Roger’s year in music, 2023

 Music does something to me, and I’ve never been able to explain exactly why. It just happens. My molecules are somehow rearranged when I walk...

Roger’s year in music, 2022

It never hurts to repeat fundamental truths. Music does something to me, and I’ve never been able to explain exactly why. It just happens. Sometimes...

A rainy writing morning; time again for “Venetian Vespers”

And might I add, a perfect day for letting my mind wander. As I write, it is raining, and ponderings about Venice usually come equipped...

John Lennon: Life (and death) is what happens to you while you’re busy making...

(An essay originally published at NA Confidential in 2005, and often repeated. It has been lightly edited.) On the morning of December 9, 1980, I...

Forty 1970s-era albums for December, 2025

Complete as of December 27, 2025 Nostalgia regularly afflicts me, and as a result, I endeavor to keep it at arm’s length. But 2025 has been...

10 Songs for Remembering Barry Sears

https://www.rogerbaylor.com/2025/10/30/r-i-p-barry-sears-a-friend-since-kindergarten-who-changed-my-life-over-lunch/ Barry Sears, one of my oldest and dearest friends, died unexpectedly in October. It was a profound shock amid a sad year of loss. However,...

On the late James Levine

The conductor and pianist James Levine died earlier this month, and yesterday's obituary in the The New York Times is here. Levine was renowned,...

My year in music, at least so far

I remain wedded to the CD format, but these days I stream music first, then purchase the physical discs of those new releases that...

Latest article

40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 92: Pentecostal pews, beer judging exams and...

Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 91: New Albany’s brewing history, prior to NABC resuming it. It would be perfectly reasonable of the...

40 Years of Sidebars: Hugo Claus, Frans Masereel & NABC’s one-off Silent Oath Oud...

This Belgian cultural excursion didn’t slot handily into the “40 Years in Beer” narrative, and so I've declared it suitable as a “sidebar.” The...

40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 91: New Albany’s brewing history, prior to...

Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 90: A brewery for the New Albanian in all of us, Lite-free NABC debuts in 2002. In...