SOMETHING OLD
Bonnie Raitt - You Told Me Baby
1972
Happy Women's History Month, and a slightly early International Women's Day! Throughout March, we'll be celebrating female musicians and songwriters.
Bonnie Raitt - You Told Me Baby
1972
Happy Women's History Month, and a slightly early International Women's Day! Throughout March, we'll be celebrating female musicians and songwriters.
We're starting out strong with the inimitable Bonnie Raitt. At only 23 years old, she released Give It Up, her second studio album. Raitt proved on her first album what a competent songwriter she was with songs like Thank You, as well as how uniquely and gorgeously she could interpret others' songs. Three of the songs on this following album were originals, but looking ahead at her next few, that trend declines. I love anything this woman touches, but I wish she had stayed closer to her own songbook throughout her career and showed us more of what she had written herself.
Regardless, here's one of her own songs. You Told Me Baby is the record's penultimate track and has flown under the radar. A loving narrator makes a plea for the love and affection of a hurting man. Her voice shines alongside upbeat horn sections, fretless bass, congos, her own rhythm guitar, and more. I could seriously listen to her forever.
SOMETHING NEW
Rockie Rode - Prayin’
February 13th, 2026
Rockie Rode - Prayin’
February 13th, 2026
Rockie is the debut record of Cate Osborne, who goes by the alias Rockie Rode. Hailing from New York, Osborne is painting portraits of misty countrysides, of which you can never quite see exactly what's happening behind the fog.
Prayin' appears in the middle of the album, blending an Americana country feel with indie reveries. I have recently been fixated on human flexibility and contortion, and found that music plays a role in embodying the movement. I've been hearing songs and thinking, when I can get my feet on my shoulders in a handstand, I want to hear this exact refrain as my leg slowly extends and bends. The songs that evoke that feeling are dreamy and, in some vague way, emulate the deep breath one must take as they push their body to its limits of elasticity. This is one of them, though I recognize what a bizarre and specific description that is.
Osborne's vocals are somewhat muffled, making it difficult to analyze the lyrics, but you can sort of simply feel whatever it is she's singing about. And at certain moments, her voice peeks its head out a bit further and stuns in lulling belts.
SOMETHING BORROWED
Rachael Yamagata - Jesus Was a Crossmaker (Judee Sill)
2006
Rachael Yamagata - Jesus Was a Crossmaker (Judee Sill)
2006
Oddly, I think I discovered the gorgeous early 70s folk music of Judee Sill and the moving early 2000s ballads of Rachael Yamagata in the same year quite some time ago, but it's only now that I'm discovering when the two musical minds meshed as one.
I truly believe Judee Sill's Jesus Was a Cross Maker is one of the finest songs ever written. The title alone (inspired by Nikos Kazantzakis' The Last Temptation of Christ) is deeply thought-provoking. In fact, I was always amazed by it and associated it with being betrayed by your own creation: Jesus being crucified on the very same crosses he helped build. Upon further reading, I humbly realize that I didn't know enough about the history of Roman cross-making to grasp that they were built purely for execution. So, Sill's actual meaning is actually about redemption. Even Jesus, who would create these stakes for violent death, could turn out to be the Son of God who is complete holiness. Sill, reeling from a devastating breakup, said "even that wretched bastard was not beyond redemption" about the subject of the song.
I acknowledge my embarrassing misinterpretation, but isn't it remarkable that just a few of her lyrics could have caused this flurry of profound ideas in my head over the years? I digress.
Yamagata, who recorded the cover for Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown soundtrack, paints her alto voice over a slightly heavier instrumental arrangements. The original is quite lush and energetic, but this is more distinctly birthed from 2000s rock with its reverberating drums et al.
SOMETHING... CLASSICALLY JUBILANT
Florence Price - Piano Quintet in A Minor: III. Juba
(Performed by Catalyst Quartet & Michelle Cann in 2022)
1936
Florence Price - Piano Quintet in A Minor: III. Juba
(Performed by Catalyst Quartet & Michelle Cann in 2022)
1936
The music of Florence Price has been lost, unpublished, and what is still accessible is still deeply underrated. Classical music has been long dominated by European men, so a Black woman from Little Rock had to work even harder to be heard than in other genres. She became the first woman of African descent to have a symphonic composition performed by a major American orchestra when the Chicago Symphony played her works in 1933 and 1934.
Piano Quintet in A Minor, heard here performed by the Catalyst Quartet and pianist Michelle Cann, is a gorgeous and lively piece of music. I selected the third movement, Juba, for the absolute joy it radiates. If music could ever be personified as being "light on its feet," this would be the optimal example. The word juba originates from diuba, a Kikongo and Bantu word meaning "to beat (or to pat) the sun or time," and described an African American dancing style involving stomping, body-patting, and clapping. This dance, often spiritual and carrying deep history as a secret pastime for slaves, lends explanation for why this movement is so exuberant.
So, while "Juba" has nothing to do with the word "jubilant," they are two sides of the same coin.