Watch ACL Presents: Americana Music Festival 2012 on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

The festival was hosted by Jim Lauderdale (who also performed with Buddy Miller). Around the 30-minute mark Guy Clark captures your attention/breaks your heart with a tune dedicated to his late wife and creative collaborator Susana Clark (who died earlier this year). While Bonnie Raitt made Crazy Thing Called Love a hit, I have always considered it a John Hiatt song–so I was pleased as punch to see the two of them perform the song together. The best was saved for last, when all the performers joined together on The Weight, in tribute to the late Levon Helm.

In the past month, three nephews have recommended three different bands.

First up, my nephew Matt recommended Lord Huron’s Time to Run.

Then another, David, pointed me in the direction of Apex Manor‘s song, Under the Gun.

Finally, my nephew Luke recommended Josh Fix‘s This Town Is Making Me Angry.

And amazingly enough, all three songs are great listens. I am one lucky uncle.

This is just one of the tunes that the duo cover in their new album, Meklit & Quinn, which was released in late September.

Here’s a tracklist of all the songs (many of them cover versions) on the album:

Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) – Arcade Fire
Sent By You – Meklit and Quinn
This Must Be The Place – Talking Heads
Electric Feel – MGMT
Satellite Of Love – Lou Reed
Elegie – Patti Smith
I Was Made To Love Her – Stevie Wonder
Slow – Meklit Hadero
Look At What The Light Did Now – Kyle Field
Saving Up – Quinn DeVeaux
Music Arcade – Neil Young
Bring It On Home To Me – Sam Cooke

My thanks to Porto Fino Records for making me aware of the video (and album).

Kara McGraw: The Hound & The Hare

Singer/songwriter Kara McGraw just released an album, Hound and Hare, that was 10 years in the making. The album, which was released on September 25, is aiming to support 13 charities over 13 weeks. Each week, a new charity will be supported. Yesterday week 2 of the charity support started–and this week the charity that is benefiting is Heifer International. To see McGraw’s entire charitable donation plan, be sure to visit here. My thanks to McGraw for discussing the album (which can be bought in its entirety for $10 here)

Tim O’Shea: When did you realize you wanted to do an album that “takes inspiration from vinyl, including an A and B side“?

Kara McGraw: The songs on this album were composed over the span of ten years. Needless to say, I was staring into a large pool of music when planning the album lineup, and I was divided as to how to proceed. On the one hand, I feel a deep connection to my more intimate, first-person songs. They turn inward to explore and express vulnerability, and in so doing, they offer comfort and healing. On the other hand, I was also ready to dive into a new, more adventurous musical sphere, one that gave me the opportunity to reflect on external affairs and society as a whole. This latter style of music aligns with a different state of mind, one that is more confident, analytical, and outward-focused.

I was divided, but then, aren’t we all? Because my music is about exploring what it means to be human, I decided to embrace that division and emphasize it by portraying the album as two-sided.

How did you go about deciding which charities to pick (and did you pick certain songs to be associated with particular charities)?

I sorted through a bunch of recommendations given me and selected those that really spoke to me. I tried to strike a balance between social, medical, and environmental issues. Some song topics may loosely correlate with the non-profit assigned to it. For instance, my song “Tough Cookies” will raise money to fund research into diabetes.

In a recent blog post, you wrote a post that spawns a few questions…first up, “After writing Blink I set it aside for many years — it pained me too much to play — and I consequently forgot and had to rewrite the ending.” How hard was it to look at the song again, even after the passage of many years?

By the time I returned to the song, I had gained distance and perspective. I can still tap into some of that raw emotion when performing or listening to the song, but now the feeling is as short-lived as my will to re-experience it.

“Icebreakers was written right after the great Northeast Blackout of 2003, a time when I happened to feel very powerless for my own reasons.” Is there a certain pride in seeing how empowered you feel now in 2012?

Oh, goodness. I am certainly more empowered now, but I have to ask myself how much of that has to do with the favorable circumstances surrounding me. I still struggle with some of the same issues I struggled with then. Sometimes I care a little too much about how others feel or what they may think, to my own detriment.

