Turn It Up - 3/11/2025

Earworms, obsessions, recommendations

It’s a new week, so we’re back to share some things we’ve been listening to. David goes first, then Charles, and we’ve got a bunch of reading recommendations at the end.

The Delines – “JP & Me” (from Mr. Lucky and Ms. Doom, 2025)

Across six albums over the last decades, Portland’s the Delines have cast their story songs with ne’er-do-wells or beat-down lonely hearts, small-time con men or lunkheads providing muscle for somebody bigger. Mr. Lucky and Ms. Doom is their best album yet, with string arrangements that cast mystery across their bedraggled country soul tracks like shadows in a film noir. “JP & Me,” written like most everything they do by guitarist Willy Vlautin, is my favorite Delines cut yet mainly because it foregrounds so convincingly the Sammi Smith-inflected vocals, in sound and loneliness, of singer Amy Boone. Her character this time is recalling her time with an old lover she ran with before she stole their cash and fled. The songs jammed with plenty of seedy details but beautiful ones too, like the colts across the highway they liked to watch run free. But what hits like a gut punch is all the details she won’t share but clearly regrets. “There are some people who can get you to do most anything,” she confesses. “But it’s gotta be already inside you burning…” – DC

Elizabeth Nichols – “I Got a New One” (single, 2025)

Like a feminist spin on that old misogynist joke “My wife ran off with my best friend and I’m sure gonna miss him,” “I Got a New One” lets Elizabeth Nichols recount the boyfriends who’ve tried to boss her about her outfits and friends until she gives in and gets a new… boyfriend. For a minute there, Charlie sounds like he might work out—he “keeps a bottle opener on his car keys” after all—but then he tries to control her too, so it’s time once again to get a new one. Just three verses/boyfriends here, delivered in a kinda stripped-down Miranda Lambert approach, tagged with whistling as if she’s contented enough on her own or maybe is just calling for her dog, but you can bet new verses will be added as needed. – DC

Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ (feat. Ruby Amanfu) – “Room on the Porch” (single, 2025)

Like Molly Tuttle’s “Big Backyard,” the Highwomen’s “Crowded Table,” Jon Weisberger and Justin Hiltner’s “Room at the Table,” and other open-armed celebrations of integration for our rapidly re-segregating era, Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’s “Room on the Porch” doubles as metaphor for a diverse, equitable, inclusive and accessible nation state. Taj and Keb’s folkie country soul hits just right just now, and never better than when guest singer Ruby Amanfu invites us to: “Share your feelings, share your heart / Just be you, it's who you are.” Sit a spell. – DC

Artemis – “What the World Needs Now Is Love” (from Arboresque, 2025)

When Jackie DeShanon had a 1965 Top Ten hit with this big-hearted Bacharach/David ballad, it felt precisely like the sort of lovely gesture the world did indeed need more of. Over the next decade, as the gesture became a standard amidst assassinations, military escalations, and the continuing struggles for civil, women’s and gay rights, the song seemed more and more naïve. What I like about this new take on “What the World Needs Now Is Love” is the way it hangs on to its ideals but also keeps insisting that gestures are never enough. Artemis, an all-women jazz quintet I learned about from writer Alan Scherstuhl (see the link below), was formed back in 2016 by pianist Renee Rosnes. At first, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen sticks mostly to the lovely melody, fiddling with it, tweaking it, hugging it close like an old friend. But then Rosnes begins to rough up the familiar tune, suggesting things can’t possibly be that simple, Jensen points to trouble and escalates the tension, and saxwoman Nicole Glover launches into real battle. They all eventually return to the melody for inspiration and replenishment, but all the hard work ahead isn’t going anywhere. – DC

Moe Bandy – “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (single, 2025)

The George Jones version of this Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman song is often cited as the saddest country record ever. I’ve always resisted going all in on that take myself. Jones sings it with a matter-of-fact flatness that, odd for him, lands more like distance than presence. That choice makes Jones feel more like a voyeur—a bit titillated by the melodrama, sharing whispers and looks with the other funeral goers—than like anyone mourning the loss of a dear friend. When George follows “She came to see him one last time” with “We awwll wondered if she would,” it reads like “We’d been hoping she’d show!” It’s a great record, obviously, and a pretty tough song to sing. I’ve heard dozens of artists tackle it over the years but, Jones excepted, I’ve never really heard a good one, until now. A Jones acolyte since before the song had even been written, 1970s country star Moe Bandy delivers the number’s first line like he’s imitating his hero—I thought it was Jones, for a split second—but then he falls off and away at the end of each line, teary-eyed and steadying himself. It’s such an obvious way to sing the song: Bandy sings it like he’s sad, and he’s sad because his friend is dead. When Moe delivers that “We all wondered if she would,” I hear him hinting, just a little, at anger, as in “We wondered if she’d dare show her face after hurting him like that.” He stopped loving her today, but Moe hasn’t forgiven her yet. – DC

