Music Notes
By 
I was supposed to see John Moreland last week. But he cancelled for some reason at the last second. I was very sad. I hope he’s alright.
However, I did see Emmylou Harris last Thursday in Lowell, Massachusetts (of all places). It was my 2nd Emmylou show and since the first was a festival, it was great to have an opportunity to see her in full effect. This was the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts, an odd site. It’s one of those giant old theaters and the problem with the show was that the big space swallowed up the sound. We had good seats but it was not always easy to make out the words and it all felt far away if you didn’t already know the songs and while I knew most of them, I didn’t know all of them. The band of course was tops and Emmylou still sounds outstanding at 78, so this had nothing to do with the performers and everything to do with the venue. Bit of a bummer. Setlist is here and it was a good one. Still, it was good to see her again.
I watched a fun music film last week. Jazz Parades is a 1990 film about the New Orleans jazz parade/second line tradition, created and narrated by Alan Lomax, the great folklorist. Lomax is not the most charismatic guy in the world, but it is like taking a folklore course. There are lots of films about New Orleans jazz out there, but I’ve never seen that more explicitly noted the connections in the music, costume, and dance with west African traditions than this one, with plenty of visual comparisons. So sure, it’s like being in school, if school had great music and footage, including some early work from Dirty Dozen Brass Band. You can watch it at Folkstreams. Worth an hour.
What are the demographics of country music listeners? This came up in comments of a post a couple of weeks ago. There’s a liberal stereotype that this is working class music. It was at one time, but it is not today and hasn’t been since for quite some time. It’s music for white suburban women. These demographic stats are from all the way back in 2011, but it was already true then, basically. Country music listeners tend to be wealthier than the average America.
I want to highlight a new blog by a man named James Taylor (not the musician) who I met a few years ago through my family network. He’s writing a weekly essay on what he calls Foundational Black Music and these are pretty good. Here’s the latest on J.B. Lenoir, who seems a bit too forgotten these days. Here’e an excerpt from it:
In songs like “Alabama Blues,” J.B. Lenoir doesn’t hold back—he calls out police brutality and segregation by name. In “Vietnam Blues,” he questions the hypocrisy of sending Black men to fight and die for a country that denied them basic rights at home. And in “Down in Mississippi,” he offers a raw, autobiographical account of racial violence, poverty, and the exploitation of Black labor. Through these songs, Lenoir pushed the blues into bold, uncharted political territory. At a time when speaking out could mean being silenced, blacklisted, or worse, he refused to back down. He stayed true to his message—even if it meant leaving the country to record music that American labels were too afraid to touch.
“Down in Mississippi” is more than just a blues song—it’s a haunting, autobiographical confession from a man who endured the brutal realities of the Jim Crow South and chose to sing the truth. Recorded by J.B. Lenoir in 1966, the track strips the blues down to its rawest form: no electric guitar, no horns, no booming rhythm section. Just Lenoir’s high, aching voice and the hollow strum of his acoustic guitar. The guitar does double duty—serving as both melody and rhythm—while the beat remains subtle, almost ghostlike. You might catch the faint sound of hand percussion or foot tapping in the background, courtesy of Fred Below, the legendary drummer who also played on Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”
Despite its stripped-down setup, “Down in Mississippi” hits harder than most full-band protest anthems of its time. Lenoir’s voice is unlike the gritty baritone growls typical of Chicago blues—it’s high-pitched, thin, and plaintive, more reminiscent of a folk singer than a juke joint shouter. That quality gives the song an added layer of vulnerability and urgency. Instead of raising his volume, Lenoir leans into key words with emotional intensity, using a kind of vocal cry that cuts straight to the soul. It’s not just music- it’s testimony.
Check out the Charley Patton essay too.
The stuntman on fire on the cover of Wish You Were Here died. 88 isn’t bad for someone crazy enough for that job.
Neil Young has a new anti-Trump song.
Burning Ambulance on Anna Thorvaldsdóttir’s In the Light of Air album on its 10th anniversary.
When I read Kelefa Sanneh’s book a couple of months ago, I wrote about how he went into the ways in which music criticism used to have an edge to it and now everyone is just a fan boy. He explores this further in his latest New Yorker essay.
Playlist from the last two weeks:
- Robert Earl Keen, Picnic
- Wussy, Attica!
