Music can instantly transport you to another state and alter your mood in a heartbeat. So, of course, we’re creating the ultimate sober playlist. If there is a song that plays an important part in your sobriety, we want to hear about it. Send your requests to thesobercurator@gmail.com or DM us on Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram. No decade or genre is off-limits. Happy listening!
Maggie Rogers
Alaska feels like a journey into the depths of a tortured soul. It describes the excruciating pain of getting over lost love. The reason it resonates with those of us in recovery is that it stays in the solution. Yes, the entire time. Unlike typical breakup ballads, there is no mention of keying cars, meaningless hook-ups, revenge, or weird voodoo. Instead, we are taken on a slow deliberate walk involving breathing, dreaming, and even thinking.
The “air in-between” or as AAers call it, the pause is one of the most valuable gifts of sobriety. It’s the restraint of pen and tongue, delaying the reaction long enough to let our higher power provide guidance. It’s turning our will and all things over and allowing our higher power to do what we can’t do for ourselves.
This is much easier said than done but this is the path to serenity. Getting there becomes much easier when we meditate. For many, there is no better way to connect with a higher power than to spend time in nature. Alaska puts us right there. You can almost feel the chill of the icy stream as we’re led on the journey of “walking off you and walking off an old me too.” In AA we call this doing the work.
Left to our own devices, alcoholics can be obsessive, impulsive, and self-destructive. Thank you, Maggie Rogers for writing a hauntingly beautiful song that helps keep us out of our heads (and jails) by reminding us to just walk it off. (Pro tip: we love her merch store too!)
Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato has certainly been on a ride and a very public one at that. She’s been battling addiction for over a decade. In 2018, Demi came close to losing the fight. Thankfully, she survived and came back better than ever with a show-stopping, tear-jerking debut performance of Anyone at the 2020 Grammy Awards. In many ways, it was her comeback. The incredibly brave anthem speaks to the lengths we must go to for sobriety. The tough actions we must take often include leaving former playmates, friends, and family members behind.
In Demi’s case, it was her entire management team who refused to acknowledge her addiction. Anyone brilliantly captures the desperation often felt by alcoholics when no one understands, nothing is working and prayers seem to go unanswered. In sobriety, we learn that often, everything we want is on the other side of fear.
For Demi, her courageous performance of Anyone was raw, emotional, and triumphant. Two years after her near-fatal overdose, Demi credits her higher power with her newfound joy and self-love. She says she’s done the work and feels free of her demons. For alcoholics, the journey takes courage. “Trudging the road of happy destiny” is often difficult, sometimes lonely but always worth it a million times over. In regards to battling addiction, here’s to anyone becoming someone and someone becoming everyone.
Blue October
It’s no surprise Blue October’s frontman Justin Furstenfeld nails it with authentic recovery-related lyrics. He wrote Fear in sobriety after years of suffering crippling alcohol addiction. Justin says, “The reason I did use and drink was because of fear. The reason I kept myself from being happy is I was scared of the outcome. Eventually, I learned there’s no room for Fear.”
Most alcoholics can relate and spent many nights (and days) drinking at a wide range of fears. In recovery, we realize fear is a part of life but as the song says, we no longer “have to fall apart.” In order to keep our side of the street clean, we know it is essential to living a life of integrity and courage. This does not mean that because we are sober, we instantly have a life without fear. It means that in sobriety, we do things despite fear. Fear also reminds us to get up, breathe and ask Him for help to carry on.
Blue October’s newest release, This is What I Live For is the first album Justin wrote in sobriety. After eight years in recovery, he says he is “learning how good life can be if you give it a chance.” In May of 2020, Blue October also debuted Get Back Up, a documentary covering Justin’s addiction, sobriety, and how it affected the band and their families. It’s for people looking for a solution. Speaking of solutions, you can also check out Justin talking about recovery and going through the 12 Steps of AA in a series of videos on the Blue October Facebook page.
Matt Butler
As alcoholics, we know that in order to stay sober we must carry the message to other alcoholics. Just One may be the perfect way to summarize some of what goes into this work- heartbreak, joy, devotion, and the overwhelm that comes from the enormity of the situation. Addiction is now a full-blown American epidemic. There is always someone in need of help. Unfortunately, not everyone “gets it.”
For so many of us in recovery, 12 Step work is not only essential to sobriety but a great honor. It is truly a gift to be able to give back what was so freely given to us. We continue carrying the message despite the fact that not everyone we try to help makes it into the rooms of AA or survives. But helping just one makes it worth it. Every. Single. Time.
Although Matt Butler is just one man, he is a recovery warrior. Matt has helped thousands with his authentic story-telling, and raw, hard-hitting lyrics on addiction and redemption. He performs in prisons across the nation and started the Just One Foundation which brings music with the message of recovery to communities most in need. Performances have been brought to treatment facilities, community centers, schools, public demonstrations, as well as jails and prisons. In May of 2020, the foundation even released a short film, Mother’s Day Miracle, benefiting A Place of Miracles Café. So, my fellow recovery warriors, even though “our work is never done”, let’s be like Matt and strive every day to help just one.
The Black Crowes
This throwback from 1990 captures the denial of active addicts who will say or do anything to stay active in the disease. Active alcoholics are often struggling to hide and compartmentalize their disease. In reality, we are only lying to ourselves and everyone knows. It is virtually impossible for a real addict to hide anything. The girl who talks to Angels has reached a place where so many have been. “She tells you she’s an orphan after you meet her family” because she has likely used up all her chances with her loved ones.
Like so many addicts, she cares deeply about family and friends but creates a path of mass destruction wherever she goes. She knows there is no chance of having any type of connection while still using but still can’t stop. It is easier to say she is an orphan than to face the pain that comes with destroying her own family. This same girl “gives a smile when the pain comes” because numbing out is easier than facing reality and repairing the damage.
“She wears a cross around her neck“ because she so badly wants to be close to God. She may even believe she is since she says, “Angels call her out her by name.” Alcoholics in recovery know remaining sober depends on constant conscious contact with a higher power. Everything that blocks the path to this higher power must be removed. This especially includes any substance that causes a person to lose consciousness.
What the girl who talks to angels does not know is that real happiness is the freedom that only comes from asking for help, doing the work, and maintaining a relationship with a higher power. Then and ONLY then, Angels actually start talking back. And this, my sober friends, is the most beautiful thing and truly does “make everything alright.”
What are you listening to right now?
We hope this inspires you to take some time to listen to some old favorites and discover some new artists sharing stories of struggle, victory, redemption, and joy that come with the journey of sobriety. Check back next month for more incredible songs to add to your ultimate sober playlist. We can’t wait to see your requests. Email us at thesobercurator@gmail.com or DM us on Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.
Help is here if and when you need it
Resources Are Available
If you or someone you know is experiencing difficulties surrounding alcoholism, addiction, or mental illness, please reach out and ask for help. People everywhere can and want to help; you just have to know where to look. And continue to look until you find what works for you. Click here for a list of regional and national resources.