Music Notes
By 
I am in the midst of a show drought that will continue until mid-September. Then I have a ton of shows. That happens sometimes. So what to talk about? How about the actual music of Dolly Parton? I can’t really complain about all the obituaries of Dolly Parton barely talking about the music. That’s like complaining about the culture around the Grateful Dead, since it was the band that encouraged that stuff. Dolly deemphasized her music in the mid 70s and went into acting and celebrity and philanthropy and capitalism. She was good at all of these things. Some people got real upset about my Dolly obit because I didn’t discuss the philanthropy. There’s a good reason for that, which is that I don’t really care. My interest is her musical decisions and how her move toward stardom affected that. Good for her, yes. But she still went all in for the cash, even if she gave a lot of it away. Well, that’s her decision, it hardly takes away from her life, but it does mean that her actual musical legacy is not as deep as it could be. The public’s knowledge of Dolly songs is “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “I Will Always Love You,” “9 to 5” and a few others. Those are all great songs (I actually don’t like “I Will Always Love You” much personally, but that’s just a personal thing). So how about a quick Dolly playlist? What if we actually listen to Dolly Parton, but not any of her really biggest and longest-lasting hits?
This is a pretty good mix. I had to include the “Eugene” song since it’s about my almost home town. It’s a very literal song; it sounds good, but the lyrics need work. Still, not many country songs about Oregon. Meanwhile, what you see here is a combination of her great 60s work and her not always super great post-75 work. She could quite obviously do whatever she wanted. She had one of the best voices of all time, any genre of music. She used it to follow the latest trends. To what extent you like that depends on how you evaluate Dolly’s legacy as a musician. As you can hear with “The Grass is Blue,” she could do old time work like no other. As you can see when she sings with Kenny Rogers, she can pop cheese very easily too. She was happy to do whichever made her most money. I do really cherish those early songs about being a woman in a man’s world, so I included a few of those. Also, while any conversation about Dolly can include her hair, can we discuss Emmylou Harris’ hair on that Trio video. Whoa! 80s were not good for people from the 60s and 70s, that’s all I’m saying.
The other thing about my obituary is that people want heroes, I do not want heroes. Also, people in this horrible poptimism world hate criticism. They just want celebrations of the latest big things. Well, you ain’t getting that at LGM, even if you get it everywhere else. I was also looking at tags here at the site when I’ve discussed Dolly before. This is a good time to revisit this 2021 essay I had mentioned back then, “Why Do We Need Dolly Parton to Be a Saint?” after it came out that Dolly had invested heavily in black neighborhoods in Nashville with the evident goal of making money off gentrification. Not the worst crime in the world, but she was a human, not a saint. I might also point you to Tressie McMillan Cottom’s essay calling Dolly “a post-racism queen,” which is not necessarily a good thing.
So, you know, people are complex.
We need to at least mention the death of Cassandra Wilson, at the age of 70. As I’ve stated many times, I’m not really a jazz vocals guy, but you can’t deny her overwhelming talent and her artistry at it. I do wish she hadn’t had a late-life conversion to Trumpism. Maybe that shouldn’t be how we discuss her, but if you don’t want that, don’t follow fascists. Doesn’t impact her art of course, but it does impact our memory of her. I’m not linking to anything on that, it was mostly on social media and caused her fans distress and sadness. I can see why. But let’s not let that totally take away from her art and I’d recommend Nate Chinen’s piece as a place to start.
Also should mention the death of Patrick Gleeson, who brought the synthesizer into jazz, for better or worse, depending on what you think about the sound of those early synths. I realize I’ve never heard either of those Herbie Hancock albums in the 70s he was on–I’ve never heard of them for that matter. I might have some work to do.
Lesley Mok is a rising drummer on the jazz scene. Here’s one of those good Bandcamp playlists highlighting this little known but excellent musician, who I’ve seen in Myra Melford’s Fire and Water Quartet, itself worth flying anywhere to see if you have to fly to see jazz.
Speaking of Bandcamp playlists, here’s one from Algeria. I love these playlists.
Olivia Rodrigo’s feminist music festival looked really cool. It combined the old and the new and music pretty much across the spectrum of what could be considered rock and roll. But…and I think this is a legit critique in this Times review, Rodrigo also can’t separate herself from going on all in on the corporate side of this because for all her gender analysis, she clearly has zero class analysis and so just doesn’t even think of what massive moneygrasping will do to her festival. That’s not precisely the review’s critique, but my reading of it. In fact, it sounded like if you were actually in the festival and at the stage, it was amazing, but if you were parking, in line, or god forbid, needed food or water, you were fucked with hour long lines. It’s worth noting that festivals are really, really hard to run and that’s what I always tell myself at Newport when they do such a great job. You needed to pay $1,250 to be near the stage. There was a $500 VIP section, but it sounded like it wasn’t any better than just paying GA tickets. Corporate sponsorships were everywhere. And really, why would we expect any different from a very rich 23 year old woman? Anyway, I appreciated the complexity of that review.
