Wordsmiths Books, in Decatur, GA, has done a phenomenal job pairing literature and music.
Tomorrow (Monday, March 24th), though, they’ve outdone themselves, joining forces for the second time with southern lit-scene blog BabyGotBooks to pair the sweeping, pain-swept landscape of Hillary Jordan’s debut novel Mudbound with the similarly rural, achingly pretty sounds of Athens/Decatur junkyard soul trio Hope For AGoldenSummer.
I’ll leave it to the Wordsmiths blog to extol the virtues of Jordan’s novel, and I daresay that the last time I penned anything about the three ladies in Hope For Agoldensummer, I said nearly all I possibly could:
Together, Page Campbell, Claire Campbell and Deb Davis call themselves a “junkyard soul trio”, but they’re actually so much more. This is music that’s definitively southern, definitely rural, and reminiscent of a folk-art angel singing her heart out. At times, the territory tread by Hope For Agoldensummer is equal parts Cormac McCarthy and Flannery O’Connor with weaponry provided by Nick Cave-the sort of songs that hold knives behind their backs, lingering in sweetness just long enough to unveil the darkness lingering ‘neath. Other times, the songs are southern field gospel revivals, celebrating the sweaty southern pastures of life and love.
Then, though, the song was “4th Night”, an aching back-seat ode to the always-inevitable morning after.
Hope For Agoldensummer: Old Questions
In celebration of tomorrow, though, comes the jaunty, schoolyard-rhyme that is the closing moment to the sweepingly pretty Ariadne Thread album, “Old Questions”. Opening with the sound of a form of pattycake, Page, Claire and Deb pose the questions that make up the song’s title-questions on the nature of tried-and-true love. This song sounds dusty, sounds aged, sounds love-worn and rough around the edges, a little hazy as though the night’s just beginning.
And it’s wonderfully infectious, the perfect cap to the album’s darker moments and the perfect summation of the joy the ladies in Hope For Agoldensummer bring to their voices, their instruments, music itself.
There’s really no excuse to miss BGB Vol II tomorrow night at Wordsmiths, with Hillary Jordan, the Wayne Fishell Experiment and Hope For AGoldensummer. Stuff gets started at 7:30 P.M. It’s a rare all-ages show, in Decatur, for free, with free drinks and with those gorgeous voices.
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