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Music Notes

On November 15, 2025

At 7:00 pm

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I saw S.G. Goodman play in Cambridge last week. This is the second time I’ve seen her, the first being at Newport Folk Festival this year, so I was excited to see her play her full set. It was excellent. She’s such a masterful songwriter of modern folk music. And let’s not call her country–this is not country music, despite her deep western Kentucky accent. I will war forever over the lazy classification of people as country music because they are white southerners with accents–Jason Isbell isn’t country either. In any case, she played most of Planting by the Signs, with just a couple of older songs. That was fine by me, as I know that album the best. The song that really slays on this album–Ann Powers recently said it is probably the best song of 2025 and I don’t disagree–is “Snapping Turtle.” It’s about growing up in the rural South and it tells a story about a character who comes up on a bunch of kids beating on a snapping turtle with a stick. She then takes the stick and beats the shit out of the punk kids and rescues the turtle. She said that people ask her if the story is true and she it absolutely is and that she did indeed beat the shit out of them. She said that in Cambridge you aren’t supposed to say that but “where I come, people get their ass kicked.” This was also during Game 7 of the World Series. She noted that she doesn’t even like baseball but she was rooting for Toronto because “fuck this country.” So you can see why I would like her. In any case, she puts on a very fine show. She’s such a sharp songwriter, not only “Snapping Turtle” but “Heaven Song” is really first rate material and the rest of the songs are between very good and outstanding as well.

A band called Fust opened and they were great. I love it when I see an opening act that I really like. They are a North Carolina alt-country band really channeling the 90s version of that. Great country-rock sound, the fiddle player adds a lot, and the singer was quite good. I wonder about the economics of bringing a 6-piece band on tour as an opening act, but you have to get your music out there somehow, so while I imagine they are covering expenses at best, at least they are turning people onto their music and I hope you get turned on to their work too. Going to have to check out their albums now.

Other news:

Obviously we need to talk about the death of Donna Jean Godchaux. I always liked her work singing with the Grateful Dead. Since none of those guys were actually good singers (though to be honest, I’m completely fine with both Garcia and Weir singing, though Lesh was so bad as to be intolerable), having a genuinely good singer in the band was a good thing. I wish they had given her some songs to do lead on though. She often didn’t have that much to do during very long stretches when they were off jamming for 25 minutes. And yet, for a woman who sang background for Elvis of all people, she could sound a bit off with them as well. I guess that’s just part of what that music did. I can’t say that I’ve heard any of her solo work.

AI and algorithms generally are evil when it comes to music and art. Listening to AI based music is just gross. But then how many people have some sense of responsibility for what is happening? I mean, if you listen to Spotify shuffle, you are telling a corporation to tell you what to listen to. Why would you do that? Are we that lazy? This is how AI “singers” get millions of listens. It’s sad. I realize that most people don’t care about music and, well, that’s too bad, but OK. Music never touches a lot of people. But to be a fan of music and just give up and say “please corporate masters, choose my art for me,” it’s hard for me to object to something more strenuously than that.

Speaking of the grotesque corporation domination of music, Salt-n-Pepa used the occasion of their Rock and Roll HOF induction speech to slam UMG for taking their music down from the platforms over copyright issues.

Olivia Rodrigo is the latest musician to have her work stolen by the fascist Trump administration.

Good essay on Husker Du at Bandcamp

Pitchfork goes back to consider Patti Smith’s Horses, a half-century after its release.

If you are going to read one good long article about music, check out this great discussion of Alice Coltrane’s life and legacy at the New York Review of Books.

