This week, I spun just some of my favorite songs released by artists based around metro Detroit and all across the state of Michigan. Emphasis on some, hah! Because there’s just so many to choose from and, for me, so difficult to narrow it down, but I did my best.

I’ve been covering the local music scene for 20 years, and more than eight of those years have been here on WDET. Each year I’ve found myself giving a similarly-worded year-end appraisal: more and more (and more) amazing music keeps coming out of Detroit! Music that is engaging, experimental, impressively produced, catchy-as-hell, and frankly, inspirational!

Spin the episode above to hear more of my thoughts, and look below to find a list of my top 10 favorite songs of the year!

Fav Songs of 2025!

1.) The Bloodletting – Phabies

2.) Jesse – Danny VanZandt

3.) The Middle – Na Bonsai

4.) Fearless & The Pure – Elisabeth Pixley-Fink

5.) Black Cat Operator – Rogue Satellites

6.) Wildflower – Nancy Friday

7.) Fast Food Napkin – Low Phase

8.) Looks Like We’re Alive – Spencer LaJoye

9.) Do It All – The City Lines

10.) Anymore – Mirror Mask

And stay tuned for two more episodes of MI Local in the year of 2025: 

Tuesday, Dec. 23: Highlighting original holiday music by local artists, plus in-studio guests include members of local rock groups Strange Witch and The City Lines, both of whom will perform original Christmas music and a classic cover!

Tuesday, Dec. 30: I’ll run through a bunch of great songs released during the year of 2025 that I nearly missed, plus in-studio guests Emily Rose and Audra Kubat will hang out to perform some original songs live, as well as a cover of Auld Lang Syne!

Happy New Year & Happy Holidays! Thanks for listening!

Tis the time of year for giving thanks, and we want to thank everyone out there who’s been tuning in to all of the local music shows featured during the evening hours on WDET, including (and particularly?) MI Local!

This week, we meet more of the unique personalities and creative minds behind the music coming out of metro Detroit, including the retro rock ‘n’ rollers known as Lyons Lane, and the mesmerizingly melodic alt-folk vibes of Jeffrey Jablonski, which means we ALSO had the opportunity to exclusively premiere some new songs!

Now, the night before Thanksgiving is notoriously known as “the busiest bar night of the year.” To the tons of folks home for the holidays who may or may not be lucky enough to not be saddled with turkey-duty at the break of dawn: this means that pretty much every local venue in town is hosting a great lineup of local music, from former MI Local guests Power Moonroof performing at UFO Bar, to WDET favorites like Deadbeat Beat at the Outer Limits Lounge!

Tonight, I’m shouting out a lineup over at Ziggy’s in Ypsilanti, featuring the alt-country indie-rockers Cowgirl: we kicked off the show with their song “How on a Hot Tin Roof.”

Speaking of Ypsilanti, we also heard from that town’s eminent indie-folk singer/songwriter, Matt Jones, with his new single “All My Stars,” from his forthcoming album, “The Good Life,” out on Dec. 12. Other new tracks include Kalamazoo-based songwriter Spencer LaJoye’s “Looks Like We’re Alive” and Detroit-based lo-fi duo The Long Stairs with “Running Cold.”

Mark Leo, the lead singer of the rock ‘n’ roll outfit known as Lyons Lane, stopped by the studio to premiere a new single, “Emma’s Addiction.” 

Leo spoke with me about his lifelong love of melodic rock ‘n’ roll and classic pop, as well as the development of this project with collaborator Tomcat Thompson. Leo, along with Thompson and saxophonist Matthew Stevens, treated WDET listeners to a live in-studio performance, covering “Love Potion No. 9.” Lyons Lane’s next show is on Dec. 13, at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor. 

Jeffrey Jabolnski, a Detroit-based alt-folk singer-songwriter, also came by the studio to hang out for an interview and live performance.

Jablonsky’s been writing and recording for years, and has been performing live around the scene for more than a decade. He also hosts the Ghost Light Sessions residency on the last Wednesday of each month this year and Wednesday will be the last show of the year for that series.

Jablonski let us premiere a new song while also treating listeners to a live in-studio performance, accompanied as a trio with acoustic guitar and wind instruments.

