Posts in: Music

The Black Belt was a region in the American South known for its rich, black soil. It was home to many cotton plantations and, consequently, enslaved black people. During the Great Migration, large numbers of black people moved out of the South into northern cities, taking the blues and other cultural creations with them. Not all moved, though. Alabama Blackbelt Blues is a documentary by Alabama Public Television on the continuing blues tradition in Alabama’s portion of the Black Belt. (Watch the trailer here.)

If you like the blues, you’ll like this documentary - simple as that. It’s given me a whole list of singers and musicians to listen to. And, unsurprisingly, the names of John and Alan Lomax come up regularly as collectors and preservers of this music. I plan to explore their collections more thoroughly soon.

Listen: “Trouble So Hard” by Vera Hall

Now spinning: D-Vine Spirituals. It’s a new release of recordings of Black gospel groups from the seventies and if any of those words light you up, you’ll love this album. It’s also available digitally, of course, in all the usual places.

Rob Sheffield says the CD revival is here. I’m going to stick with collecting records for now, but this makes a good argument for the CD. “Look, CDs will never be as sexy as vinyl albums. I get that. … Really, there’s only one thing CDs have ever done right, which is make music. They get the job done, which is why they’re still around.”

🎵 Now spinning. I first heard Robert Finley on the Colbert show a few days ago and fell in love with his wonderful voice and grandpa dancing. Bonus: this album was produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, so that’s a shot of extra confidence in its quality.

Today I found a copy of Over the Rhine’s “let’s stay together” record. I’m thankful both that I found it and that they stayed together.

I was reminded this week of Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley’s bonkers Evelyn Evelyn project. Webley described it as “like something the Andrews Sisters might have recorded if they had grown up in the circus listening to new wave music.”