If you are going to read a second long article, I’d recommend this one on Brian Eno, by a guy who was and sort of still is a fan of Eno, but who realizes Eno has been full of a shit for a very long time and is now just a kind of techbro inspirer without actually making good music and that’s quite literal, he mouths a lot of banal cliches about technology. I’m probably being a little harsh in the description, since even Eno’s best albums have never impressed me and he’s a long, long ways from his best albums. I did think this comparison of Eno to John Zorn was really interesting:

There was a long middle period where Eno seemed to be coasting. When I reviewed Small Craft on a Milk Sea in 2010 it felt like an Eno in aspic, cut off from life outside the Eno compound, as if he wasn’t aware that a whole new dispensation of Eno-influenced drone-glitch-ambient-electronica had substantially raised the bar. His own work felt too cautious, tasteful, smooth. A very tidy garden with not a single thing out of place. Compare all this with the work of a rough contemporary like the polymathic American musician John Zorn, who tapped into similar influences (notably John Cage: the same quickstep between arbitrary and planned, strict framework and bold improvisation), and Eno feels a bit tepid. Zorn excites where Eno soothes. Zorn inhabits forms of worship and ritual; Eno is without golem or daemon.

That seems right to me. Zorn may or may not be as influential as Eno; certainly he never had the kind of impact Eno had in the 70s. But Zorn is most certainly the more interesting artist and they do come from similar material.

A friend of mine gave me a copy of Robert Christgau’s Any Old Way You Choose It: Rock and Other Pop Music, 1967-1973, his first major collection of his writings. I have to say, I enjoyed the hell out of it. I know people give Christgau shit and I largely disagree anyway, I think he’s great. But what I really loved about this was reading rock criticism become a thing in real time and how many of his takes from all the way back then really hold up today. He’s also funnier than I realized. His pieces on Grand Funk Railroad’s amazing ability to have band mates sue each other made me laugh. Talking about bands that were just starting at the time and are legends today is interesting to read. His dismissals of people who I find intolerably boring today–James Taylor, everything associated with Laurel Canyon, etc–are highly enjoyable to me today. And then bands that are totally forgotten today, well, that’s also interesting in thinking about why and how that happens.

NPR has a thing about new protest singers making it big on TikTok. All three of these people are very big in the Newport Folk Festival tastemakers so have been there. I haven’t seen Jensen McRae, so can’t speak to her. Mon Rovia is nice–he’s a Liberian immigrant who was part of the horrific violence of his childhood there. So his music is a lot more about trying to overcome that than what I would usually consider “protest music” per se, or at least that’s how his set was. Jesse Welles was certainly popular there, but as far as I can tell, he’s an actual Dylan imitator, down to the look and the hair. That his “protest” songs include protesting the murder of Charlie Kirk suggests he’s imitating Dylan’s complete lack of commitment to any kind of coherent political thought too. Mon Rovia at least stands up for real in opposition to the genocide in Gaza.

….One last thing that came out right before I can’t work on this post anymore, which is that Todd Snider died today, only 59 years old. Pneumonia. Get yourself checked out if you aren’t feeling well before it’s too late!

Playlist for the last two weeks:

Jim Lauderdale, Time Flies
Charles Bradley, Changes
Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color
Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter
S.G. Goodman, Teeth Marks (x2)
Phryme, Phryme 2
Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard, Pioneering Women of Bluegrass
Willi Carlisle, Critterland
Miles Davis, Bitches Brew Live
Bill Callahan, Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest
Tom Russell, Borderland
Richard Thompson, Celtschmerz (Live UK ’98)
Wussy, Funeral Dress
Cannonball Adderley, Somethin’ Else
Waylon Jennings, Dreaming My Dreams
James McMurtry, The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy
Sarah Pagé, Dose Curves
Margaret Glaspy, Echo the Diamond
The White Stripes, Elephant
Ennio Morricone, The Legendary Italian Westerns
Grateful Dead, Uncle John’s Band
Agalisiga, Nasgino Inage Nidayulenvi
The Coathangers, Nosebleed Weekend
R.E.M., Life’s Rich Pageant
Mon Laferte, 1940 Carmen
The Tubs, Dead Meat
Neil Young, Harvest Moon
Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Kick Your Ass
Son House, Live at the Gaslight Cafe
The Regrettes, Further Joy
The Highwomen, self-titled
Chuck Prophet, The Land That Time Forgot
Mulatu Astatke, Mulatu Steps Ahead
Natalie Hemby, Pins and Needles
Amaia Miranda, Mientras Villa Brilla
Robbie Fulks and Linda Gayle Lewis, Wild! Wild! Wild!
Hank Williams, Unreleased Recordings, disc 1
Marty Robbins, R.F.D. Marty Robbins
Kieran Kane and Kevin Welch, Live in Melbourne
The Who, Who’s Next
Mon Laferte, SEIS
Lou Reed, Transformer
Lee Hazelwood, 20th Century Lee
Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On
Grateful Dead, Dick’s Picks, Vol. 3, disc 2
Elizabeth Cook, Aftermath (x2)
Screaming Females, Desire Pathway
R.E.M., Green
Martha, Love Keeps Kicking
Silver Jews, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
U.S. Girls, In a Poem Unlimited
Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life, disc 2
Ralph Stanley, Something Old, Something New
Tom T. Hall, New Train Same Rider
Ashley McBryde, Presents Lindeville
Neil Young, Zuma
Loretta Lynn, Fist City
Jimmie Dale Gilmore and the Flatlanders, self-titled
Kurt Vile, B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down
Smile Machine, Bye for Now
The Coathangers, Suck My Shirt
Eddie Hinton, Very Extremely Dangerous
Gang of Four, Solid Gold
Tom Waits, Rain Dogs
Sam Rivers, Inspiration
Oneohtrix Point Never, Replica
Noname, Room 25
Yo La Tengo, Stuff Like That There
Algiers, self-titled
Jason Isbell, Reunions
Wussy, Forever Sounds
Will Oldham, Guarapero: Lost Blues 2
Gillian Welch, Hell Among the Yearlings
Vince Staples, Hell Can Wait
Neko Case, Hell-On (why did I listen to albums in alphabetical order? The cat wouldn’t get off my lap for 90 minutes so I couldn’t change them)
Bill Callahan, Reality
Guy Clark, Keepers
Sleaford Mods, UK Grim
Kris Davis Trio, Run the Gauntlet
And This Is Free: The Life and Times of Chicago’s Legendary Maxwell Street
Steve Earle, Exit 0
Charlotte Gainsbourg, IRM
Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers, Jungle Fire!
Don Edwards, Live at the White Elephant
Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet, One Dance Alone
John Moreland, Visitor
Drive By Truckers, American Band
Nick Drake, Bryter Layter
Bonnie Prince Billy, Master and Everyone
Margo Price, All American Made
Rusty & Doug Kershaw, Louisiana Man
Angaleena Presley, Wrangled
Ralph Stanley, Live in Japan
Lucinda Williams, Happy Woman Blues
Jason Isbell, Sirens of the Ditch
Old 97s, Fight Songs
Wayne Shorter, Super Nova
Sunny Sweeney, Trophy
Blood Orange, Freetown Sound
James McMurtry, Live in Aught Three

Album Reviews:

Natsuki Tamura/Satoko Fujii/Ramon Lopez, Yama Kawa Umi

Fujii and Tamura release a ton of music and a lot of it is difficult and all of it is interesting. Here, they team up with the drummer Ramon Lopez in one of their more accessible releases, in at least among the many I have heard (though they are so productive that there are many I have not heard). A review of this album in All About Jazz said an interesting thing, which is that listening to Fujii is a bit how like listening to Monk was back in the day before everyone knew his music, which is that it can be hard to understand what the heck is going on here. I think that makes sense, but you just have to sit back and let her noises roll over you. This certainly isn’t an easy release for the uninitiated, but this is hardly some sort of blow fest and can be strikingly beautiful if you are open to hearing that.

A-

Fred Hirsch/Enrico Rava, The Song is You

So I didn’t expect to love this as much as I did. These are two legends–Hirsch is a critical figure in the history of jazz piano and Rava is probably the greatest living Italian jazz musicians. But sometimes this kind of duet–especially when it is being recorded for ECM–can be a snoozefest, something that is nice but which retreats into background music like a jazz combo in the corner at a corporate office party. But that doesn’t happen here at all. Instead, what you have is one of the most gorgeous and lovely jazz duets I have ever heard. I just loved this album.

