About Crucial Tracks
There are points in your life that are defined by music. Whether it’s a song that introduced you to a genre of music that changed the direction of your tastes and style, or a lyric that made you think about the world in a different way. Songs represent relationships. Songs trigger memories. These are all crucial tracks.
This site will dig into those tracks through interviews with people of all walks of life. Learn about the songs that made them who they are today and then listen along to playlists published on Spotify and Apple Music.
In addition to the Crucial Tracks featured interviews, you can expect the following:
- Weekly or bi-weekly new release features – the new records we are digging
- End of year "best of" features, where we share our favorite records from the year
- Other music related content, like Jason's "One Last Wish" series, where he looks at each year of his life and focuses on one record that shaped that year.
- Playlists, band photos, videos & more!
How to Follow Along
The simplest way is to subscribe to our newsletter and get regular updates directly in your inbox. (We send our newsletters no more than once a week, so they include a summary of what was posted recently, as well as any newsletter-only content.) Newsletter subscribers also get a few additional bonuses, as we describe in the Support section below!
If you want to follow along in real time, subscribing via RSS or on Mastodon or Threads via our Fediverse account will get you more frequent updates, links, discussions, etc.
Subscribe today! Never miss an update. Never miss a crucial track.
How to Support Crucial Tracks
Become a paying supporter and get our unwavering thanks and appreciation. We have a couple ways you can currently do this:
- Yearly Paid Subscription: ($50 per year) – Since you are helping us pay the bills and committing to a year, we will send you a free record to add to your collection. You will also get three entries into our end of year record giveaway featuring our favorite records of the year, as well as a selection of featured albums from the year's crucial tracks interviews.
- Monthly Paid Subscription: ($5 per month) – You too will also get three entries into our end of year record giveaway.
- Buy us a coffee: Buy us a coffee and get an additional entry into the year end record giveaway for each donation. No subscription necessary!
- Free Subscription: Simply subscribing to our newsletter at the free level gets you one entry into the year end drawing.
Our regular content will always be free and accessible on the web and through RSS, but subscribing gets you our posts directly in your inbox, as well as access to any special interviews we do with VIP guests, podcast episodes, and much more!
Meet the Team
Chris Fritton, is a working artist & author based in Buffalo, NY, that specializes in letterpress printing. Chris recently wrapped up a ten-year-long traveling project called The Itinerant Printer, where he criss-crossed North America visiting print shops, then wrote a book about it, then traversed the continent all over again touring the book. During that time, he spent countless hours on the road listening to music, listening to podcasts about music, and watching live music in dozens of cities, as well as making gig posters for the bands that he loves.
Jason Dettbarn is a UX/UI designer based in Buffalo, NY. His life with music involves attending hundreds of concerts, taking photos of bands for over 30 years, and putting on basement and club shows during his college years. During the early pandemic he wrote a series called One Last Wish, where he wrote about an impactful album from every year of his life from elementary school through high school – that series inspired this very site. He also publishes a song-a-day playlist on Apple Music that acts as an amazing musical diary, as well as an annual round up of his favorite albums. (2021, 2022, 2023)