2.20.2005

Latest Music Obsession--Joanna Newsom

...So Stephen and I were sitting in the cafe in Casco Bay Books last weekend, sipping lattes and trying to restrain ourselves from running through the stacks pulling books off the shelves like over-zealous two-year olds (with charge cards, alas) when all of a sudden a new track started playing and I said "What on earth is THAT?" I wavered between thinking Joanna Newsom's voice was the most god-awful affectation (think of an odd cross between Janis Joplin, PJ Harvey, Edie Brickell, and Bob Dylan) and the most brilliant, new, exciting sound I'd ever heard. I decided on the latter. You'll love it, or you'll hate it--there's no middle ground--but it's worth a listen (there are some clips in the link above). It's the only CD I've wanted to listen to over and over and over again in something like ten years.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am putting together a book of writings about the original Milk-Eyed Mender herself to be called “Visions of Joanna Newsom” (yes, the reference to Bob Dylan is intentional).

I'd like to quote your comment that "I wavered between thinking Joanna Newsom's voice was the most god-awful affectation (think of an odd cross between Janis Joplin, PJ Harvey, Edie Brickell, and Bob Dylan) and the most brilliant, new, exciting sound I'd ever heard." What's Michaela's full or real name?

By the way, I’m looking for art, gossip, essays, poems, true stories, academic readings of songs, anecdotes, and all things brilliant and bizarre related to our favorite harpist. I’ve already secured a contribution from the famous novelist and Joanna-acolyte Dave Eggers, and the book will be published through a small press that I will soon be starting up here in Sacramento. This is not just a pie-in-the-sky project; it’s real and will definitely happen.

Who am I? Well, my name is Brad Buchanan and I teach English Literature and Creative Writing full-time at the California State University, Sacramento. I’m a poet and sort-of scholar; you can read some of my poetry at my now-lapsed blog: www.miracleshirker.blogspot.com or verify my existence at the CSUS English Department’s web page: http://www.csus.edu/engl/. I’m also a board member at the Sacramento Poetry Center, where I co-edit The Tule Review, and I have a few books out there already in various fields.

My email address is buchanan@csus.edu and you may send hard copies of submissions to Brad Buchanan, P.O. Box 160406, Sacramento, CA 95816.

Thanks!
yours, Brad Buchanan
Assistant Professor of English
CSU Sacramento