OPENING ACTS: "Screws Get Looose," Those Darlins
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Continuing with the theme of highlighting bands I've seen opening for bigger acts, I was lucky enough to catch Nashville's Those Darlins opening for The Old 97s a few years before the Darlins' 2016 breakup. The title track from their 2011 album manages to combine a whole bunch of things I love: the pop sensibility of '60s girls groups, the off-kilter lo-fi grit of early '90s college rock, and a healthy shot of rockabilly twang.
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"That Ain't Country" - Hari Kunzru, Into the Zone
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Speaking of twang... just what the hell is it, anyway? If you know me, my music, or this newsletter, you know that I'm fascinated by the gray areas between genres, and the origins of the arbitrary guidelines that often keep us from discovering music we might enjoy. This perfectly-executed audio essay ranges from "Old Town Road" to interviews with obsessive 78 record collectors on old-time musicians (both black and white) to as seemingly far afield as Hawaii and even Bollywood to investigate the origins and meanings of what we think of as "country music."
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