Black Lives Matter
I don't think anyone on this email list would think otherwise. Good.
I held off on sending June's mixtape out because it felt more important to spend time listening, reflecting, learning, and staying in the streets to protest police brutality, our country's failure to reconcile its racist past and present, and capitalism's poisonous effect on the most vulnerable populations.
All of that is still true. Keep protesting. Keep donating. Keep demanding justice.
June's mix isn't a reflection of these times, but I wanted to share it with you anyways. It brought me joy to make and listen to it, and I hope you find some happiness in this music too.
It's a compilation of heartland rock, that blue collar good time music most notably loved and heralded in the American Midwest. It reminds me of home, rock radio, and good people who work 40 hours weeks to make a decent living. You'll recognize a lot of it. Very Mom & Dad vibes.
I'll be making two physical copies of June's mix, Give My Best to Buffalo, once we're allowed to leave our apartments. Hit me up, as always, if you want it. <3
Give My Best to Buffalo
Created for the Heartland.
It's hard to explain quite just what heartland rock is, but you know it when you hear it. It's not sexy and cool like New York. It's not psychedelic and poetic like California. It's not quite country, but it could've been made there. It's just some good blue collar folks singing about getting by.
They work for the weekend and grab a cold one with their buds.
The photo on the cover is a Cleveland, my hometown, construction crew gazing toward Terminal Tower. The title "Give My Best to Buffalo" alludes to another good Rust Belt town. They're simple places with simple people, and these are simple songs. I mean that in the best, Midwest way I can.
Grab a burger, milkshake, and go cruisin' with some pals on a summer night in your mind, at least until we can do that in real life.
Love you all. Hope you enjoy!
Join Me: Listen to Leon Bridges's "Sweeter"
I've been obsessively watching this music video. Leon Bridges is a force, and his new song speaks to the painful reality Black people live in this world. I'm not going to say anything else about it, because I think it speaks for itself. Leon says it perfectly.
It's one of the best songs of the year from a rising star. If you're not familiar, get familiar.
Watch/Listen to Leon Bridges's "Sweeter" (YouTube).
RIYL: Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Sharon Jones
Check out the rest of his incredible music here.
Other Black Artists Whose Work I Keep Coming Back To These Days And I Love
(that you might love too!)
Rhiannon Giddens - Rhiannon's one of my favorites, and I find her work to be more pertinent than ever. She's a member of the supergroup Our Native Daughters: "With unflinching, razor-sharp honesty, they confront sanitized views about America’s history of slavery, racism, and misogyny from a powerful, black female perspective." Her solo work is, of course, just as powerful. Please watch this beautifully moving performance of "Cry No More".
Sam Cooke - I recently watched Netflix's documentary about Sam Cooke and learned a great deal about him as an activist and bold leader of black liberation not just in his music, but throughout his life. His music is essential, and the documentary is enlightening.
Bessie Jones - The Alan Lomax Archive recently repackaged and reissued Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers music with Get In Union. I bought it blind, and I would pay ten times as much as I did for this wonderful music. Pitchfork says: "The reissued compilation from the great American folk and gospel singer is a generous introduction to a historically muted view of Black life in the South."
D'Angelo - His impeccable 2014 release Black Messiah was released early in response to the Michael Brown and Eric Garner murders. In his own words: “It's about people rising up in Ferguson and in Egypt and in Occupy Wall Street and in every place where a community has had enough and decides to make change happen. It’s not about praising one charismatic leader but celebrating thousands of them." I think he's one of the most important artists of all time, and this album is a big part of that.