief is that music is the highest form of communication: a tool for healing, reflection and collective dreaming. Winner of the 2023 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition, McDole’s singing draws from the spiritual jazz tradition as well as the blues and post-bop jazz. The album selections are diverse and many are soothing. You’ll hear tastes of Monk, Pharaoh Sanders, Nicholas Payton, Joe Williams, etc.
Don Was & the Pan-Detroit Ensemble - Groove In The Face Of Adversity
Don Was, bassist for the band Was (Not Was), is also a producer and radio host, and has a day job as president of Blue Note Records. His album’s music reflects his wide range of musical interests, including soul jazz, Hank Williams, Curtis Mayfield, and A Tribe Called Quest. Leave the “genre police” at home and dig the “pan-Detroit” experience!
Honorable Mentions - these albums could have been on the list and deserve checking out:
Anat Cohen - Quartetinho: Bloom - Virtuoso jazz clarinet & group
Artemis - Aboresque - All-female jazz supergroup
Joni Mitchell - Joni's Jazz - 4-disc compilation of Joni's best jazzy tracks. Outstanding!
Brandee Younger - Gadabout Season - Harp-led modern jazz. Great album!
Sasha Berliner - Fantome Vibraphone & group with original material. Also great!
What do you think has inspired your music taste, as a host and as a person?
To be At One with the harmonic nature of the universe, you know... that would be cool. Like the DJ said, "Moving Minds and Behinds".
Why did you first become a music host for KCBX, and what has kept you as a music host for KCBX?
I wanted to share my love of jazz with others and was given the opportunity at KCBX shortly after it got started. As a willing volunteer, it has been my privilege to participate in the five decades of history here at KCBX.
Fred Friedman, Jazz Liner Notes
(Thursday, 10:00 p.m. - Midnight)
Galactic & Irma Thomas - Audience With The Queen
New Orleans musicians Galactic and Irma Thomas (The Soul Queen Of New Orleans) collaborate on what is sure to be a classic. Funky and soulful. Irma is still happening.
Noah Preminger - Ballads
This one came out of left field. Very different from the saxophonist's previous releases. The title gives the listener a big clue about the music from this usually fiery musician. Pianist Julian Shore and drummer Allan Medford have become two of my favorite jazz discoveries this year.
Augustin Hadelich & Orion Weiss - American Road Trip
This was released at the end of 2024 but I didn't discover it until the beginning of 2025. I have seen both of these artists in concert several times. Augustin Hadelich is one of the most amazing violinists you can ever hope to see/hear. Orion Weiss is a phenomenal pianist. They perform works from a melting pot of composers. One of those albums you want to listen to over and over.
Annie & The Caldwells - Can't Lose My (Soul)
We're still getting to listen to great new soul music. Annie & The Caldwells is a family from West Point, Mississippi. The group includes Annie, her husband, her two daughters and her two sons.
Branford Marsalis - Belonging
The original Belonging LP was released by the Keith Jarrett European Quartet in 1974. It is still one of my favorite albums. Branford and his quartet recorded their interpretation of the complete album. Outstanding in its own way.
What do you think has inspired your music taste, as a host and as a person?
I started listening to jazz and R&B music when I was in my early teens. I enjoy many different genres of music.
Why did you first become a music host for KCBX, and what has kept you as a music host for KCBX?
I discovered KCBX accidentally by scanning the radio dial in 1979. A year later I asked [station co-founder] Steve Urbani how I could help. He suggested I practice hosting a show. This is my 45th year hosting Jazz Liner Notes.
Jim Dee, Global Spin
(Sunday, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.)
Arooj Aftab - Night Reign
Unlike anything I've ever heard before.
Anouar Brahem - After the Last Sky
Prolific Tunisian oud player teaming up with a new ensemble.
Kokoroko - Tuff Times Never Last
Wonderful young band from the UK.
BEATrio - Bela Fleck, Edmar Castaneda, Antonio Sanchez
London Afrobeat Collective - Esengo
What do you think has inspired your music taste, as a host and as a person?
I would have to define my music taste as an extremely wide spectrum and can always be moved by music I've never heard before.
Why did you first become a music host for KCBX, and what has kept you as a music host for KCBX?
I have a general love for radio. As a host, it's not only a completely enjoyable experience, having the ability to share music with an audience, but a powerful one. To be able to craft a program that will hopefully engage the listener— and in my case, jumping from country to country might make that difficult — I hope the show makes the world more celebratory and listenable.
Andy Zink, Global Spin
(Sunday, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.)
Natalia Lafourcade - Cancionera
An excellent follow-up to "De Todas Las Flores" featuring an outstanding cast of musicians and including guests like Hermanos Gutierrez. It was recorded in one take on analog tape, which is pretty astounding for a musician to try these days. A beautiful recording from start to finish.
Antibalas - Hourglass
The latest from this Brooklyn-based Afrobeat band. All instrumentals and super funky all the way through!
Alune Wade - New African Orleans
A last-minute discovery, thanks to another "best of 2025" list I came across. Wade is a Senegalese born bass player and singer who has played with everyone including The Zawinul Syndicate. This recording has some originals and covers including Voodoo Child and Fela Kuti's Water No Get Enemy.
Meklit - A Piece of Infinity
Adrian Quesada - Boleros Psicodelicos II
What do you think has inspired your music taste, as a host and as a person?