“My man came up with the chords to Modern Man when he decide to create an impromptu guitar progression in my honor, and I ran with it.” What was it about the guitar progression that clearly (pardon the pun) struck a note with you?

Let me turn that question back to you – why do you like the music you like? Sometimes, a song just doesn’t click. Sometimes, it grips you from beginning to end. I used to think that music was the universal language of mankind, but sadly, it’s not. I wish I had the answer to your question, but the appeal of music is a great mystery to me.

The creative process is arduous for any artist, so I was surprised to see you seemingly so hard in yourself in this post, when you wrote: ” Often I feel ashamed about not being more methodical and intellectual when composing music.” I thought the choice of the word “ashamed”–can you elaborate on why you felt that way?

I never felt ashamed about it before college. Music came naturally and that was my blessing. When I went to school in music composition, everything changed. My professors’ composition style was an intellectual one. Before writing a single note on paper, my teachers would have mapped the overall structure of the piece in terms of key, range, motifs, variations, etc. It was a more mathematical approach, one that my fellow students – most of them male—seemed to love and embrace. I sensed around me a general disdain for “pretty music” and music for the masses, which was regarded as intellectually inferior.

As for me, I was trying to hide the fact that I was going where the music told me to go, that it was leading me as opposed to the other way around. I was diving heartfirst into the music — not headfirst – and then going back to insert the “smart stuff” later. I recall in one lecture it was mentioned in passing that female composers tend to be more intuitive. I’m not sure why, but this caused me to feel even more singled out and inferior.

I grew a lot during those years, but I wish I’d had a professor who was more familiar with my composition process. Right now, music composition is a very male-dominated field, and I don’t think that’s because women don’t enjoy making music.

Who did you tap to produce the album and why?

I worked with Jeff Rolka to mix The Chandelier, my Christmas single of 2011. From that experience I learned that he is a very welcoming and supportive person, and he writes very detailed, clear emails – which I really appreciate. He’s timely, and he listens very carefully to your feedback to gauge what exactly you’re looking for. He certainly went above and beyond for this album, and I’m glad to have had the chance to work with him again!

Jeff recommended Mike Wells to master the album, and I had a similarly positive experience there as well. Mike has a great musical ear and a very genuine, kind demeanor.

Who all played in the sessions for the album?

Oh, it’s mostly just me on keys, guitar, cowbell, and vocals. I had a fantastic drummer, bass player, and string quartet in Tired of Silence, but we recorded it so long ago that I can’t remember the names of the performers who volunteered. I feel really bad about that! I wish I could credit them properly.

The only other performer besides me was Scott Douglas on guitar in Modern Man.

Will you be touring to any degree in support of the new album?

I hate being in the spotlight, and the idea of touring makes me feel ill. I’d much rather hide in a dark room with a piano and record my heart out. Still, I know I have to try to get this music out there somehow, because music is medicine for the soul. I need to make sure that this medicine is accessible, in case someone needs it some day. It will cost time and money, which are in limited supply, but I’ll do my best.

Anything we should discuss that I neglected to ask about?

You forgot to ask what super power I would have if I could choose any! But in all seriousness, thank you for asking thoughtful, relevant questions and for providing me with the chance to talk a little about this album. It was fun!

To mark his passing, I found this clip of Andy Williams, Elton John, Mama Cass & Ray Charles singing Heaven Help Us All from a 1970 version of Williams’ variety show.

That’s right, John and Charles plus Williams with Cass.

Empress of the World

Back in 2001, librarian and novelist Sara Ryan captured folks’ attention with her young adult novel, Empress of the World. The book (described as “about friendship, love, and the sometimes blurry lines between the two”) is an Oregon Book Award winner, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Recently the book was re-released in an expanded edition. Ryan and I conducted an email interview about it, as well as delving into her upcoming comics work, which includes Bad Houses, a collaboration with Carla Speed McNeil. This interview goes in some pleasant directions and I was lucky to get to interview Ryan.

