Needles & Grooves AOTM /// Vol. 20 - February 2021 /// Birds of Chicago - Love in Wartime

Lee Newman

Frothy
Joined
May 15, 2019
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Age
51
Location
Durham
Birds of Chicago - Love in Wartime

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In December 2019, No Depression ran a series of articles naming their artists of the decade. The entry for Rihanna Giddens was written by her Our Native Daughters band mate, Allison Russell. Russell wrote about her bandmate with all the passion I felt for Giddens’ music.

I’ve long been one for exploring the musicians that work with artists I love. It creates an intricate web and surprising reaches into unexplored genre territory. Our Native Daughters was a band that crept on me: my initial interest was from Rhiannon who is a NC native and hit the scene as I really came into my fandom for roots music. I was watching her blow up on the scene as it happened. I knew Leyla McCalla from her former partnering with Giddens in Carolina Chocolate Drops. I was starting to listen to Amythyst Kiah both because of a commercial that was part of the Ken Burns Country Music Documentary and she was set to open for Yola at the Cradle in January of 2020 (this got rescheduled for some reason and then cancelled as the pandemic grew in scope). I didn’t really know Russell though and after Soul Step reissued Kiah’s Chest of Glass project, it was her turn.

I was drawn back to that No Depression article and saw the name of the band that she had formed with her husband, Birds of Chicago. I found Love in Wartime on Bandcamp, ordered it and fell in love with it... with JT Nero’s gravelly voice and its juxtaposition to Russell’s beautiful instrument. It was like rediscovering War and the Treaty, but the music has a bit of the tension that exists in that duo’s name but not really their art.

This music was more like Mavis Staples’ You Are Not Alone, her first album produced by Jeff Tweedy and in retrospect, the first album of a new kind of Americana, given its influence here and on other artists (see William Bell’s phenomenal This is Where I Live). Tweedy brought a jangly Americana sensibility to Mavis’s gospel informed soul giving a second wind to one of the all time great Soul Singers but also setting the stage for this “secular gospel”, as Russel and Nero call it, to flourish.

There was also that title. It sums up so much of the last four years. A time of deep concern for me and like minded individuals. Really it does an amazing job of summing up the narrative of this past year. The political unrest. A devastating pandemic uniquely poised to prey on our species’ worst tendencies. The start of what I hope is a systemic response to the foundational racism of this country. My personal journey, spiritually, ideologically as well as with my family and coworkers. Those three words somehow convey all of it and don’t just succumb to it but allow a positive outlook. I struggle with my own belief that I am both a failure and successful, intelligent and dumb, loving and hateful, no better than anyone else and better than everyone else. These, to me, are the themes of this album. It is an album I have spent a lot of time with this past year and will continue to do so in the future. I am very excited to share it with all of you.

RIYL:
Carolina Chocolate Drops - Genuine Negro Jig
Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi - There is No Other
Our Native Daughters - Songs of Our Native Daughters
Leyla McCalla - A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey
Amythyst Kiah and Her Chest of Glass
Luther Dickinson and Sisters of the Strawberry Moon - Solstice
Yola - Walk Through Fire
Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone
William Bell - This is Where I Live
War and the Treaty - Healing Tide

Personally, I have been waiting to check out the other projects by Nero and Russel:
JT and the Clouds
Po’ Girl

can purchased here:
 
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Clues

0.
1.
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Q1.
2.
EEA5892D-262F-4EC5-A94B-13CD13F9CC6B.jpeg
3.
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4.
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5.
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6.
@Joe Mac is a fan of a voice featured on the album.
7.
30.4515° N, 91.1871° W
8.
FFAF933C-D835-4D98-9520-65F1BE9DF7F9.jpeg

Q2.
Joe Mac - Is this album buy a solo artist or a group/band?

answer-

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9.


Q3.
dhodo - What decade is it from?

Answer-
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10.
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11.


12.
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I HAVE MAXED OUT ATTACHMENTS, SCROLL DOWN TO HAVOC.
 