I could have listed 20 more recordings as my favorites of 2025! And on any given day, my list would have looked different. But these are all solid faves of 2025 and all got airplay on Global Spin. My music taste is all over the map. I was raised in a household where it was "jazz all the time, and it's the only music worth listening to." But somewhere along the way, I veered off that course. I came away with a love of all types of music and appreciation of how hard musicians work to make our lives better.
Why did you first become a music host for KCBX, and what has kept you as a music host for KCBX?
I've been a DJ at KCBX since 2013. I am constantly inspired by my fellow DJs and their dedication to bringing great music to our listeners. And, of course, I am always delighted by our listeners and supporters of the station. They are the reason we do this as well as the ones who keep KCBX alive!
Craig Russell, KCBX in Concert
(Wednesday, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.)
Abel Selaocoe - Hymns of Bantu
One of my favorite musicians to have appeared on the scene in the past decade is the astonishing South-African cellist Abel Selacoe. He studied in Soweto and later did graduate work in Manchester in the U.K. where he formed the Manchester Collective with some musician friends. He often sings while playing cello, and his voice is entrancing. For instance, the opening track Tsohle, Tsohle is magical and can be found on YouTube with Abel and Yo-Yo Ma together. He can play music infused with influences of South Africa and then improvise on themes by Baroque viol player Marin Marais. And his performances of Bach cello suites are marvelous. One of my favorite albums ever.
Weir: In the Land of Uz & Beach: The Canticle of the Sun, with the Yale Schola Cantorum, dir. by David Hill, on Hyperion
For those who think that oratorios, with their implicit spiritual bent, are a thing of the past, I recommend this album as an intriguing rebuttal. Judith Weir’s In the Land of Uz is drawn from the trials of Job in the Bible, and much of the musical language is jazz-like sometimes, and at others it is thoroughly modern but accessible — much like Bernstein. And Amy Beach’s Canticle of the Sun is arguably one of the best American compositions from the past two centuries.
Kölner Akademie - ¡Feliz Navidad! Mexican Baroque Music for Christmas, dir. by Michael Willens, on CPO out of Germany
This recording is based on my editions of music that I photographed and then painstakingly reconstructed from the Mexico City and Puebla Cathedrals. The composers Nebra, Corselli, Sumaya, and Jerusalem comprise the pantheon of worthy artists who were heard in the New World at the same time Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Haydn were heard in the Old World. The Kölner Akademie is a virtuosic ensemble and under Willens’ baton make the repertoire gleam and sparkle.
Chanticleer - Joy to the World, dir. by Tim Keeler
This album includes a fabulous quilt of a cappella polyphony, some of it from America’s past (works by Richard Rodgers, Lowell Mason & John Jacob Niles) plus vintage Renaissance composers Praetorius, Morales, and Palestrina. My favorite works, though, are the contemporary masterpieces: Steven Sametz’s A Christmas Fanfare, Joana Marsh’s Winter’s Garland (three songs) and Sarah Quartel’s The Endriss Night.
Convergence - Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, dir. by Andrew Sewell
Music lovers in our community know Andrew Sewell as our conductor of the SLO Symphony, but he also is maestro of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Their release Convergence is a triumph artistically and focuses on African-American composers Patrice Rushen, Andre Myers, Michael Abels, and Valerie Coleman.
"Detroit Deb" Ingalls, Evening Blues
(Saturday, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.)
Johnnie Johnson - I'm Just Johnnie
Kim Wilson - Slow Burn
D.K. Harrell - Talkin' Heavy
Jim Conroy, Celtic Crossroads
(Saturday, 5:00 - 6:00 p.m.)
I'm With Her - Wild and Clear and Blue
Christy Moore - A Terrible Beauty
Beoga - Phases
What do you think has inspired your music taste, as a host and as a person?
The scope of Celtic music and how good it can be.
Why did you first become a music host for KCBX, and what has kept you as a music host for KCBX?
It seemed like a worthwhile thing to do.
Jerome Taylor, Universal Language
(Friday, 8:30 - 10:00 p.m.)
Jon Cleary - The Bywater Sessions
Far and away my favorite new release in quite some time.
Various Artists - A Tribute To The King Of Zydeco
A fitting recognition to one of the masters of zydeco.
Paul Carrack - The Country Side of Paul Carrack - Volume 1
Such a great voice, here's hoping for Volume 2.
Robbie Fulks - Now Then
Another solid effort from one of the most underappreciated artists of our generation.
Dr. John - Live at The Village Gate
One can never have too much Dr. John.
What do you think has inspired your music taste, as a host and as a person?
Anything & Everything.
Celeste Geary - Development Coordinator
Dodie - Not for Lack of Trying
Indie, British bedroom pop, cinematic
Gabi Hartmann - La femme aux yeux de sel
World, jazz, pop, feminine
What do you think has inspired your music taste, as a host and as a person?
My music taste is inspired by my roots in Los Angeles, where there is a curiosity for the full spectrum of the human experience. From drippy, enchanting feminine jazz to hard, tell-it-like-it-is lyrical hip-hop, I have a deep respect for music makers getting a message across through sound.
Why did you first become a music host for KCBX, and what has kept you as a music host for KCBX?
I am not a music host for KCBX, but I love music <3