Turn It Up - 8/21/2023
Earworms, Obsessions, Recommendations
Every Monday, we’ll be sharing some songs that we’ve been listening to a lot lately. Some are old, some are new, but all have gotten us talking and thinking recently. Hopefully you’ll hear something you like. Charles goes first this week, with David’s picks listed below them. And then, at the end, we’ve added a few reading recommendations of pieces that we think you should check out.
“Next Rodeo” – Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway (from City of Gold, 2023)
Tuttle’s one of my favorites, a singer-songwriter-guitarist exploring what she terms the “big backyard” of country/bluegrass/whatever. “Next Rodeo,” off her predictably great new album, sees Tuttle signifying on ramblin’-man tropes from country’s history with a smile and swagger that winks back at everyone from Kitty Wells to Shania Twain. It all builds to a soaring, two-stepping chorus, with Tuttle and Golden Highway again mixing their top-level musicianship with a spirited gift for hooks. Don’t fence her in. - CH
“Birds” (live) – Daisha McBride (single, 2023)
The Nashville Sound. Or at least a Nashville sound, one of the many that sometimes gets forgotten. McBride’s one of the many great young R&B and hip-hop artists working in “Music City,” and this might be my favorite thing she’s done. Particularly in this simmering live version now available on the streamers, “Birds” is an anthem of independence rooted both in McBride’s eye for lyrical detail and the wide-open spaces the band explores as the song builds to its cathartic, drum-rolling ending. Don’t fence her in, either. - CH
“Stay Right Here” – Allison Russell (from The Returner, 2023)
Allison Russell made my favorite album of 2021, and the tracks she’s released from next month’s The Returner suggest she’ll make a similar run this time. “Stay Right Here” finds Russell drawing on both disco and ‘80s rock, and I can’t help but hear the influence of the recently-departed Anita Pointer and Tina Turner in Russell’s propulsive anthem of survival. Stabbing strings bring us to the dance floor, where the insistent call-and-response vocals and stings of rock guitar set us inside a whirling track where the circle remains unbroken. - CH
“Clouds” – Jessye DeSilva (from Renovations, 2023)
DeSilva’s new album found a permanent home in my heart on first listen. A nonbinary trans singer-songwriter, DeSilva contends with what that means (and what it doesn’t) within yearning, acoustic-based arrangements. Closing track “Clouds” is a gentle benediction, with a particularly yearning vocal. The chorus – and its knockout line “I can’t count the ways that I’ve been stared at, but I can count up on one hand the times I’ve actually been seen” – stopped me short as a disabled person who’s dealt with being my own kind of spectacle. Beautiful and necessary stuff. - CH
“Twilight” (song sketch) – The Band (from A Musical History, 2005)
There’s much to say about Robbie Robertson, and others have done it better or will do it better than I can. All I’ll say is how much The Band’s music has meant to me over the years. This isn't to dismiss other parts of his career, especially his championing of Native/First Nations artists and communities. But I find myself mourning the central piece he played in records that feel like both home and highway. I’m deeply grateful to him and all of them. This piano-and-voice demo from Robertson is a favorite – I hope it hits you even a fraction as much as it hits me. Rock on. - CH
“Old Time Music Is Here to Stay” Robbie Fulks (from Bluegrass Vacation, 2023)
This voice-and-banjo-only performance, about locking the door and sitting out on the porch, is a sly, if grim, nod to CCR’s “Lookin’ Out My Back Door.” And a tip of the hat to Ferlin Husky AKA Simon Crum’s 1958 novelty “Country Music Is Here to Stay,” too. But the reason I keep coming back to this one is Fulks’ voice—his pitch-perfect writerly voice, yes, but also just the plain-spoken gut punch of his vocals, lining out the way nothing lasts (“Everything built just crumbles”), the way everything changes (“What kills joy and sorrow? A little thing called tomorrow”), the way music helps. -DC
“Satisfied” Vestal Goodman and Dolly Parton (from Vestal and Friends, 1999; released to streaming, 2023)
The late Vestal Goodman, matriarch of southern gospel’s the Happy Goodman Family, is joined by Dolly Parton for a cover of the rocking Martha Carson standard. If you’re looking for reasons Dolly belongs in the Rock Hall, leave that noisy “World on Fire” alone and crank this to high heaven instead. One of country’s queens v. the Queen of Southern Gospel is a battle of equals. But even Dolly knows when to concede: Her final “satisfied” is stage whispered while Goodman’s is gale force. -DC
“4th and Vine” Sinead O’Connor (from How about I Be Me (and You Be You), 2012)
The first track I turned to when I heard the news, and the one I keep recommending to friends. “4th and Vine” was written by O’Connor with first husband John Reynolds, and released not long after she’d separated from her fourth. Honestly, though, I don’t know many songs that sound as hopeful and just plain glad to be alive as this joyous wedding number. The thumping acoustic groove is a heart-swelling perpetual motion machine, and when she predicts lots of kids and, suddenly shouting, “enough love for them”—that’s when I cry. No way is there enough love in this world, not for any of us, but when I hear Sinead’s cry, I feel certain there could be. -DC
“Hard to See My Baseball Cards Move On” Chuck D as Mistachuck (from We Wreck Stadiums: Homage to Rap & Baseball Heroes, 2023)
Had me from its opening pitch: “Yo, Tom, Break out the Strat-O-Matic!” The entire project is a natural. Fiftieth anniversary hip-hop nostalgia boosting America’s most nostalgic pastime. But the lineup also prompts Chuck to break new ground for himself. That slow-trot-down-the-baseline bassline lets Mistachuck mourn the losses of childhood heroes and grieve all-stars that Topps never recognized. “A field of dreams. Can’t forget Charley Pride.” -DC
“I Love the Sound of Structured Class” The Paranoid Style (from The Interrogator, 2024)
On this teaser ahead of the Paranoid Style’s next full length, guest Stylist Peter Holsapple shreds atop a big-beat groove that sounds sourced from Eliminator: You can call them that Little Ol’ Band from Durham. Meanwhile, stemwinding singer-songwriter/rock critic Elizabeth Nelson drops bon mots like bombs: “Don’t give me advice, don’t give me a shiner.” “The next time you call me make sure it’s important, withering on the vine, living by appointment.” “Everyone knows this is nowhere but me.” She’s got epigrams and knows how to use them. - DC
Reading recommendations:
Maria McKee talks to Chris Willman about the late Robbie Robertson, for Variety
Jack Hamilton writes about the new Dave Marsh anthology Kick Out The Jams, for Slate
Justin A. Davis discusses Memphis rap and resistance in light of hip-hop’s 50th, for MLK50
Nadine Smith revisits Lyle Lovett’s 1987 album Pontiac, for Pitchfork
If you like what you’re reading here, please think of subscribing to No Fences Review! It’s free for now, although we will be adding a paid tier with exclusive content soon. Also, if you’d like to support our work now, you can hit the blue “Pledge” button on the top-right of your screen to pledge your support now, at either monthly, yearly, or founding-member rates. You’ll be billed when we add the paid option. Thanks!