![]() I wish I could do beautiful harmonies, but it's harder to hit for me. You have to find what works, but that's true for any singer or songwriter: You find your own style within what you can do. But it took me a long time to embrace that lower gravelly quality. And my very best friend was the highest and I was the lowest - I don't think anyone expected that I was going to be the lowest. In sixth grade in our music class, they were arranging us by who sang the highest, who sang the lowest. Finding somebody who sings a range I can hit was really formative. I was like, "What is this? This is insane - 'Rain Dogs?'" Then I heard enough people covering him over the years - Tori Amos and Natalie Merchant - and that was the primer, the entry point. Tom Waits InfluenceYou want to know how I heard Tom Waits for the first time? I found a CD that had been chucked out of somebody's window when I was probably 13 or 14. So the running theme throughout the album is this growing idea of blight. And most often that happened in lower-income communities, where people of color owned homes.īlight is invasive, and the word is lobbed at plants and communities that are not what the status quo likes. The city could consider a property a blight and condemn it to tear it down. In that research I would come across this term of "blight" used in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s as a way for urban renewal. Well, after I graduated college, I started working in Tuscaloosa for the Preservation Society, and they had several historic houses and structures that we gave tours of and lobbied for overall preservation. Now, I live in the Deep South with farms everywhere. we're from the Midwest and we see farms everywhere. His Song "Blight"I always thought of the word blight as a horticultural term. It made me realize the importance of cover art. ![]() I was able to shop for records based on covers, and that was the first time I heard Bob Dylan and kd lang and Van Morrison. The things I took out of it were the Carpenters, Sonny & Cher live, then when I was probably 10 or 11, you remember those little music clubs you could join? My aunt had joined one and it was like you buy so many CDs for full price, and you can get whatever you want for a penny. My parents had a big record collection but they never listened to it because they had six kids to raise. My family was jocks - football players, wrestlers. They try to be most of the time.ĬD Clubs And The Importance Of Cover ArtIt's so funny, people always assume everyone's from musical families. I'm the youngest of six and we left behind my five siblings and my parents and I moved down to Gulf Shores, the beach in Alabama, so I got to be an only child for a little bit.įrom the Rust Belt to coastal Alabama it's a totally different world, but if you listen to my music, you'd think I had one worldview: People are pretty much good everywhere. Today we go over some of those songs and discuss his upbringing.ĭetroit To AlabamaWhen I was 13 or 14, my dad retired from GM in Detroit and he wanted to retire where he vacationed. His lyrics touch on how he sees his surroundings, and his delivery fills up a room and will make you listen. Tim Higgins has a voice that is as distinct as it is powerful. Is it the lyrics, the voice, the sounds of the band, or a single instrument? I think it's different every time it happens. ![]() Sometimes music just touches us in a way and we can't explain why.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |