What a Wonderful and Challenging Year It’s Been!

SURPRISE! Here comes the most creative and challenging year of your life! At 55!

Jeff Berkley in the studio.

I can’t believe it’s December! I swear to God, last time I checked, it was March or April. We just go from one calendar box to the next and, every once in a while, we look up and notice where we are and what got us here.

Making a living through original music, in one of the most expensive places to live in the world, isn’t easy. Especially as we get older, our business isn’t as kind or forthcoming. I’m not complaining, though. I’ve been extremely lucky and have also worked my ass off.

Just as I thought I would be slowing down, things seem to be ramping up. The creative energy, curiosity, and childlike wonder have not weakened at all. In fact, I feel more excited about music than ever!

I want to tell you about this year because it’s been unlike any other year I’ve ever experienced in my life. What a gift!

First of all, I’m always very, very lucky to be able to produce records for artists from all over California and Texas but mostly I’m right here in San Diego.

This year has been incredibly rich and full of fun and magic! In 2025 I have produced records, EPs or singles for: Julia Sage, Salinas Road, Cara Cormier, the Microblades, Shelly Gerber, Mark Tiedeman, Clark Clipson, Xander Thompson, Ron Poundstone, Benj, Mark Manning, and Bonnie Nichols.

I’ve begun new records with Tim Flannery, Ashley Norton, and Chloe Lou!

2025 actually gave opportunities to do new things as well.

I helped produce a protest show and live audio and video recording for Dan Gindling & the Ice Breakers at the Belly Up. I also got to produce a beautiful poetry album by Billiekai Boughton! I don’t get to do that very often and I love poetry!

It’s also been an unbelievably fertile time for me as a songwriter. I’ve never written so many songs in such a short amount of time. Enough to populate three records!

In 2025 I will release four brand new records. All four are projects that I started and curate.

The first record, that came out on April 20, 2025 is Jeff Berkley & the Banned’s Lightning in the Bug. It’s the second record from me and the Banned. (Rick Nash, Jason Cox, Cathryn Beeks, Sandi King, Josh Taylor, Josh Hermsmeier, Josh Weinstein, and Ted Stern) all but two or three songs were written by me and different band members, but everybody got some co-writes on this one. For that reason, it’s a beautiful portrait of this band is and what it has become over the last few years of playing together. I’m really proud of everybody and how this record came about. We went into the studio without anything and wrote songs together. It’s pretty neato!

The second record to come out in early summer is Jeff Berkley’s A Buffalo Trace. It’s a solo record. I just kept writing and writing and had a whole new album! I wrote a few of these songs while on the road for the Paleoverb project. More about that below. I had a breakthrough as a writer on this record. A few of my favorite songs I’ve ever written are on there. There’s a song called “Abracadabra” that I wrote. It’s as close to how I want to write as anything I’ve ever written. There’s a turn of phrase in the last verse of the song. “Hear what’s in my heart, know what’s in my mind, touch what’s in my soul, or sense that we’ll be fine.” I really love the word play and meaning of that phrase.

Anyway, A Buffalo Trace found its way into the hands of some radio folks. It’s managed to climb to number 10 on the roots radio charts. It’s being played all over the world, and I can’t believe it! I’m starting to speak with an agent about touring more and not just booking myself. Kinda wild!

When Lightning in the Bug was released, I was on the road with Stucky Leigh, Please Ask for Paul, Veronica May, and Hanna Doreen. We all traveled to Hays, Kansas, where I had discovered a little room inside a big museum. We did shows all along the way.

Anyway, the “underwater” room at the Sternberg Museum has the most incredible reverb!! I wanted to bring some musicians there to play and sing! I invited the artists above because of their incredible soaring melodies, but also because they’re wonderful people and I knew traveling with them would be fun.

We recorded a whole bunch of songs over three days! Everyone sang together, tears were shed, and sorcery was wielded! To read more about this project go to www.thepaleoverbproject.com. You won’t believe the story!! That record, The Paleoverb Project Vol 1, was released November 29. By the time you read this, it will be out and available on all the streamers.

Last but certainly not least, I wanted to put together sort of a punk/Folk band. Something that was as poignant and angry as Woody Guthrie, but with electric guitars. Another fun way to play gigs around town and hang and create with friends!

First, one of the joys of my life is getting to play in the band, Tim Flannery and the Lunatic Fringe. We travel around playing Tim’s songs and we’ve all become pretty close. I’ve been in Tim’s band for close to 30 years now.

Flannery,  Shawn Rohlf, and I all come from the same songwriting past. We have the same heroes and ultimately write in ways that go together but still have their own unique thumbprint. Our songs complement each other. I figured why not make me, Shawn, and Tim, the Bastards! It was a natural thought. Starting a new band with those guys would feel like we’ve been together for a thousand years!

Right around the time I was putting the band together I got to work with drummer Danny Campbell on Sandé Lollis’ record. I also got to see him and Ben Zinn and Patrick McClory backing up Sara Petite. That same night I got to play a Beat Farmers song with them as the band. This was a Beat Farmers/Paul Kamanski tribute night. Sara had put it together.

But, I digress. From the first note we played together we could tell it was kind of meant to be. It was accidentally a perfect combination.

The Bastards record, Fall Risk, was released on October 30 of this year. It’s full of songs by me, Tim Flannery, and Shawn Rohlf. Lots of new stuff! There’s even a co-write by me and Ashley Norton. I’m really really proud of it! It’s called When the Wildflowers Bloom. There’s also a song I wrote in Hays, Kansas called “Cursing!” The chorus says “cursing is fun and it makes you feel better!”

Oh, before I forget, the Bastards are headlining the San Diego Troubadour’s Annual Holiday Fundraiser and 25^th Anniversary Celebration! 25 years! That’s a lot of music, articles, scene building, and camaraderie right there. Please come and join us. They need your help, especially this year. The rise in the cost of living is insane! You can donate to the cause here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=R2UMYAEB6QRTL&ssrt=1764013956405

I definitely need to feel better! Remember before, when I said I’m 55 years old! Well, sometime in early 2025 I started having some pretty substantial back pain. I figured it was just part of getting older and no big whoop. I went on, no problem, and ended up tweaking it pretty bad while I was in Kansas. There was lots of gear to set up, tear down, and move. The repetition got the best of me. I was also in a car accident in Colorado that may have contributed to the back pain.

What I didn’t realize until much later in the year is that I had ruptured a disc in my lower back and was experiencing some real-life pain. I thought it was just normal and didn’t really tell anybody. What a dope. I am currently still working through that and haven’t found my way back to “normal” yet, but I will.

For some reason, I just continue to be writing songs. Some kind of damn has broken. My head and heart are flooded with words, titles, melodies, chords, and feelings. So many feelings.

I remember when I saw the movie The Breakfast Club. It was the ’80s. I was 14 years old. That movie was just like my life and those kids were just like me and people I knew. At a very emotional point in the movie Aly Sheedy’s character says “when you grow up your heart dies.”

I think that was an early wake up call for me. Actually, the way it’s all shaken out is that my heart has opened up more because of songs. I don’t really talk very much about my feelings, but I sure do in my songs, and it’s been an incredible Way to stay alive inside.

This has led to the beginnings of a brand new project with Sandi King and Josh Taylor called The San Diego Feel Harmonic. We have one song. The three of us wrote it and I suspect we will write several more and start playing shows next year.

This year has been so rewarding in so many ways. It’s also been more difficult than any other year. I’m so proud of all of us! I can’t believe what I’ve personally been able to accomplish, which could never have even come close to happening without all of these amazing artists and assistance from Ryan Finch, Eric Neilson, and Kibria Berkley, just to name a few.

Because of my back there were times I literally couldn’t move anything or lift anything and just needed assistance.

I’m looking forward to next year and records from Cathryn Beeks and Chloe Lou. More from the Bastards, me solo, The San Diego Feel Harmonic, more protesting from Dan Gindling, the Paleoverb Project Vol 2, my new concert series at the Jazz Lounge called Sunday Songwriters, making records with ALL OF YOU, and whatever else the exciting future holds!

Happy holidays and happy new year to you all!

Jeff Berkley is a San Diego songwriter, musician, and producer, whose soulful writing, guitar mastery, and visionary production have shaped the Southern California music scene. He has collaborated with icons like Jackson Browne, David Crosby, the Indigo Girls, and Ben Harper; in 1999 won the Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Award. With his bands Berkley Hart and Jeff Berkley & the Banned, he has earned multiple San Diego Music Awards, including Artist of the Year in 2023, and was inducted into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame. Berkley has released numerous acclaimed albums and continues to perform, produce, and create music rooted in heart and storytelling.