Joining Jablonski is Matthew Beyer (saxophone), Leslie Wacker (clarinet) and Todd McNulty (drums); McNulty, it should be noted, while not pictured below, actually performed with both Jablonski and, on the spot, sat in with Lyons Lane to add percussion to their set too! Always a fun time on MI Local!

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all.

Check the playlist below and listen to the episode for two weeks after it airs using the player above.

• “Who Else” – Cowgirl
• “Running Cold” – The Long Stairs
• “All My Stars” – Matt Jones & the Reconstruction
• “Looks Like We’re Alive” – Spencer LaJoye
• “Something About You” – Premium Rat
• “Babytalk” – Lyons Lane
• “Love Potion No. 9” – Lyons Lane (live in WDET Studios)
• “Emma’s Addiction” – Lyons Lane
• “Tula” – Jeffrey Jablonski
• “Side By Side” – Jeffrey Jablonski

A very busy show today! Diving into a world of new music with Mac DeMarco, pôt-pot, Smerz, Glyders and more. 

We spent some time with Acoustic Cafe’s Rob Reinhart, who had the honor of interviewing Todd Snider over the years. The late singer-songwriter died on November 15 at the age of 59.

Plus, Detroit-based artist Via Mardot stops by to talk about her show at the Lager House on Friday. We play a handful of tracks from her album “Higher Higher Burning Fire,” which you can buy directly from the artist via Bandcamp.

Check the playlist below and listen to the episode for two weeks after it airs using the player above.

In The Groove with Ryan Patrick Hooper playlist for November 19, 2025

• “Moving Forward” – Bryony Jarman-Pinto
• “Day Dreaming” – Aretha Franklin
• “Cruisin’” – Smokey Robinson
• “I Want You” – Marvin Gaye
• “Parabéns (feat. Marcos Valle) [Quarantine Sessions]” – Tom Misch
• “Be Thankful For What You’ve Got (Live)” – Orgone
• “Holy” – Mac DeMarco
• “Hot Scene” – pôt-pot
• “One Tiny Flower” – Jeff Tweedy
• “Easy (Astrid Sonne EDIT)” – Smerz
• “Sleeping Without You Is a Dragg (feat. Justin Vernon & Jenny Lewis)” – Swamp Dogg
• “Count The Days (feat. Jenny Lewis)” – Swamp Dogg
• “Elderberry Wine” – Wednesday
• “Meet Me In The City” – Junior Kimbrough
• “How Can I Lose” – Shirley Ann Lee
• “Avant Gardener” – Courtney Barnett
• “Conservative, Christian, Right Wing Republican, Straight, White, American Males” – Todd Snider
• “Better Than Ever Blues (Acoustic Cafe Session)” – Todd Snider
• “When I Get To Heaven” – John Prine
• “In Spite of Ourselves (feat. Amy Taylor)” – Viagra Boys
• “Got You” – Amyl and The Sniffers
• “This Is Who I Am” – Celeste
• “Pining” – Via Mardot
• “Flea” – St. Vincent
• “Crosseyed and Painless (feat. Money Mark)” – Chicano Batman
• “Once In A Lifetime” – WITCH
• “Queenless King” – WITCH
• “Stone Shadow” – Glyders
• “Mother’s Son” – Curtis Mayfield

Listen to In the Groove with host Ryan Patrick Hooper weekdays from noon-3 p.m. ET on 101.9 WDET or stream on-demand at wdet.org.

This is an extended interview from MI Local, with WDET music host Jeff Milo interviewing Traverse City-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist folk artist Laurel Premo, about her new album, ‘Laments,’ and the series of forthcoming videos for each of the four songs.

Premo is a lifelong admiration for American traditional folk styles with orchestral elements and Nordic arrangements.

She has been writing, arranging, and touring internationally since 2009. In 2021, she released “Golden Loam,” her first album as a proper solo-artist.

On Halloween, she released the poignant EP, “Laments”—four orchestral folk pieces as odes of griefwork, exploring the possibility of grief being an ecstatic act that helps connect oneself with the tremendous energy and love that leads to these immense feelings, with a focus on how this love and loss is all about the deep connections we’ve forged.

The first video, “Laments,” premiered recently, and more will be on the way soon.