- Billy Joe Shaver, Old Five and Dimers Like Me
- Steve Coleman and Five Elements, The Ascension to Light
- Bill Callahan, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
- Tom T. Hall, In Search of a Song
- The Bakersfield Sound: Country Music Capital Of The West 1940-1974, disc 2
- The Rough Guide to the Music of Vietnam
- Dave Burrell Full Blown Trio, Expansion
- Matthew Shipp String Trio, Expansion, Power, Release
- Mdou Moctar, Ilana (The Creator)
- Fontaines D.C., Skinty Fia
- Laura Veirs, My Echo
- Bonnie Prince Billy, The Purple Bird
- Rodney Crowell, Ain’t Living Long Like This
- Miles Davis, Porgy and Bess
- Sun Ra, Music from Tomorrow’s World
- Dirtmusic, Bu Bir Ruya
- Steve Earle, Ghosts of West Virginia
- Cassandra Jenkins, An Overview on Phenomenal Nature
- Japanese Breakfast, Jubilee
- Josh Rouse, Going Places
- Bill Callahan, Dream River
- Welcome to Zamrock! How Zambia’s Liberation Led to a Rock Revolution
- Emmylou Harris, Cimarron
- Merle Haggard, It’s Not Love (But It’s Not Bad)
- Sunny Sweeney, Trophy
- Father John Misty, Fear Fun
- Outkast, Idlewild
- Drive By Truckers, The Big To-Do
- Gary Stewart, Out of Hand
- Yo La Tengo, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
- William Parker Orchestra, Essence of Ellington: Live in Milano, disc 2
- Emiliana Torrini, Me and Armini
- Richard Thompson, The Life and Music of Richard Thompson, disc 1
- Jessi Colter, A County Star is Born
- Doc Watson, Riding the Midnight Train
- William Parker, Mayan Space Station
- Da Cruz, Eco do Futuro
- Kahil El’Zabar, America the Beautiful
- Gerald Cleaver & Violet Hour, Live at Firehouse 12
- Willis Alan Ramsey, self-titled
- Patterson Hood, Murdering Oscar (and Other Love Songs)
- Ennio Morricone, The Legendary Italian Westerns
- Cat Power, You Are Free
- Empress Of, I’m Your Empress Of
- Lydia Loveless, Somewhere Else
- Camera Obscura, Let’s Get Out of This Country
- Bonnie Prince Billy, Master and Everyone
- Wussy, What Heaven is Like
- John Moreland, LP5
- Tomas Fujiwara, Pith
- Dave Liebman/Tyshawn Sorey/Adam Rudolph, New Now
- Louvin Brothers, Tragic Songs of Life
- Merle Haggard, A Portrait of Merle Haggard
- Justin Townes Earle, Harlem River Blues
- Terry Allen, Lubbock (On Everything)
- Torres, Sprinter
- Drive By Truckers, Southern Rock Opera, disc 1
- William Parker, Voices Fall From the Sky, disc 2
- William Parker, Raining on the Moon
- Merle Haggard, Down Every Road, disc 3
- Bonnie Prince Billy, Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You
- The Paranoid Style, Underworld USA
- Duke Ellington, The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse
- Ray Price, The Essential
- Buddy Tabor, Meadowlark
- Townes Van Zandt, Rear View Mirror
- Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Hillbilly Music: 1960
- Run the Jewels, RTJ4
- Centro-Matic, Navigational
- John Coltrane, A Love Supreme
- Sad 13, Haunted Painting
- Kings Go Forth, The Outsiders Are Back
- James Brown, Live at Home with His Bad Self
- Jake Blount and Mali Obomsawin, Symbiont
- David Torn/Tim Berne/Ches Smith, Sun of Goldfinger
- Silver Jews, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
- Kraftwerk, Trans-Europe Express
- Irving Fields Trio, Bagels and Bongos
- Willi Carlisle, Critterland
- Agalisiga, Nasgino Inage Nidayulenvi
- Waxahatchee, Saint Cloud
- Joe Ely and Joel Guzman, Live Cactus
- Townes Van Zandt, High, Low, and In Between
- Sugar, Copper Blue
- Tropical Fuck Storm, Deep States
- Neil Young, After the Gold Rush
- Gillian Welch, Revival
- Chuck Prophet, Wake the Dead
- The Paranoid Style, Rolling Disclosure
- Willi Carlisle, Winged Victory
- Catherine Irwin, Little Heater
- Lilly Hiatt, Lately
- Grateful Dead, May 2, 1970, acoustic set
- Ray Price, Western Strings
- Craig Finn, A Legacy of Rentals
- Matthew Bourne & Emil Karlsen, The Embalmer
Album Reviews, again mostly trying to catch up on 2025 albums, though there’s a couple older releases in here too:
S.G. Goodman, Planting by the Signs
Having really enjoyed seeing Goodman live at Newport, figured it was time to check out an album. I’d say this is more a solid album than a great one. She’s a good songwriter and there are some superb songs on here–especially “Snapping Turtle,” where she takes the stick some punk kids are using to destroy a turtle and beats the shit out of them, probably not a true story but a metaphor for the difficulties of being someone like herself in small town culture. She comes from a tiny western Kentucky town. Not every song pops quite like this, but the highlights are very high. Possibly could benefit from a bit more rock and roll, as could so many artists.
