The Nora Kelly Band’s set at Sled Island was stunning. The band was funny, charming, and knew how to take themselves seriously when the music demanded it. They were playing at Pin Bar on 17th Ave in Calgary, a bar with—you guessed it—pinball machines, about eight of them in a small room to the right of the stage. Nora and I agreed to interview after her set, by which point I’d drunk two tall cans of PBR and had grown quite sweaty from all of my head-nodding and slight swaying.

We unveil Part One of our countdown of the best 50 tracks of 2022.

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