Mackenzie Carpenter – “Boots On” (from Hey Country Queen, 2025)

I’m quite fond of Mackenzie Carpenter’s debut album Hey Country Queen, a vibrant set that re-fashions ‘90s-country tricks alongside dashes of post-Miranda outlaw to engaging effect. “Boots On” is a particular trip, a Bo-Diddley-beat boot-scooter that puts a booty call atop its clavé rhythm. Carpenter’s flirtations are playful, the band chugs along amiably, and the whole thing adds up to the kind of infectious confection that will always have room on my playlist. Other songs on Hey Country Queen might be “better,” per se – especially the title track, which Carpenter keeps until the end like a knockout punch – but “Boots On” grabbed my ear and won’t let it go. – CH

Marco Pavé and Tef Poe (from Nothing’s Easy, 2025)

Memphis’ Marco Pavé and St. Louis’ Tef Poe team up for a smoking new EP that reimagines the Mississippi River blues in a blistering rap context. Over a beat that teeters but never falls over, “I Can’t Play With Y’all” is a grimy testimony finding both MCs repping themselves and their cities while reminding the listener of what it takes to keep surviving and even thriving. Their voices are similar – both popping syllables in a flinty baritone – but distinct enough to signal the call-and-response even if you’re only sort of paying attention to the lyrics. But you should pay attention: “They told me I’d never amount to shit, but look at me now,” Pavé raps as the song wraps up. Listen to them now, too – you don’t want to miss a syllable. – CH

Jad Tariq – “You Think You’re Too Good for Me” (from Jad Tariq Sings!, 2025)

There are few harder tricks than pulling off a retro sound without sounding like a historical re-enactor, and Memphis’ Jad Tariq has accomplished it on his debut. Rooted in the jump blues and swinging R&B of the 1940s and 1950s, Jad Tariq Sings! is smooth, light on its feet, and respectful of its forebears (like T-Bone Walker or Wynonie Harris, both of whom get covered) without being buried by their influence. This is most evident on originals like “You Think You’re Too Good for Me,” written by Tariq and guitarist Benton Parker. A swinging sway propelled by twin saxophones, “You Think You’re Good for Me” favorably recalls the uptown R&B of Sam Cooke or the recently-departed Jerry Butler. It’s a vocal showcase for Tariq, floating atop the track with sweet yearning, and a fine example of how even the old stuff can sound new again when in the right hands. I can’t wait to hear more from Tariq. – CH

Sequence – “Funk You Up” (single, 1979)

Angie Stone (feat. Betty Wright) – “Baby” (from The Art of Love and War, 2007)

At her best, no one worked the grooves and echoes of “neo-soul” with greater effectiveness or flexibility than Angie Stone, who died recently at the age of 63. My favorite is the Betty Wright duet “Baby” from Stone’s 2007 album, which finds the singers in literal and figurative conversation. It’s a reminder and warning to a lover, with Stone and Wright in harmony and conversation over velvety funk. This cross-generational throwback, remixed for a new century, embodies the promise of neo-soul and reminds that such rich, grown-up music didn’t require a new genre appellation or supposed revival. Still, as such supposed revivals go, it’s hard to imagine a better ambassador than Angie Stone. Decades before that, though, she’d already earned a place in music history as part of the groundbreaking hip-hop group The Sequence, formed in Stone’s native South Carolina and whose 1980 album is the first released by an all-female rap group. Their 1979 single “Funk You Up” (the first single by all women) isn’t just important: it’s fantastic, an extended, spare disco groove with the three MCs (including a young Stone, then known as Angie B.) rocking the party before returning to the central encouragement “don’t you give up, keep goin’, keep goin’.” That’s a message that hasn’t dulled one bit and likely never will, and it’s rarely been delivered with such power and poise. “Said Angie B, hey, that's me,” Stone rhymes in her verse, “I can rock you so dangerously.” She sure could. What a start to a remarkable career, cut too short but never to be forgotten. – CH

Recommended readings:

-Robert Gordon on the late Stanley Booth, for Memphis Magazine

-Alan Scherstuhl profiles Artemus, for The New York Times

-Jackson Howard on Macy Gray’s On How Life Is, for Pitchfork

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