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The Prison Music Project: Long Time Gone
Americans love to puff up and pound our chests about the U.S. being the greatest country in the world, never mind that our rankings on things like education, health care, and happiness don\’t even crack the top 20. Something we are number one at? Mass incarceration. With just under 5% of the global population, the…
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Jake Blount: “Beyond this Wall”
In a world in which the ruling class\’s grasp on power is always tenuous, the erasure of marginalized identities and histories is very real. We can currently see it happening in real time in the U.S., with public health statistics being manipulated to paint a rosier picture of COVID-19 deaths. We can also study it…
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Indigo Girls: Look Long
If the butterfly effect hadn\’t already made it perfectly clear that everyone in the world is connected, the coronavirus pandemic certainly has. Geography and circumstances vary wildly, to be sure, but none of us lives in a bubble, and it is foolish, if not dangerous, to act as if we do. To be a good…
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Jason Isbell: Reunions
In any kind of art, there are pieces created to appeal to the masses and there are pieces created to capture a moment. The former are often done on a deadline, while the latter most generally come as they will. In that sense, songs are no different than television shows or food. On one side,…
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Gretchen Peters: The Night You Wrote That Song
No matter the artist on either side of the equation, covering songs is some tricky arithmetic. Everyone and their cousin stepping into (and on) John Prine songs for the past month in an attempt to honor him prove that point. If you can\’t do it better or, at the very least, different, maybe just don\’t…
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Sarah Siskind: Modern Appalachia
As with every person, every place has an energy that evolves and evokes its essence. The Romans called it genius loci — the protective, pervading spirit of a place. Each dot on a map resonates with a frequency to match its history. In the American South, that history is complex, to be sure, and so…
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Christian Sedelmyer: “Deacon Waltz”
There\’s a Rolling Stone article currently making the rounds about how the music industry only wants upbeat songs right now. It\’s such an American notion ― obsession, even ― to wish woe away and put on a happy face, no matter the circumstances. But these are not happy, hopeful times, for most people. They are…
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Mark Erelli: “The River Always Wins”
There are numerous reason civilizations settled near waterways. The sustenance of life certainly sits at the top of the list, with travel and trade, industry and innovation also making the grade. In the northeast U.S., so many small towns cropped up around rivers with mills beating at the heart of them. Many of those mills…
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The Lowest Pair: “Shot Down the Sky”
The vastness, power, and beauty of the natural world is a mind-boggling force to be reckoned with and wonder to behold. Always there, just under or beyond our comprehension, the universe and its planetary manifestation keep us honest, even when we don\’t mean to be. Who hasn\’t stopped in their tracks to marvel at a…
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Liz Longley: “Torture”
Science has proven that human touch is a necessary component of a healthy life. A long, genuine embrace sparks a release of oxytocin which lowers cortisol and, thereby, stress levels, while holding hands reduces anxiety. Study after study, experience after experience shows these things to be true. And then there are effects from the more…