Little Room No. 10
Charlie Parr, Jeffrey Martin, GHOSTWOMAN
The prairie is green right now. It has been raining a lot, so the skies are gray. When the skies are gray my mind feels gray. But every once in a while the sun comes out and shines on the prairie bursting alive from at least five years of drought and I start to feel happy again.
I am going to a folk festival this summer, and I have taken it upon myself to get acquainted with some of the artists that I am not yet familiar with. Figured I’d do something of a pre-sort so I know what stages I’d like to loiter around without wasting too much time. Cause everybody knows that a folk festival is all about being efficient with your time keeping and keeping to a rigid schedule. I’m feeling a bit uptight, you might have noticed, so I’ll be in need of some serious attitude adjustments. Don’t wanna bum out the folkies.
Here’s a couple good tunes I sorted out, can’t wait to keep digging into the lineup and plant new seeds in my skull.
1922 Blues. Charlie Parr. This song is special. A truly timeless tune, this might as well have existed forever. i guess it does now. So many good lines in here. Chanelling the spirits of Dave von Ronk and Mississippi John Hurt, you know, the good shit. The way he delivers the lines in this video - it’s just a man preaching the American truth.
That road’s lookin’ good for sure boys
Ain’t that the way it is
Absolutely cannot wait to mainline the American spirit when he shows up.
This one is a heartbreaker. Heavy, real, soul-bearing, truth. It’s all heart here. I could pick any lyric from here to demonstrate the beauty of this song, but I’m going to use this one.
The world wants a man who is hard
Not hard to define
There is so much in those words. More than I could ever say. This is beautiful and hearbtreaking and rough.
Finally, nothing deep or heavy going on here. Well heavy, but in a different way. Heavy vibes, brother. Also differently deep. Deep grooves. This kind of psychy-garage stuff is just so much fun. I will never get tired of bands that are this fucking cool. These kinds of two minute jams are like a popsicle on a hot day. I believe I will have a popsicle in the park when I see this live. It’s gonna be great.
If it keeps raining the prairie will keep getting greener, and my soul will keep getting cleaner.
Cue the kick drum.
Man, I love Jay Reatard so much. I think that’s a wonderful comparison, I wish we had more time with him.
That is so cool, what a terrific reference point to learn an instrument from.
Thank you so much Anna, that means a lot! I’ve been going through a phase of wondering if these Little Room posts are worth doing at all, so that just gave me some more juice to keep on givin er.
Will definitely be checking all the musicians you highlighted. Good luck with the festival schedule, that’s serious business. I have done it wrong before and learned that lesson the hard way.