At the start of each year I re-read Woody Guthrie’s list of ‘New Year’s Rulins’ from 1943 and try to capture a little of his spirit. My favourites remain the same: Work more & be better, work by a schedule, eat good, write everyday, read lots of good books, listen to the radio, learn people, don’t get lonesome, stay glad, keep the hoping machine running, beat fascism, love everyone, wake up and fight.
In the past I used to write yearly blogging resolutions but haven’t done since 2021. Maybe that indicates how the past few years have been challenging in the blogosphere. Looking back at that 2021 list feels crazy now as it’s all about the pandemic and trying to find ways to cope without live music. Now five years later, I thought I’d take stock and write my blogging resolutions for 2026.
1) Review Albums by Humans for Humans
After writing my post about AI and the future of music blogging, and reading the book ‘Mood Music’ by Liz Pelly on Spotify playlists, I’ve never felt more motivated to listen and review new albums.
In an age of endless streaming and the rise of AI slop, the beauty of the album concept stands out as something to treasure and the right way to listen. Writing about albums takes thinking time and shows the importance of real human connection as musicians, listeners, writers and readers. I won’t take any of that for granted again.
This year I reviewed 30 albums and EPs, with a few more that I ran out of time for. So I’m pretty confident I can make around the 40-50 mark this year. AI music free.
2) Share books, books, books
There’s a ton of great music books out at the moment, from memoirs to biographies, to more cultural commentary. One of the first inspirations for this blog was The Marginalian who take quotations from great books and put them into context. I liked that style more than a traditional book review because it gave people who might not read music books some helpful insights. I’m hopeful to keep that going this year with a book a month.
3) Listen to Emmylou’s Discography
After completing my Dolly Parton discography a few years ago now, I was somewhat burnt out by the process. It took me a long time to complete because so many of her albums were middling to terrible. However those posts are the most popular still on the blog in terms of traffic. What they also gave me was a chance to write in a new way – to be more critical and look at things from a different perspective in terms of music and cultural history.
So in 2024 I started on Emmylou Harris’s discography with the intention of doing the same as Dolly. It has been harder to get started with this and now in January 2026 I’ve only completed three of these posts. However since I’m seeing Emmylou in January and she’s doing a farewell tour of Europe it feels like the right time to get really stuck in.
My plan is to complete one album a month this year with an additional Emmylou live review too.
4) Dolly’s 80th
Dolly is 80 on January the 19th and I’m working on a post about the new biography which has just been released. She’s also going to be performing her delayed Vegas residency, opening a new museum and hotel in Nashville this summer, alongside her current exhibition at the Country Music Hall of Fame. She’s not slowing down, that’s for sure.
I’d love to get over to Nashville and see the museum, maybe get to Dollywood too but finances are always a challenge so my resolution is to save up for this trip in 2027!
5) Social Media Refocus
In the past I found social media quite straightforward but it’s changed so much in the last couple of years.
So for 2026 I’m aiming to regularly post my links on Facebook, X & Pinterest. I’m not hopeful of growing any kind of following on these sites at all but just do enough to be present for anyone who uses them.
Instagram is my favourite place for connection with artists and for discovering new musicians to follow. I want to post more regularly and would love to reach 1500 followers this year as I’ve been stalled out for so long!
To distinguish my social media I’m going to use Threads to share thoughts on live music and any trending discourse. I’m aiming to reach 400 followers on there as I think it has some potential to help with blog traffic.
Bluesky is working best for blog post sharing and making connections with other fans and writers. I want to keep learning on that platform and will aiming to get to 400 followers on there as well.
Overall for social media this year the most important thing for me is to just do less passive doomscrolling and spend more time commenting/sharing.
6) Substack for Song Recommendations
As part of Blogmas I finally joined Substack and tentatively started a weekly newsletter. I’m still working out a way to make this different than the blog. I’ve decided it will work best for sending out weekly song recommendations. I’m aiming to grow to around 50 subscribers on this platform this year.
7) Find the Joy! Joy!
Over the past few years I’ve attempted some other writing projects with little success. It just seems no matter what other hobbies I try, I would rather be writing about music.
So I’m putting aside any doubts and focusing on finding the joy again. On a small scale, going forward I hope my writing will offer some kind of value to myself, to the artists and to any readers.
If you’re a blogger let me know your resolutions in the comments!
Highway Queens 
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