Nightswimming #17: 10/03/24-10/10/24
A benefit album! An acoustic daydream! And MORE!
Highly Recommend! (best of the week)
Cardinals at the Window - Various Artists
As I write this, Hurricane Milton is barreling down on Western Florida. This, just over a week since Hurricane Helene decimated Appalachia in Western North Carolina and the surrounding areas, is the 2nd of possibly 3 major hurricanes this season predicted to do widespread damage in the Southeastern United States.
In the wake and destruction of Hurricane Helene, numerous musicians have jumped into action to pledge money, organize benefit concerts, and volunteer direct help to the region. Cardinals at the Window is the latest in these relief efforts—a massive treasure trove of 136 previously-unreleased tracks from 130 different artists, all for just a minimum donation of $10 with every dollar benefiting 3 relief organizations in the greater Asheville area (Rural Organizing and Resilience, BeLoved Asheville, and the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina).
As if the cause were not worthy enough, or the minimum donation small enough, the songs that were selflessly contributed to this compilation are absolutely outstanding. There is something for everyone here; The War on Drugs! Rosali! Fleet Foxes! R.E.M.! Tyler Childers! Waxahatchee! Jason Isbell! Jeff Tweedy! Real Estate! Kevin Morby! MJ Lenderman! Gillian Welch! Iron and Wine! (See the full list here) What I just named is not even 10% of the artists in this compilation!
The songs are gorgeous, and rare! Unreleased material that YOU get to download and keep! This isn’t just access to a streaming platform. You can put these songs on your Zune!
Joking aside, this compilation represents the very best of what music can do for our communities, our world, and our hearts. Music has healing power, not only in raising capital to help build and rebuild, but these songs are songs of hope. Each of these artists rose to the occasion and donated songs about joy and love and perseverance and the beauty of nature. The sequencing is well done. It’s beautifully somber at times, and it rocks at other times.
The Glow’s Rusty Sutton said it best in the liner notes—”Give what you can. Hug your friends and family. Use our experience to illuminate what, unfortunately, this new future will be like for us all: always on the precipice of climate disaster. It’s a stark, cold reality, and we’ll only get through it together.”
Highlights: Children of Children (Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, live w/Jerry Douglas), Hey Heron (Rosali), Wrecking Ball (Waxahatchee), American Holly (Kevin Morby), King of Birds (R.E.M., live in 1989)
Acadia - Yasmin Williams (Yasmin Williams/Nonesuch Records/YazMelodies Publishing)
One of the most uplifting records of the year! Acoustic guitar virtuoso Yasmin Williams weaves a beautiful daydream on her third full-length album, Acadia.
Consisting of mostly lilting, galloping acoustic guitar (played in Williams signature style—face up on her lap, strings tuned in harmony, fingerpicking like a harp) and light percussion, joined by feature violinists, saxophonists, and tender vocalists, it is a real triumph of a folk album.
The sounds are pastoral and rambunctious. The movements are thoughtful and improvisational in nature. The compositions spread out, but they have a destination.
If I were scoring a gentle, warmly-lit animated film about a cartoon bear cub and sparrow that become friends and explore their forest for the first time together, I would use Yasmin Williams’s Acadia, unchanged.
It pays homage to the Leo Kottkes and Joni Mitchells that came before, but it is entirely new and singular. A progressive and evolved take on centuries-old mossy folk music. Acadia is a perfect Fall Front Porch album.
On the record label’s website, Williams talks a bit about the idea of Acadia and what the word means: “Acadia has several meanings: a place of rural peace and pastoral poetry (Italian), a refuge or idyllic place, (Greek and Italian), fertile land (Mi'kmaq), a place of plenty (French)… all of this relates to the ethos of this album. The songs are seeds I planted, and the seeds grew into the album, Acadia: a place of peace, a place where creativity can blossom, a place where everyone can fit in together and collaborate effectively, a place where the fruits of my own labor in music can fully flourish without judgment or prejudice. One of my visions for this record was to expand the potential for current folk music to encourage collaboration across various genres.”
Highlights: Hummingbird, Cliffwalk, Nectar
Worth a Listen! (good to very good)
Another State - Seafarers (Bethnal Records)
Dream-pop vibes meet indie soft-rock in a semi-nostalgic Of Monsters and Men sort of sound. Gentle close harmonies stacked on top of hammered, sustained piano chords, muted drumrolls, and jangly Smiths guitars.
A deeply enjoyable and accessible breezy pop-rock album that wrestles with heavy themes, but ultimately feels like staring out the window of a high-speed rail line hurtling across glistening plains.
Highlights: Televangelists, Bedwetters
Hot Singles in Your Area!
Here are some great singles that dropped in the last week:
Mr. Miyagi’s 4AM Drive - Paperchamps (Classic emo sounds, acoustic intro that launches into some fun riffy rock)
idwba - mofie (upbeat acoustic indie rock, classic singer-songwriter ballad vibes)
A Fragile Thing - The Cure (it’s The motherfucking Cure!!! Come on!)
Lights on the Way - Rose City Band (like if Tom Petty fronted The E Street Band and they also had a pedal steel guitar)
Music Moment of the Week
MJ Lenderman & The Wind (feat. Allison and Katie Crutchfield) performing “Drunken Angel” by Lucinda Williams.
I was there to see it and you weren’t :) Here’s the 2 worst photographs of all time :)
