Best of Keepsake House 2023

Read about, listen to, and watch some of the best performances from Keepsake House in 2023, including songs from the year’s Songwriters in Residence Alex Petti, Moyana Olivia, Napat Snidvongs, TONIE, and many supporting artists.

This blog looks back on the Best of Keepsake House 2023 through a completed Spotify playlist and ongoing YouTube video playlist.

First off, thank you—dearest Keepsake Family—for supporting us in 2023. While it was a whirlwind year in which we re-branded, lost a venue partnership, and sometimes struggled to keep these metaphorical doors open, we also accomplished a great deal this year. We produced 11 shows and 6 open mics, provided a year-long residency for 7 independent artists, gained new team members, made relationships with more artists and venues, grew our audience nearly tenfold, and were even featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show (what?!?). One of our favorite things about this community is meeting all of you, and we hope you too are celebrating the year as you move on to 2024.

There are too many incredible performances to highlight from our shows in 2023, but we’ve attempted to do so through both a Spotify playlist featuring the recorded versions of songs performed at each of the shows this year (not including House for the Holidays, because we actually consider that a prologue for next year!) as well as a YouTube playlist featuring videos of the live performances themselves. The former is complete, but the latter is ongoing, so be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to see the performances we have yet to upload.

The Spotify playlist (embedded above) begins with songs from Outside the Lines (March 2023) and ends with From Story to Song (October 2023). It predominantly features the 2023 Songwriters in Residence: Alex Petti of good thoughts, Moyana Olivia, Napat Snidvongs (a.k.a. Plum), and TONIE. New releases like sad-pop bops “perfect” and “more than my body” by TONIE and the PNW punk anthem “Everything About You” by good thoughts are peppered among recordings from some of the all-stars who performed with the residents this year. That includes songs by 2022 Artist in Residences Morninglory and Sarah Kang, Indian playback superstar Shakthisree Gopalan, Brooklyn indie scene queen Elizabeth & the Catapult, and more.

The video from Elizabeth & the Catapult, who performed in Sounds of the Invisible (April 2023) with Plum and Resident Storyteller Valarie Walker, is not to be missed. Her live performances are truly a box of chocolates.

Some of the artists we met from our monthly open mics at pinkFROG cafe were special guests at Women of the House (July 2023), so they too are featured here if the songs they performed were recorded, including the R&B infused “Monster” by katrina sotera and “Tunnelin’” by Janaki. Also featured in this show was Kacia Flórez, who will be a 2024 Artist in Residence, and whose performance of “Maravillosa Mariposita” with katrina sotera was the influence behind our next show (Metamorphosis, coming January 2024 and to be announced very soon).

Another 2024 Artist in Residence, Emily McNally, is included in the playlist in honor of their performance in Found Family (June 2023). Her song “The Gardener” is one of our favorite re-discovered songs of the year; hear it and many other garden-themed songs by women embracing themselves at every age in our Growing Like Gardens playlist.

We mention the 2024 Artists in Residence not just because of how excited we are to see them grow like gardens with us next year, but also because of how hard it is to say goodbye to the 2023 residents. Missing from these playlists but certainly not our memories are the storytellers—Grace Aki, Robert Kuang, and Valarie Walker—who infused every show this year with the vulnerable, meditative, and hilarious stories that make Keepsake shows so unique. It was a privilege to watch the 2023 artists navigate each show theme with care and purpose, from Plum’s ghost stories in Sounds of the Invisible to the very real relationship that was forged between Valarie and Moyana as they were paired together in From Story to Song.

We would be doing you all a disservice not to point out Moyana’s newly released “Revival,” a masterpiece of a song that we were lucky enough to see her perform live twice this year, first at Foresight (February 2023) and once more with a full band at From Story to Song. Our jaws have remained on the floor since we first saw Moyana’s video performance of this song that she included in her residency application, and we can all but guarantee that anyone with a heart will feel the same when you hear this song.

While we hope to see all the 2023 resident artists back at future Keepsake shows, we also recognize that they will move on to even greater heights. Do yourselves a favor and look out for them. Consider that our keepsake to you as we close out this mighty year.