I've been continuing to publish weekly posts to the Songs and Objects Substack. Posts since the start of this year cover topics such as seasonal songs (with a focus on January and the turning of the year), a three-parter on the songs of Mary Chapin Carpenter, a piece of life writing that maps songs on… Continue reading Recent posts on Songs and Objects
Tag: nostalgia
Recent presentations
Below are two videos of presentations I gave at online conferences in 2020. The first is my paper for the IASPM UK & Ireland biennial conference. The second is a keynote presentation for the conference Urban Nostalgia: The Musical City in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Texts of these and other papers are available via… Continue reading Recent presentations
Thoughts on Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard has died. In a year already rife with notable deaths in the music industry, I felt this one deeply, for reasons both objective and subjective. Objectively, Haggard was a colossal figure in country music, as a singer, songwriter, hitmaker and soundmaker (by which I mean there is particular country sound that is distinctive… Continue reading Thoughts on Merle Haggard
New article on Patti Smith published
My essay 'Words from the New World: Adventure and Memory in Patti Smith’s Late Voice’ has been published in the book Patti Smith: Outside, edited by Claude Chastagner (Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée, 2015). ABSTRACT: Patti Smith’s late work is invariably connected by critics and fans to the work of her ‘classic’ era (the 1970s… Continue reading New article on Patti Smith published
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
Late Voice 