Letting It All Sink In
The waters cresting against the shoreline of my personality have, for the past four months, been receding. I can’t even describe to you the size...
Pouring One Out for Pitchfork
Late one afternoon in mid-January, news about Pitchfork began trickling across Twitter before turning into a veritable flood. The screenshot initiating that outpouring captured a...
Land of Talk’s “It’s Okay”
Beginning in my early 20s, my experience of love became largely unrequited for a significant stretch of time. It seemed as though either I consistently...
Hiss Golden Messenger’s “Shinbone” and “Red Rose Nantahala”
Hiss Golden Messenger, the jam-heavy, indie folk-rock project from singer-songwriter MC Taylor, is one of my favorite bands for a number of reasons, including the...
Mahalia and Rosetta and Mavis
What dark times we’re inhabiting. Hope—once “the things with feathers,” per Emily Dickinson—increasingly feels as though it has stretched its glossy black wings and departed...
The Lineage Sound
I grew up moving around. Following my dad’s TV news career, we’d pick up and shift to a new city if not every year then...
A Bouquet of Songs
I’ve been thinking lately about music as a conversation. For me, that tends to take place internally. When I listen to music by myself, it...
Weyes Blood’s “God Turn Me Into a Flower”
The problem of long covid looks different for everyone who ends up with this unfortunate condition, and many experience overlapping diagnoses. For me, it has...
The Hush of Early Mornings and PHOX
When I moved into my little Durham bungalow last year, it was with the express purpose of playing my stereo whenever I damn well pleased....
The Low Notes
In the range of sounds, I far prefer the low notes. Drop an octave from middle C and something about that majestic resonance pangs in...