Editorial Intern Anna Jordan
Norah Jones
"The Long Day is Over"
I feel like I'm wearing an eclectic outfit made up entirely of knitted clothing while drinking chamomile tea when listening to this song.
Senior Editor Brett Callwood
Lettercamp
"You Won't Want Me"
Once upon a time, this editor was the Music Editor at the Metro Times, Detroit's alternative weekly. It was a joyous couple of years, not least because of the wealth of musical talent that the Motor City offered and continues to offer. It all went tits up when new owners came in and merged MT with a publication that didn't hold the same journalistic values. It was quite the saga. The memories are largely wonderful though. Lettercamp is a band that more people outside of Detroit should be familiar with. The Raccoon Panda album is a low-key masterpiece; fans of the likes of Beth Orton, Portishead and Goldfrapp should lap up the groove, pulsing beats and insistent melodies.
Operations Manager Robin Rose
Woody Guthrie
"I Ain't Got No Home/Old Man Trump"
Woody Guthrie wrote his Dust Bowl ballad "Ain’t Got No Home" in the 1930s. In 1950, he moved to Beach Haven, a public housing project in Brooklyn. The name of his Landlord: Fred Trump - Donald Trump’s father. During the two years Guthrie lived there, he figured out that black people weren’t welcome as tenants in Fred Trump’s housing complex, and therefore he wrote a new verse for "Ain’t Got No Home:" "Beach Haven ain’t my home I just can’t pay this rent My money’s down the drain And my soul is badly bent Beach Haven looks like heaven Where no black folks come to roam No, no, no, old man Trump! Beach Haven ain’t my home!"
Associate Editor Ruby Risch
Jackson Browne
"Doctor My Eyes"
This song might bounce along on bright piano and sunny grooves, but listen closer and you’ll hear Browne grappling with the weight of seeing too much of the world’s mess. He had some serious heavy-hitters helping out: Jesse Ed Davis (an Eric Clapton collaborator) on guitar, Leland Sklar holding down the bass, Russ Kunkel on drums, plus Crosby and Nash on harmonies. Browne’s bittersweet voice keeps asking if his eyes can be fixed—and honestly, in a year like this, who doesn’t want to unsee a few things?
Norah Jones photo by Tejastheory, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
