Before I left for the trip, my friend Justin (I played on his album and did some arrangement work) lent me Mo' Meta Blues, the memoirs from Ahmir Thompson, better known as Questlove, the drummer and musical mastermind of The Roots, quite possibly my favorite hip hop group of all time. It's a fantastic read, and as a result I have been listening to the incredibly dense album "Voodoo", by D'Angelo (one of two acts that actually piqued my interest from the ACL lineup). "Voodoo" has been in constant rotation for me since it came out in 2000, and even more so now that I have picked it up on vinyl. It's beautifully packed as a double album on 180 gram vinyl and has a depth of tone that comes from the way it was recorded. Nothing about it sounds brittle or crisp like so much of what you hear on the radio. That album is a warm blanket of soul that sounds like it was recorded in the early seventies.
Here's an NPR link to an excerpt from the book and also to interviews. Questlove is quite well spoken, and compelling. I think that is part of why The Roots are one of very few career acts in the hip hop world which is so fashion conscious that it eats its young.
http://www.npr.org/books/titles/177017562/mo-meta-blues-the-world-according-to-questlove
Other than that, I've been listening to a lot of Elliott Smith as this year will be a decade since his death which was ruled a suicide. However, I believe it was murder. Also on the turntable has been Bobby Womack's stellar 1972 album, "Understanding". In the vehicle it's a steady diet of NPR, the rough mixes of my album (I'm trying to figure out a track order) and local band Auroravore's album that came out earlier this year. If you want a taste of it, let me know and I can play you a track. Here's a link to one song if you just can't wait that long and you have a burning desire to hear them. http://auroravore.bandcamp.com/
RIYL: U2, Yeasayer, Local Natives, melodic atmospheric dance rock
p.s. RIYL stands for recommended if you like.
Mr. A.
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