Randy Bachman got an old guitar back. Maybe he gave them a sandwich (an old LGM commenter inside joke). Had no idea he was still alive, actually.
Album Reviews, a group that I didn’t love, but which all were just pretty solid work.
Courtney Barnett, Creature of Habit
I almost feel bad for Barnett. She hit so big with Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit back in 2015. It’s merely one of the best rock and roll albums of the 21st century. But then…well, that was about it. The songs weren’t as good and she didn’t rock quite as hard and it was disappointing. Sometimes you just have one great album in you and that’s what you have and I guess that’s OK. She’s now at the point where if you lower the expectations a bit, she is going to produce a very nice roots rock album for you. Creature of Habit is just that. There’s a few good tracks on here. None of it is bad. She’s an observational lyricist and professional slacker who likes the guitar. That’s what it is. It’s probably not going to be more than this but also not less than this going forward. She’ll probably keep churning out decent material like this for the next 30 years.
B
Metz, Up on Gravity Hill
This is probably my favorite of this week’s albums. I don’t really know this band before this, but Metz is a Canadian hardcore band that goes back to about 2007 and which was moving away from being that hardcore by this album, which may well be their last. I have a limited tolerance for super intense hardcore, largely because I need more than short bursts of intensity and the songs all ending after 75 seconds or whatever can get on my nerves. This is more of a punk album with mainstream rock and even a few pop influences but which still brings the intensity and honesty of lyrics that is the best of hardcore, in my opinion at least. I found this something worth multiple listenings because the songs really have variation while still wanting to me me get on the treadmill and work out to this.
B+
Snail Mail, Ricochet
Snail Mail was among the crop of young indie female indie rockers who came to prominence about a decade ago. I’ve liked her stuff fine, but always less than a lot of others, including Soccer Mommy, who she is often grouped with (and in fact they are touring together this fall). It seemed to rest of her being a hipster stoner chick more than her being a really fine songwriter, and musically, this stuff is also kinda fine more than anything one would remember. No one is remembering the guitar on these albums, but not just hers. On her new album, the production is higher, but it also seems to eat the vocals at times. They are too far back in the mix consistently. It’s just kind of a mid-range 90s album. It’s fine, really, but bland.
B-
Club d’Elf, Loon & Thrush
I keep seeing that this band is playing around New England, occasionally with John Medeski. I’m curious to see anyone who Medeski plays with, even as I’m not really a huge fan of his work. So I decided to check out their latest album. I see why Medeski plays with them–the Medeski, Martin, and Wood influences are obvious. This is jammy jazzy music, with some North African and hip hop elements. It’s fun enough, like slightly more interesting background music that might make your friends think you were a little cool and maybe just a little odd if you played it at your backyard gathering. But in the end, it’s a summer jam indeed with the limitations of that.
B
Tyler Childers, Snipe Hunter
Childers isn’t really a favorite of mine, though he’s fine. He’s part of the dudes of country music that people who like douche country will also listen to and so pulling some of them away from the horrid Nashville radio shit makes him a worthy person to have around. Plus, he’s a good enough songwriter and singer. Evidently, some of Childers’ fans don’t care for his album from last year. Rick Rubin produced it and it’s something of a joke–and evidently a snipe hunt is in fact a joke anyway, as several reviewers with greater roots in the rural South than I have pointed out. Childers is an Appalachian man and has pointedly refused to move to Nashville so he can stay in touch with the people who made him. So the stories here are often over the top–roadkill songs and the like. There’s a lot of songs about the working man against the Man. He’s both fucking around and singing from his guts. I don’t love all of it but I respect it.
B+
Rina Sawayama, Hold the Girl
This 2022 album has been on my list ever since. It’s solid enough pop from the Japanese-British singer, though not something that really stands out to my ear. It trends toward the rock and roll part of the pop spectrum, with no few nods toward country pop and pop punk too. Reviews called her a “pop rebel” at the time. I don’t really see what is so rebellious here though. It’s pretty standard, respectable pop in a world where that is inherently listenable and maybe not a ton more than that.
B
As always, this is an open thread for all things music and art and none things politics.