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Guesses

genre:
Country - @duke86fan

artist:
Punch Brothers - @ThePakoBuelna
Diana Jones - @Poly-Rythmo
Maple Stave - @Jan

album:
The Dillards - Back Porch Bluegrass - @dhodo
Incredible Bongo Band - Bongo Rocks - @Skalap
The Devil Makes Three - @dhodo
Young Heirlooms- The Hammer - @Turbo
Chatham Rabbits - The Yoke is Easy, the Burden is Full - @supahypeag
Del McCoury Band - The Company We Keep - @Murfocakes
----------week two-----------
Nimrod Workman - i want to go where things are beautiful - @AndySlash *
Jonathan Wilson - Dixie Blur - @Turbo
Loudon Wainwright III - I’d Rather Lead a Band @dhodo
Bombadil - Fences - @Jan
Bombadil - Beautiful Country - @dhodo
William Shatner - The Blues - @Waitressboy *
Renee and Renato - just one xxx - @ByersVinyl *

The Rosebuds - Sand & Silence - @ranbalam
Old Crow Medicine Show - live at theRyman - @Jan
Muhoberac - Reading Records Vol. 1 - @ByersVinyl
Loamlands - Lez Dance - @Yer Ol' Uncle D *

Che Apalache - Rearrange My Heart - @Skalap
Shaggy - Pure Pleasure - @panino
Paolo Conte - Un gelato al limon - @panino
Rev. Gary Davis & Pink Anderson - American Street Songs - @ByersVinyl
Larkin Poe - Self Made Man - @bfly
Mandolin Orange - Tides of a Teardrop - @bfly
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm - @bfly
Kronos Quartet - Folk Songs - @Joe Mac

Offa Rex - The Queen of Hearts @Joe Mac
Jason Isbell and 400 unit - Reunions @ByersVinyl
Longtime Passing:Kronos Quartet and Friends Celebrate Pete Seeger @dhodo
————-week three—————-
Weedeater - Goliathan @Poly-Rythmo
 
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Mayhem

OP:
Hi. Welcome.

So, I’ve been chosen to curate February and this is my madness thread.

As usual, I’m gonna change things up.

I will post a clue every day between now and January 21. Reveal will be on January 22.

I will work to keep the guess and clue lists updated. This may only happen weekly... as some of you know, I’m quite busy at work these days.

What will be unusual besides the sheer number of clues and lengthy gestation period is that I will not be providing any guidance to y’all as to whether you are right or wrong as most people do. What I will do is allow one contributor (guesser) to ask a question of their choosing (that I will probably answer cryptically) every week. That person will be chosen by me as I see their work in the thread that week as the most on track or productive toward the group figuring out the album. I will announce the “winner” of the week on Fridays.

Everyone who makes a guess will be entered in a raffle to win a copy of the record (I highly doubt anyone has this record, but If the winner does... we’ll figure something out). If you make a guess you get one entry. You will get that entry no matter how many guesses you make. If you link your guess to the clues to date... you will get a bonus entry (this is true for every guess that you convincingly link to the clues). If you are a winner of the week, you will receive a bonus entry. If you correctly surmise the correct album, you will receive ten bonus entries on top of your one entry for all guesses and bonuses for “showing your work.”

Most importantly, HAVE FUN.

While this is different than other threads in the past, I am absolutely sure you guys will beat me!
 
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Great Smoky Mountains. So, perhaps something of the Appalachian persuasion.
Sounds like a good direction. States would be Tennessee and North Carolina. and it's part of the blue ridge mountains which you Americans already knew, but since I had to look it up I thought I share.
Fun fact:great smoky mountains np is the most visited us national park
 
Sounds like a good direction. States would be Tennessee and North Carolina. and it's part of the blue ridge mountains which you Americans already knew, but since I had to look it up I thought I share.
Fun fact:great smoky mountains np is the most visited us national park
If Lee's profile is to be believed, he lives in North Carolina so I'm thinking along the lines of this being a local/regional band.
 
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