They DO Make Music as Good as the Old Days: New Recommendations for Boomers and Gen X

BB King playing guitar. — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Anyone can be in the conversations about Taylor Swift’s grip on pop culture or Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter country turn. You don’t even have to know the music. At some point it’s not even about the music.

But if you want to be in conversations that are about music, maybe with your kids or grandkids, or your friends who insist there’s nothing new worth hearing out there, it can be tricky. Same if you simply want to find new music you like. It’s out there. But there’s so much music being released, so many different types and genres to so many different markets.

We’re here to help. We start with some touchstones of music's past, enduring artists who continue to define genres and eras, who mark times and places in our lives. From those we move to the present with recommendations that could connect to music you've loved before.

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Now a reminder, since last year's music recommendations: These aren’t soundalikes, not tribute acts. These are artists with their own artistry and voices, but ones that in some ways share the spirit and perhaps take inspiration from classic figures. So go in with open ears and an open mind and have a listen.

If you liked B.B. King... try Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram

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It doesn’t hurt that his mom’s name was Princess, but young Ingram is the new prince in the Kingdom of the Blues, a.k.a. Clarksdale, Miss. That’s his hometown, which boasts a royal lineage including Son House, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Sam Cooke among many others. While those titans shaped and defined the music in the 20th century, Ingram — nicknamed “Kingfish” by a music teacher — is giving it new life in the 21st with his mix of incendiary electric guitar chops, powerful voice and winning personality.

You may have seen the 60 Minutes feature about him last year, but to recap: As a pre-teen prodigy taking classes at the Clarksdale Delta Blues Museum, Ingram absorbed the music of the blues greats, and by his teens he’d come to the attention of some of them, including Chicago icon Buddy Guy, who became a mentor. At 14, already doing regular gigs around Clarksdale, he was part of a blues student showcase performing for First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House.

Now at 25, he’s released three albums — each getting a Grammy nomination, and winning the award for best contemporary blues for 2022’s 662.

Both his playing and writing expand beyond strict blues styles. With the song “Another Life Goes By” he moves into social commentary reminiscent of Bill Withers and Curtis Mayfield, never losing touch with those roots. And with “Rock & Roll” he’s given a moving tribute to his mom, who died in 2019.

If you liked Alanis Morissette… try Faye Webster

Breakups can be brutal. But they can inspire great songs. Morissette turned one into her 1995 stardom-launching hit “You Oughta Know.” Atlanta-based Webster channeled a rough split into her recent fifth album, Underdressed at the Symphony.

Where Morissette exploded with rage, 26-year-old Webster collapses inward. Shy and guarded, Webster writes lyrics that are often bare sketches of feelings. And she’s hard to get much out of in interviews. But the spare poetry of her songs has gained richness, even some humor, in her last couple of albums.

“I’m depriving myself of happiness, something I’m really good at,” she sings in Undedressed’s title song, a next-generation answer to Morissette’s “You Learn.” And in “My Baby Loves Me Yeah!” she remembers (or imagines) happiness: “He owes me money but I let it pass…. He pumps my gas so I don’t get out.” Even her wishes for simple pleasures are barbed, as in “Lego Ring” (which features her childhood friend, Atlanta rapper Lil Yachty): “I want a Lego ring, I want it to hurt my finger.”

The musical growth has been impressive too, with country pedal steel, jazzy piano and guitar and on some songs strings and winds evoking the album title with a chamber-pop feeling. And once-reserved on stage, she’s come alive of late, energized by the bond she’s built with her fans.

If you liked Sly & the Family Stone… try Black Pumas

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It can’t be an accident that Austin-based Black Pumas’ 2019 eponymous debut album starts with a drumroll almost identical to the one that starts Sly & the Family Stones’ essential album Stand! from 50 years earlier.

The song that follows on the Pumas album, “Black Moon Rising,” takes a turn more to smooth soul than the song “Stand!” that Sly had. But clearly there is a strong kinship here that manifests in subtle ways on the Puma’s debut (the fuzz-tone edge of “Fire” and the funky reworking of the Beatles “Eleanor Rigby” bonus track on the album’s expanded deluxe edition).

This flowered vibrantly on the 2023 follow-up album, Chronicles of a Diamond, with such sparkling mixes of soul, funk and rock with some psychedelic auras as “More Than a Love Song," "Gemini Sun” and the wry closer, “Rock and Roll.”

Puma principals Eric Burton (the primary singer and songwriter) and Adrian Quesada (guitarist-producer) have shown a growing creative openness to skipping over genre borders to create their own blends — just as Sly did. If there’s one Sly song that would sit in the Black Puma’s wheelhouse, that might be the rubbery invitation “If You Want Me to Stay,” though “Every Day People” and “Family Affair” could fit that bill too. No wonder the group has become a favorite on the festival circuits in both the U.S. and Europe.

You be the D.J.

We all loved making mix-tapes, right? But it was work! With the playlists features on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services making your own mix is a breeze — and legal.

We’ve taken advantage of that to put together a 54-song set showcasing our picks of new artists worth hearing alongside their past-generation guides, alternating them to highlight the connections. Let it play as is — or put it on shuffle and see where it goes. For Spotify users, just use this link: https://bit.ly/4cUhOq5

Here are some of the songs on the playlist:

“The Thrill is Gone”—B.B. King

“Believe These Blues”—Christone “Kingfish” Ingram

“How Blue Can You Get?”—King

“Fresh Out (featuring Buddy Guy)”—Ingram

“Rock Me Baby”—King

“She Calls Me Kingfish”—Ingram

“Ain’t Nobody Home”—King

“Another Life Goes By (Live version)”—Ingram

“Why I Sing the Blues”—King

“Listen (featuring Keb’ Mo’)”—Ingram

“I’ll Survive”—King

“Rock & Roll”—Ingram

“You Oughta Know”—Alanis Morissette

“But Not Kiss”—Faye Webster

“Perfect”—Morissette

“Wanna Quit All the Time”—Webster

“You Learn”—Morissette

“He Loves Me Yeah!”—Webster

“Head Over Feet”—Morissette

“Lego Ring (featuring Lil Yachty)”—Webster

“Thank You”—Morissette

“I Know I’m Funny ha ha”—Webster

“Surrendering”—Morissette

“In a Good Way”—Webster

“If You Want Me To Stay”—Sly & the Family Stone

“Black Moon Rising”—Black Pumas

“Stand!”—Sly

“Fire”—Pumas

“Everyday People”—Sly

“Stay Gold”—Pumas

“You Can Make it it You Try”—Sly

“Eleanor Rigby”—Pumas

“Family Affair”—Sly

“More Than a Love Song”—Pumas

“You Caught Me Smiling”—Sly

“Mrs. Postman”—Pumas

“Running Away”—Sly

“Gemini Sun”—Pumas

Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger’s Retirement Report, our popular monthly periodical that covers key concerns of affluent older Americans who are retired or preparing for retirement. Subscribe for retirement advice that’s right on the money

Steve Hochman has covered popular music at the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Billboard and Variety as well as serving as music critic for public radio shows on KPCC Los Angeles and KQED San Francisco. He’s a co-author of the recent Melissa Etheridge graphic biography, Heartstrings, and has written liner notes for a wide range of album releases. Currently he is a lead writer for Spin magazine, New Orleans’ OffBeat and the Bluegrass Situation.