Ron Miles, Rainbow Sign

This is Miles’ last studio album before his sadly early passing. He typically has a great band with him, including Bill Frisell, Brian Blade, Thomas Morgan, and Jason Moran. But I have to say that I never really got into Miles solo work and I feel that way here too. It’s a completely fine jazz album, executed well. Obviously, with a quintet like this. But his compositions never moved me much and I never found them particularly engaging intellectually either. He’s like a very solid post-bop composer and trumpeter who makes every session better because he’s in it, but compared to the most interesting of jazz, it just falls a bit flat in my view.

Richard Dawson, End of the Middle

This is not the Family Feud gameshow host, nor is it someone with a joke name. No, it’s actually a British guy with the name. With the Big Ears lineup mostly announced for the spring, it’s time to start exploring some of these folks and Dawson had been on my list for a little while. Dawson is very English and a bit plaintive. It’s folky and he sings about the everyday. I get why people would like this a lot. I more respected what he was doing than loved it. He creates his own worlds and sings of the people in them, in this case a lot around family issues. He’s a bard of the everyday. I found his voice a bit grating for long spells and given the choices at Big Ears, I doubt I will see him, but I certainly wouldn’t mind giving him a chance to move me live.

Lorelle Meet the Obsolete, Corporal

I like it when one of my favorite bands get weirder. The Guadalajara-based duo Lorelle Meets the Obsolete always were a sort of mix between Sonic Youth and Latin American psychedelic bands. After some time off, they’ve leaned in very heavy to space music, as if they added a lot of Sun Ra and early Pink Floyd to their mix, in short a lot of electronics. A lot of people are comparing to this Primal Scream as well, which makes sense but I don’t know that band overly intimately so it didn’t immediately come to mind. Lorena Quintanilla sounds as ethereal as ever in vocals, but they are now way off in the noise which her voice helps tie to some sort of reality. Plus sometimes it verges on dance music, though never for very long. Not sure it’s my favorite of their albums, but it’s a really welcome release.

A-

Tropical Fuck Storm, Fairlyland Codex

I saw perhaps my favorite Australian rock band recently but I had not in fact heard the new album yet when I did. This is just what they are now–a rock solid rock and roll band that is more interesting that most, have a few really good songs on each album, and maybe a few that aren’t the best songs ever. I find their albums slow a bit when the female singers take the lead; in many ways, the reason this band rules is the desperate fucked upness of Gareth Liddiard, who sounds like he’s writing a soundtrack for a Mad Max world and the other singers don’t quite have that level of unique voice. But then who does? So by this point, TFS is a good band with good records who probably have reached their pinnacle, but if they want to go on and make reasonably interesting records with a few killer tracks and go play some kick ass live shows, uh, yes please and also take my money.

B+

Brad Goode Polytonal Big Band, The Snake Charmer

I really love a good big band. The problem of course is that there’s no money in it. It’s hard to break even with a quintet, never mind a big band. We’re a long time from the period where these bands had actual popularity, though it’s not as if even Ellington was getting super rich either. But when I do hear a good one, I am very ready for more. My favorite contemporary big band is Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, but they only release an album every 4-5 years, so I need more. Brad Goode’s band is less experimental than Argue’s, but remains pretty first rate. Goode himself is a trumpeter, though he isn’t the conductor, who is John Davis. Presumably not the 1924 Democratic candidate for president. The album is a good combo of originals and covers, including Charlie Parker’s “Ornithology.” But what really works here is that the music totally swings while also being, well, polytonal. Very much worth your time.

A-

Pretenders, Relentless

I guess I had missed that Pretenders had an album released in 2023. So let’s hear it. You know what? It’s entirely acceptable rock and roll. They aren’t breaking new ground anymore, but then when was the last time the Stones released anything remotely interesting. So these things need to be contextualized. Probably in the end more for preexisting fans of the band than new fans, but that’s just fine.

