Good vibrations
Morning Mixtape, Vol. 2
The theme of this mix is good vibrations. Maybe you know these songs already, maybe you don’t. I am writing you from a warm place with a cool breeze. If you are in a cold place, maybe you could bundle up and put your headphones on and walk at a brisk pace to the nearest body of water and walk along the water and notice the way that while most everything indoors is static, everything outdoors is in motion. It takes hardly any wind at all to get the grass moving. My son, who will soon turn one, gets bored quickly indoors, but outside he is immediately enthralled by all that motion. He pulls at the leaves which are moving ever so slightly in the wind until a leaf comes off. He turns the leaf over in his hand, observes for a time, says a few forceful consonants, and then drops the leaf on the ground. He is content to leave it there, because there is yet more motion. And sounds. When he hears birdsong, he looks straight up in the sky. I don’t know why this dazzles me, but it does. As you walk, you will miss those sounds, alas, with your headphones in. But that’s okay—the birdsong will be waiting for you, later, on another day. It’s cold and it is nice to listen to music to keep a good walking pace on a cold day. Or: If it is warm where you are, maybe find a nice spot outside and sit in a lawn chair. If you don’t have a lawn chair, borrow a lawn chair. The lawn chair is good. It’s a good place to sit outside, on a warm day, and listen to music.
Track list and liner notes
Linda Martell – “Color Him Father”
Released in 1969 on the, ahem, Plantation label. Martell was the first Black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry (according to her account, she got two standing ovations). Her star seemed on the rise, but she wasn’t able to maintain her sales success and apparently had her career grounded by fickle and litigious Nashville industry types. That’s not an unusual story for a country musician, but certain burdens Martell faced were unique: “You’d be singing and they’d shout out names and you know the names they would call you,” she later told Rolling Stone. She left Nashville and retired from the recording music industry in 1974.
Swamp Dogg – “Synthetic World”
The one and only.
Gasper Nali – “Abale Ndikuwuzeni”
Incandescent Malawian one-man band Gasper Nali plays his homemade one-string instrument, known as a Babatoni, with a stick and an empty bottle. The Babatoni is three meters long, with a cow-skin drum as a resonating box; he keeps the rhythm with his foot on another cow-skin drum. There’s a remarkable video of him performing “Abale Ndikuwuzeni” (or “A Bale Ndikuwuzeni”) in 2010 at his home in Nkhata Bay on the shores of northern Lake Malawi. When that later went viral, Spare Dog Records got Nali in a studio to record the song as part of an album in 2015 (highly recommended). These studio recordings featured some backing; Nali recorded a second album, also highly recommended, in his traditional one-man-band form, outside by the water. More on Nali, this song, and the instrument at the Spare Dog site.
Nina Simone – “Real Real”
Lijadu Sisters – “Come on Home”
Apparently, I am going to find my way to a Lijadu Sisters song on every mix. That’s all right.
Ofege – “It’s Not Easy”
Nigerian psychedelic rock band recorded a fantastic album in 1973 when they were teenage schoolmates (average age around 16 years old) in Obalende, Lagos.
Jeannie C. Riley – “Games People Play”
It’s kind of amazing how many artists covered Joe South’s hit. Dolly Parton released her take about a year after South, and of course it’s great. But Jeannie C. Riley’s version, which came out about a year after that, finds an even better groove with it.
Natalia Lafourcade (featuring Los Macorinos) – “Tú sí sabes quererme”
Donny & Joe Emerson – “Baby”
Dwight Tilley – “Looking for the Magic”
The Feelies – “Let’s Go”
Gabby Pahinui – “Ho’oheno Keia No Beauty”
Chiwoniso – “Zvichapera”
Posthumous single from Zimbabwean singer and mbira player, who was the daughter of mbira master performer Dumisani Maraire. Chiwoniso Maraire passed away in 2013 at age 37 of suspected pneumonia.
Salif Keita – “Bobo”
Known as the “Golden Voice of Africa,” Keita was born to a royal family in the village of Djoliba in Mali, but was cast out by his family because he was an albino.
Rotary Connection – “I Want You to Know”
Charlie McCoy – “Good Vibrations”
Genius Nashville session musician Charlie McCoy is very committed to this concept.
Martin Creed – “I’m Going to Do Something Soon”
Philip Glass – “Etoile Polaire (North Star)”
Chet Atkins with Dolly Parton –“Do I Ever Cross Your Mind”