B+
Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio, Armageddon Flower
The Shipp string trio includes himself on piano, the bass god William Parker and Mat Maneri on viola. They have their own albums, but for this one, Shipp brought in the saxophonist Perelman. In a sense, this is the ultimate in what free jazz is supposed to do–take the very best players out there, let them improvise, and just see what happens. I happen to really like the Shipp String Trio, both in the 90s and now that it has come back from time to time. I’m not really the world’s biggest Perelman fan, though I certainly respect his work and would like to see him. He’s someone whose work I respect more than love. The idea behind the recording is that for all the hell of our current world, after it is all done, there will still be a flower. Maybe there will be. Maybe it will be the sound of a piano, bass, viola, and saxophone.
A-
Original Koffee, Gifted
A tremendously Jamaican singer and rapper with an album that has great sounds, a pleasant voice, and maybe not all that much to say. But in terms of something nice to put on, it checks a lot of boxes. Nothing wrong with that.
B
Sunflower Bean, Mortal Primetime
I got really into this band’s 2018 album Twentytwo in Blue and then didn’t follow them after that. Turns out they have a number of albums. Hmmm…Well, anyway, I heard they had a new one so I figured I’d check it out. The thing about this band is that they are just a solid rock and roll band, one of these bands that takes the whole history of rock and mixes it all up and makes it their own. So sure, the influences are here and you can hear them, but what it just makes it in the end is high quality straight ahead rock and roll and there is nothing and never will be anything wrong with that. I always like bands with two vocalists too. The girl is better than the guy, as is often the case, but he provides the needed changeup like Rilo Kiley had back in the day. May not be a great band but is certainly a very solid one. The highlights of this album are very much highlights. Maybe they didn’t quite have an album’s worth of first rate material, but whatever.
B
Blaine Todd, Goodbye Til I Do Good By You
Delightfully oddball country, like something Terry Allen would have done in the late 70s or 80s. It’s spacey and dream and kind of theateresque and about men floating through the west. Maybe less violence than Allen’s work, but a similar feel. He also has an experimental music side to him–he works with avant-garde folks like Allen was in the modern sculpture world, but he’s very rooted in the space and music of the rural West. He also cites Allen as a major influence. This requires more listening for me to really get my head around the entire project, but that listening is going to happen because at the worst, it’s a delightfully unusual project that is so hard to make because who is going to fund it in a dead music industry? No one and in fact, Todd had to work for years to get this made. I’m glad he did.
B+
Myra Melford, Splash
Here, the great pianist works with Michael Formanek on bass and Ches Smith on drums for an all-star piano trio. It reminded me what a golden age of jazz piano we are in these days–Melford, Matthew Shipp, Craig Taborn, Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, Uri Caine, Anthony Coleman, plenty of others. It’s astounding just how many great players there are. Melford is among the most underrated of them. This album was inspired by the work of Cy Twombly, which makes sense. Modern art and free jazz are closely connected, with the singular difference that people can lie about enjoying modern art in museums because they can just glance at it and walk away, whereas jazz is a much more immersive experience that makes lying and posing much harder. Melford’s piano isn’t quite as squiggly lined as a Twombly painting; I guess if I was making that comparison, I might go with someone more difficult like Satoko Fujii. But the comparison does give you a good idea of the interplay between the three musicians and what it means for the music. I thought it an excellent recording.
A
All Get Out, self-titled
Solid enough guitar-centric indie rock. Bit of Centro-Matic in here, though with more harmonies. Plenty of Built to Spill too. And there’s a song about Windows 98, called “Windows 98.” The rare song about an operating system–“I can fucking navigate Windows 98, it’s no big deal.” I liked it more as it went on, in the ways that a guitar rock can just wash over you, especially when the songwriting is decent. Worthy, at least.
B
As always, this is an open thread about all things music and art and none things politics.