Peter Brotzmann/Keiji Haino Duo, The Intellect Given Birth to Here (Eternity) Is Too Young

Not much of this is available streaming, but on and off over the years, the legendary German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brotzmann worked with the Japanese guitarist/singer/weirdo Keiji Haino and in 2018, they did some shows and recorded them. One thing about Brotzmann is that you can really feel how his jazz is different because the Germans are so disconnected from the blues. That’s for better or worse but it’s a very different feeling from Ayler or Coltrane or their successors. This is European/Asian noise and whether you like that or not depends on your overall conceptions of music that often have a lot less to do with jazz itself than with the various forms of noise music. I like it, but a 20 minute number is really plenty for most people.

Kassie Krut, self-titled

Saw this band open for Kim Gordon in the spring and enjoyed their avant-electro thing live, figured I’d check out the EP. Still like it pretty well. Semi-experimental sorta minimalist dance music with a lot of big guitar riffs. Some of the tracks get pretty out there but in a way that still makes you want to move, but you also feel smart for listening to it.

B+

Murry Hammond, Trail Songs of the Deep

A whole album from Rhett Miller’s sidekick in Old 97s? OK? Why not, I like his songs alright, even if there are like 1 per Old 97s album. And you know, this is OK for a guy who can’t sing much. But he’s a fine songwriter. I did think that the Rhett Miller endorsement was either a piss take or way over the top. He writes, “Murry Hammond’s 2025 release Trail Songs of the Deep is his greatest achievement, the perfect distillation of his grand vision, and conclusive evidence of his centrality to the last half-century of American music.” Uh….I wouldn’t use such statements about Miller and Old 97s is one of my favorite bands ever. But you know, it’s nice enough for a little side project.

B-

Artemis, Arboresque

Wanted to check out the Artemis and am not disappointed. If you aren’t familiar with the band, it’s an all-woman jazz supergroup based around the great Renee Rosnes on piano. Allison Miller is on drums, Ingrid Jensen on trumpet, Noriko Ueda on bass, and Nicole Glover on sax. They sound great. It’s such a perfect band for post-60s mainstream jazz, a type that very much builds on the greats of that era but continues to move the music forward in interesting ways that remain quite accessible to any jazz fan. This is completely outside the point that they are an all-women supergroup in a genre still too dominated by men (except for vocals and, probably, piano). I’m not going to say this group is awesome because it is all women and I am certainly not going to say that putting a bunch of women together leads to an inherently different kind of jazz. I don’t believe in essentialism. What I will say is that this band is absolutely first rate, they make beautiful music, and you should listen to them and buy their albums and see them if you can. Luckily, they are big enough to probably make actual money. When I saw them, probably around the time they were recording this, they were playing in the big concert hall at the Berkelee School of Music. In fact, I think this is the best of their albums. The previous ones had a bit of sameness to me that made me put them in the occasional listen pile (which for me is like once a year, let’s be honest), but this varies things up significantly and thus is probably in the multiple listens per year file. And few albums get beyond that as anyone who follows my albums listened to lists closely can attest.

Sufjan Stevens, Javelin

Everyone, including me, fell in love with Stevens twenty years ago when he was writing sweet music about the history and life of the Midwest, with entire albums dedicated to Illinois and Michigan. The fame seems to have freaked him out. He wrote one more sorta place album, about his mother and stepfather and living in Eugene, Oregon, which happened to appeal to me being from the next town over and namedropping places I hang out. But the music tended to become pretty samey–soft, sad, and pretty–and in the end, you need a bit of change sometimes. So he semi-fell off my radar screen as a musician, though he was around quite a bit, from doing work for the theater to being something of a modern gay icon. But I haven’t actually heard one of his albums–Carrie & Lowell, his Eugene album–which was released all the way back in 2015. So here’s his 2023 album. And this album is exactly what I expected. If you like your music soft, sad, and pretty, you’ll probably still like this. Me, I’m getting pretty bored with it by now.

B-

As always, this is an open thread for all things music and art and none things politics.

music notes, s.g. goodman