John Muka Band - Things I Can’t Change

​John Muka Band

Things I Can’t Change
self-released; 2025

By Jamie funk
​

Formed quietly but with intention in Jacksonville, the John Muka Band sounds like a project that has been orbiting its own ideas for years before committing them to tape. Listening to Things I Can’t Change, I kept returning to the sense of familiarity threaded through its ambition. There are moments that recall the communal sprawl of a Dave Matthews Band show, not as imitation but as a shared vocabulary built around momentum, dynamic shifts, and emotional release. I hear a band reaching for connection through density, trusting that excess can still carry meaning.

Co writers John Muka and Troy Towsley first linked up in 2000 through a local newspaper ad, and that long running partnership shows in the record’s pacing and internal logic. Their writing leans heavily on jam band traditions associated with Phish, where songs expand outward rather than locking into rigid forms.

The opener, “A Moments Thought,” leans hardest into that lineage. Its structure and energy echo familiar terrain, with pads, horns, and digital textures stacking up quickly. At times there is so much happening that individual details blur together. “No Reason” continues that approach, layering piano and overlapping melodies until the song threatens to spill over itself. Muka’s vocal delivery often pushes toward heightened emotion, occasionally tipping into exaggeration.

Elsewhere, the album settles into more defined moods. “Be There” leans celebratory, driven by bright horn lines, while “No One Is There” pulls back into something more restrained. I was drawn to “Foolish Pride” for its attempt at unguarded joy, and the title track carries a clear Americana tint that grounds the album briefly. “Not Me” stands out as one of the stronger cuts, finding balance between arrangement and song, and “That Isn’t Good” holds together despite its crowded palette.

Even with what sounds like a near endless supply of parts, Things I Can’t Change carries the intimacy and rough edges of a small scale operation. The mixes and production choices give it a home recorded character, as if the entire album is guided by a single, concentrated vision rather than a wide committee. That focus becomes its quiet strength, turning overload into a personal statement rather than a technical exercise.

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