Steady As She Goes
the Good Folk August playlist
It’s August and like all late summers, I am convinced I have never been this hot in my life. After much of my summer spent in the cold of Alaska, the return to North Carolina and its brutal, incessant heat makes each day feel a thousand times longer than before. I rise before the sun and spend my day waiting for it to set. I am attempting to hold steady against this season, spend the last few weeks of summer before I begin graduate school again in reflection, seeking peace where it is willing to meet me.
Regardless: there is music. One of the few things I missed while being off-grid was music; I remember the day the bus picked us up at the trailhead to return to civilization and Stevie Wonder and The Clash were playing on the radio. It was early morning and the first time I had felt full in weeks. Sitting in the back row, I put my sunglasses on and cried at the sound. When there is nothing else, let there always be music.
Like all of our monthly playlists, this one is designed to take you on a journey through genres—classic and contemporary—of the music of the American South. I do not recommend listening to it on shuffle unless you want a particularly chaotic experience; begin with the energy of this incredible Danger Mouse track (and wow, what an album; I have to thank T for turning me on to this one) and go from there. I love this track from Greenville, NC’s High June; that opening riff has been stuck in my brain since I first heard it.
I offer you two excellent covers by Nashville-based Soccer Mommy. I know, I know, a cover might not strike you as the most exciting thing in the world, but hear me out because I love a cover deeply—the opportunity to make something familiar new again, to put your own spin on a song. I’ve long loved this cover of MGMT’s Indie Rokkers, a song which soundtracked the early parts of my relationship and which therefore holds a close place in my heart.
I’ve also been deeply obsessed with Rett Madison lately; Pin Up Daddy was featured in an earlier iteration of this playlist. But Apocalyptic Folk Tune scratches an itch in my brain; I’ve been working on a novel set in a post-apocalyptic Appalachia for the last few years and this song feels exactly how I imagine that world.
We slow things down towards the end of this playlist; roll your windows down, find a country road to drive along, and put these Monadi tunes on blast (and catch them this month at Cat’s Cradle!). I’m also obsessed with Bonny Doon’s A Lotta Things; I’ll go ahead and offer up that I know they are not a Southern band (they hail largely from Detroit) but I saw them play last year at Cat’s Cradle where they opened for Slaughter Beach, Dog (another excellent band, might I add) and did not stop listening to this song for weeks. It’s an excellent reflective tune and Bonny Doon has supported Southern artists including Waxahatchee and Band of Horses (South Carolina natives who have returned to base out of Charleston!), so I’m letting it slide. I’ve had this song on all the last month and it flows too well into With Love’s The Road, which I listened to while driving west into a giant orange sunset on I-40 with all the windows down the other night, an experience I highly recommend.
We’ve been busy around here, but putting this month’s playlist together offered me a reminder as to the importance of slowing down; I hope it does the same for you.
P.S. — if you haven’t already noticed, we’ve got a bit of a new look around here; check out that fresh website redesign! A little cleaner, a little funkier, a whole new era for Good Folk. Obviously this redesign goes along with more exciting things, but I’ll keep you waiting on those for now…