A few thoughts on Airports, Dolly Parton, and pivoting away from a popular platform. Also: a buncha new tracks.
As some of you know, in addition to this here newsletter, I also edit an online music publication. We have a few rules around what is kosher to publish and what’s a no-go.
One of our informal rules is that we’ll turn back an otherwise fine piece if it’s the one too manyieth1 in a row on any given artist/topic. Think of it like the stock market’s circuit breaker mechanism. We like giving the people what they want, but there’s a limit. In five-ish years, I’ve only had to invoke this rule twice: once for Taylor Swift and once for Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter.
In theory, I could’ve—or should’ve—invoked it a 3rd time for Dolly Parton, but, well, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Sure, there were some submissions that were all too easy to decline—if you’re gonna write about an icon, maybe don’t have a machine do it for you?—but most showed a person who managed to touch a lot of people in a lot of different ways.
In our case, these indexed toward her records rather than things like Dollywood (and the second-order economic effects of an amusement park), but I’m still struck—as I assume many of you were—by how universal the sentiment seems. It’d be easy to just chalk it up to being hungry for something positive, but, well, you gotta earn it, and in this case, the hagiographies’ll write themselves.
There’s even a movement afoot to change the name of Nashville’s airport to honor her. Seems like a no-brainer, and the only argument one might make is that technically Knoxville’s airport is much closer to her hometown, and even that’s really just grist for the pedantry mill or avgeeks like me.
At any rate, I hope it goes through. It’d be a nice antidote to what recently happened to West Palm Beach’s airport.
On to the music…
This week, what’s old is new again with a fresh track from Dinosaur Jr. Our pal Brian K. Pagels (aka Brian K. & the Parkway) has a new one out (spoiler: It’s fantastic). We’ve also got a few old standbys that sound as good as ever from James and Peter Murphy. Speaking of Nashville, there’s a double dose of Total Wife. Parquet Courts came up in a discussion on songs about NYC, and, well, they’ve been in heavy rotation here ever since.
Closer to home, Madison continues to punch above its weight with killer sounds from both Mossmen and Get Well Now. From north of the border, there’s a little bit of Royal Ottawa. They’re on Wallytbm’s The Beautiful Music label, and you can check out the presser here to learn more about ‘em- really, though, just make some time to spin the EP. From across the pond, there’s a new one each from groove merchants Getdown Services and Cosey Mueller—not the first or last time we’ll see either of them.
One quick note before you press play: You may have noticed there’s no Spotify link this week. That’s intentional. I’ve been yapping about supporting artists for a while, and it felt like the right time to finally (!) put my money where my mouth is. Nowhere’s perfect, but small steps matter. It’s also worth noting that the platform with the lowest-quality sound and worst pay for artists is also the most expensive. I first rolled this out with the playlists that go out to paid community supporters, and now I’m rolling it out fully.
Maybe you still really like Spotify or find value in it. That’s ok, too. No judgment here! Promise. Either way, if you have strong thoughts on the matter, I’d like to hear ’em! Please weigh in below.
KA—
The Playlists: | Apple | Qobuz | YouTube Music | Tidal (NEW) |
Now it’s your turn.
What’s been exciting you lately? Any releases or shows you’re looking forward to? Whatcha got? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Kevin Sent 