FIRST TUNE: A Conversion of Word and Musicality
by Haale Gafori
All the songs in this selection have given me chills, made me weep, or tumbled through my body and “avalanched down to my toes”— to borrow a phrase from the first tune. In some, it’s the images I find particularly striking: the zombie daughter walking down a hot August road, the New Age devotee kissing the feet of a charlatan, the victorious bard lassoing his wide-eyed demons. In others, it’s the rolling guitar lines, the eerie back-up vocals, or the epic grand choruses. In all of them, there’s a convergence of word and musicality that stirs my soul and I think touches perfection.
Some of these songs have gotten airplay on national radio, some of them are being released here for the first time. At the request of Rattapallax, I’m honored to add one of my own songs to the selection.
Photographs from the Black Sunday series by Lilli Waters to illustrate the eight songs curated by Haale Gafori.
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MUSIC FEATURE
ON LOOSELEAF WITH SHARPIE by Pure Horsehair
RED AUGUST
by Diane Cluck
LADDER SONG
by Bright Eyes
STARS UNDER MY SKIN by Haale Gafori
LIGHTFIGHTER
by Christina Courtin
DARKNESS
by John Shannon
MAGIC CHORDS by Sharon Van Etten
JAMES
by Sonya Kitchell
