Here's a summary of the Substack posts I've published since the start of the year, with links to each. 1. The Whole Blessed Thing. An essay about the lessons we learn from songs, inspired by a lyric from a Robbie Fulks song: 'If you've ever heard Hank Williams sing / Then you know the whole… Continue reading Songs and Objects 01.2025-03.2025
Tag: fado
Songs and Objects: June and July 2024
I published four posts on my Songs and Objects Substack in June and July. I summarise each below. Sixteen Song Moments. I write about some of my favourite in-song sounds, moments that jump out of a song and grab me. Willie Nelson's Hands. I use a photograph of the country legend's hands and guitar to… Continue reading Songs and Objects: June and July 2024
Upcoming presentation: ‘Excavating “Coimbra”: Genealogy, Nostalgia, and the Material Life of a Portuguese popular song’
I will be presenting a paper at the 18th biennial IASPM conference in Campinas, Brazil, on 30 June. My paper is entitled 'Excavating "Coimbra": Genealogy, Nostalgia, and the Material Life of a Portuguese popular song' and the abstract is below. This paper uses the story of a particular song, the Portuguese fado ‘Coimbra’, as a… Continue reading Upcoming presentation: ‘Excavating “Coimbra”: Genealogy, Nostalgia, and the Material Life of a Portuguese popular song’
New publication: “Time and Distance Are No Object”: Holiday Records, Representation and the Nostalgia Gap
My article 'Time and Distance Are No Object: Holiday Records, Representation and the Nostalgia Gap' has been published in the French popular music journal Volume! in an issue devoted to popular music and nostalgia. ABSTRACT: Whether temporally or spatially focussed, nostalgia results from a division between what is longed for and the moment of longing.… Continue reading New publication: “Time and Distance Are No Object”: Holiday Records, Representation and the Nostalgia Gap
Essay on Saura’s Fados
My essay ‘The Choreography of Longing: Songs, Screens and Space in Carlos Saura’s Fados’ has been published in a special issue of the journal Quaderns de Cine on cinema and urban popular musics, edited by Kiko Mora. An abstract and pre-publication draft can be found here.
Fado article
An article by Naresh Fernandes on fado for Live Mint. Naresh interviewd me for the piece, during which process I was happy to discover his previous writing. Naresh is a journalist and author of the book Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay's Jazz Age. There's a great blog to accompany that book, which also… Continue reading Fado article
Upcoming talk: Introduction to Saura’s Fados
I'll be intorducing a screening of Carlos Saura's film Fados as part of the Vamos! festival in Newcastle upon Tyne on 9 July. Details here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZgiKTQ-YF4
Late Voice 