As 2020 lurches towards a close, KEXP has been looking back at, and honoring, many of the music figures we lost in the last year. On Thursday, December 17th, KEXP DJs paid tribute all day long on the "People Who Died" show. But inevitably, there are more people to remember than there are hours in the day.

Sound & Vision’s Isaac Kaplan-Woolner brings a segment exploring some of the lesser known musicians, songwriters, and producers who passed away in 2020.  

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Emily Fox and Larry Mizell, Jr. discuss KEXP's top played album and top played songs from 2020. Plus, KEXP DJs talk about their personal favorite tracks of the year.

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2020 brought a national conversation around race in America. It’s a subject musician and KEXP Audioasis host Eva Walker has been talking about with her friend and fellow musician Rani Weatherby of the band Champagne Honeybee. Weatherby was adopted as a child from India by a white single mother who lived in the largely white Seattle suburb of Snohomish. Walker says this year’s conversation around race has been largely black and white, justifiably so, but she wanted to hear the perspective from a brown, female adoptee. Weatherby talks with Walker about how her race, background and upbringing has impacted her music.   

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Calexico released a Christmas album for 2020 called 'Seasonal Shift.' But rather than the typical holiday songs about good tidings and cheer, Calexico paints a more realistic picture of dysfunctional families, crying over a drink of Mezcal, and holiday meals ruined. 

Vocalist and guitarist Joey Burns talks about the record and how it came together through collaborations with musicians from around the world.  

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Bartees Cox Jr., AKA Bartees Strange, released his debut album this year, entitled 'Live Forever.' His sound traverses art-rock, emo, folk, R&B and even trap rap. Though many are surprised by the effortlessness with which Bartees Strange synthesizes these genres, to him it’s all at its root Black music, and as such, he wants more kids of color to see themselves on that same stage.  

“I want to reclaim that space,” Strange says. “That's kind of what the record's all about. People think it's weird to see me do this, but it's not.”

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