Travelogue II: Memphis to Asheville
Some more of this little log. This time, driving across Tennessee
Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train and Other N.C. Folk Songs
Gregory W. Brown - Un/bodying/s
David Bowie - Blackstar
Connie Converse - Playboy of the Western World
Doudou N’Diaye Rose - Djabote
Podcasts
Gastropod
Pod Save America
In Our Time - Coffee
Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train and Other N.C. Folk Songs
Elizabeth Cotten is an incredible guitarist. Really hard to fully state how radical and impactful her technique was because, in some way or another, every guitarist plays like her, in some way, now.
Top Tracks: Going down the road feeling bad, Sweet bye and bye, Spanish Flang Dang
Gregory W. Brown - Un/bodying/s
Such great choral writing here, really advanced, yet really natural and built on strong choral foundations. Plus, Brown throws in the catchiest Renaissance part song parodies, which are still stuck in my head.
David Bowie - Blackstar
Bowie’s last album, made while he was undergoing treatment for terminal cancer, is a moody masterpiece. One of his finest efforts, in all honesty. I Can’t Give Everything Away still gets me everytime, especially the subtlety of these lines:
Seeing more and feeling less
Saying no but meaning yes
This is all I ever meant
That's the message that I sent
(Apparently, no one in the studio knew he was ill or what these songs might mean.
Top Tracks: Blackstar, ‘Tis a Pity She Was Whore, Dollar Days, I Can’t Give Everything Away
Connie Converse - Playboy of the Western World
This popped up in a shuffle playlist and I just fell in love. Converse was an early singer-songwriter (supposedly, the first of the genre), who was incredibly unappreciated at the time and who disappeared in 1974. Her life story is a ROLLERCOASTER. This is very much a sort of proto- Joni Mitchell, with Converse’s very skilled guitar playing, high voice, jazzy stylings (JAZZ), and sarcastic, but sweet, lyric sense.
Doudou N’Diaye Rose - Djabote
Doudou N’Diaye Rose was a Senegalese drummer and composer widely regarded as a master fo the drum saban and one of the most revered West African musicians. Here, he is leading his drum orchestra, who weave in and out of grooves and rhythmic patterns intricately and hypnotically. One of those music where you just get sucked in by one small thing then find that you have no awareness of anything other than the music, as you are pulled in by the currents of complexity.
Top Tracks: Alll? I’ll be honest, I listened to the whole thing without really keeping track of names and I don’t remember much beyond certain features.
Podcasts
A whole lot of Gastropod
In Our Time - Coffee (though I had to stop because the host kept cutting people off)
Pod Save America/The World