This week: a spontaneous trip up the Hudson, thoughts on live music, and a beautifully recorded album from Copenhagen.

When we realized we hadn’t left the five boroughs of New York City since Christmas, we booked a one-night trip to Peekskill, a small city on the Hudson. The hour-long train ride is already part of the fun: once you pass Spuyten Duyvil (it means what you think, spitting devil), you get a beautiful river view up to your destination.

In Peekskill, we went to dinner at Birdsall House, an artsy gastropub in the town center. They played a selection of interesting 80s deep cuts, like The The, , and Elke often had to use Shazam to identify a song. Kudos to Birdsall for avoiding the default playlists of legacy hits that many places play these days.

However, it was not new music. The fact is that streaming has changed listening habits. Annabella Coldrick, CEO of the Music Managers Forum UK, wrote an interesting piece on Medium about how passive listening to algorithmic playlists leads to a decline in interest in British music overall, and new artists in particular.

She made another observation. “Most of the grassroots gigs I go to have older audiences (often double the age of the musicians onstage!), whereas stadiums and arenas attract a younger crowd,” she writes. We can confirm this experience from the New Colossus Festival. While 20-somethings still love to make music across all genres, the festival did not draw a particularly young crowd.

So, raising the interest in local live music is a win-win. It strengthens communities and offers a guaranteed human experience.

This is the time when Spotify releases its numbers for the previous year, and they are trying to make a point of how much they are paying out. 1,500 artists earned more than $1 million, and 13,800 earned more than $100,000 (before rightholders and distributors take their cut). Interestingly, of the 1,500 millionaires, 80% never had a top 50 hit. That means you don’t need to be a superstar to earn a good income as a musician. It also raises the question: how many of those are artistically ambitious musicians versus people who have figured out how to exploit the system?

Discovery of the Week: Hannah Schneider - In The Room

Music is more than just sound waves from a speaker. The creation process matters — and it’s part of what draws us to live shows.

The Danish composer and singer Hannah Schneider emphasizes the process as a key part of her new album In This Room, which was written, performed, and recorded during a residency at the Thorvaldsens Museum in Copenhagen with a group of musicians, including co-producer Christian Balvig.

It is fascinating how effortlessly the album blends acoustic and electronic instruments. The record shows that synthesizers can be an organic part of a chamber music setting, rather than just a substitute for traditional instruments.

Cover Song of the Week: Jimmy Allen - Free Fallin‘

I can’t listen to „Free Fallin’’ without thinking of the scene in Jerry Maguire where Tom Cruise‘s character sings it after almost closing a deal and falsely believing his free fall has ended. So, I sang it in the car after quitting my job, a move that eventually led us to New York.

Maybe the cover by country singer Jimmy Allen works even better for such dramatic life situations than Tom Petty‘s original. Jimmy replaced guitar with piano and emphasizes the chorus instead of storytelling. After all, the free fall is what will stay with you the next time you take a risky step into the unknown.

This Week in glamglare history

Speaking of lasting impressions, here are a few discoveries from past years.

1 year ago: Cera Gibson - I Found God

“I Found God" is a dark, intense, and explicit synth-pop song about sexual liberation.

5 years ago: T & the Rex - Roses

Tilda Bergkvist was 18 when she wrote, performed, and recorded her debut album Dream Less Dreamless, including the lead single “Roses” entirely herself. She released a follow-up, Chaos Killed the Dinosaurs, on Bark At Your Owner in 2024, but has gone quiet on her Instagram since then.

10 years ago: Lyel - Shadow

„Shadow” is an energetic, sparkling track by the Helsinki-based singer/songwriter Lyel. She released a few singles and an EP in 2016 and may have since walked away from music.

This Week’s Song Picks

Listen to all seven songs on YouTube, or follow our daily updated Song Pick playlists on YouTube, Apple Music, or Spotify.

• City Builders - “Heartthrob”
• Adult Leisure - “The Light You Attract”
• Beverly Hell - “Drug Opera”
• Ivan Nicolas - “Train On Fire”
• Robber Robber - “Pieces”
• White Flowers - “Heaven”
• Lulu Simon - “Misty”

We publish one Song Pick of the Day every day. You can subscribe to receive them by email.

Peekskill, Again

Peekskill has become one of those places we keep returning to. About an hour by train from Manhattan, and somehow always worth it. I used to count every visit, meticulously, until somewhere around twenty-five. So let’s call this our thirtieth.

The first time was my birthday in October 2018. The second, October 2020 — right in the middle of the pandemic (see photo #2).

These photos are from last weekend, when we didn’t care much about the temperatures but were hoping for a sunset — not spectacular like the one in photo #1 from February 2022, but lovely nonetheless.

Two photos look back. The rest are from now.