Tim O’Shea: In researching our interview, I searched for your Tumblr page but accidentally discovered the number of people that quote your work (and hashtag it “Sara Ryan”). I think it safe to assume that any writer wonders how much their work resonates with people. How affirming is it when you see people quoting your work? 

Sara Ryan: Here’s where I expose my ignorance of the finer points of Tumblr. Until you pointed it out, it hadn’t occurred to me to check if anyone had tagged posts about me/my work. Now that I know said posts exist, I’m certainly pleased!

Speaking of Tumblr, visiting your Tumblr page it becomes obvious (at least to me) that you love the power of photography.

I do. Photography actually connects very much to comics writing for me; I can’t draw, but I can compose images with my camera. I try to use that same visual sensibility when I write panel descriptions — while leaving enough room for the artist to bring their own interpretation, of course.

With that in mind, can you tell me how the cover of Empress of the World came to be designed/selected?

I was super lucky. My publisher set up the shoot and I was thrilled with the results. For instance, both the models have short non-manicured nails, exactly as I describe Nic and Battle’s in the book. And if you compare the original release to the new edition, you’ll see that the new edition has a scratchy pencilled border, a subtle nod to the presence of comics inside.

The new edition is full of all sorts of goodies that I want to talk about, but what first attracted my attention was the “musical archaeology wherein I construct a playlist based on my vague memories of what the heck I was listening to when I was writing Empress”. How does music impact your writing?

The right music definitely helps to reinforce the mood of a scene.

And sometimes I’ll fixate on a particular few albums or mixes while working on a book, and simply pressing Play will trigger a Pavlovian response of Ok, time to write. While I was writing Bad Houses, for instance, I tended to rotate between Little Sue, Laura Cantrell, and the soundtrack to The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford.

And in reconstructing the playlist did you rediscover some music you had not enjoyed for a long time?

I did! Looper and Kruder & Dorfmeister got back in the rotation.

What prompted you to ask David Levithan to write an introduction for the reissue?

We asked him because he is awesome. David’s done a tremendous amount to advance queer YA publishing, both through his own books (including his collaboration with John Green, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, the first queer YA title to make the NYT bestseller list) and via his editorial work at Scholastic.

I have never been sure exactly when he sleeps.

The new edition features three short stories, one with your spouse Steve Lieber, while the other two are by Dylan Meconis and Natalie Nourigat. What was it about Meconis and Nourigat’s work that made you want to work with them on these particular stories?

Subtle but significant shifts in emotional dynamics are a big part of “Click,” so I needed someone who was really good at conveying facial expressions and body language. Those are two of Dylan’s many strengths as an artist, which you can see in her Eisner-nominated Outfoxed  and her current graphic novel in progress, Family Man.

It also didn’t hurt that Dylan’s pastor gave her permission to take photo reference of the childcare room at her church! Related bonus fact: the kids in those scenes are all named after actual children of folks in Portland comics.

In “Comparative Anatomy,” I’m playing with the idea that Nicola Lancaster herself is drawing the story, since it’s told from her point of view. So I wanted an artist who’s arguably working with some of the same artistic influences Nic would have grown up absorbing — including the Studio Ghibli films that Natalie credits with making her decide to be a comic book artist. (See When Totoros Attack.) And there’s a sincere, straightforward quality to Natalie’s storytelling that feels right for Nic.

In repackaging the book for this expanded re-release was there any temptation for 2011 Sara Ryan to tweak the novel by 2001 Sara Ryan?

None at all; possibly in part because I worked on it for so long before its original publication!

You recently tweeted “Just finished a writing a chapter. Now I need to overcome the feeling of being ‘done’ to start writing the next one.’” How hard is it overcome that done feeling and keep moving?

It depends. Sometimes I can skip ahead to a scene I’m especially excited about, or switch briefly to work on something that requires a different part of my brain (like answering interview questions!) and then returning to the manuscript.

Other times I’m just tapped out for the day, and if I try to power through I write stuff I’ll end up deleting.

How often do you hear from readers, struggling with their sexuality, who were helped by your writing?

Often. And I also hear a lot from readers who are happy that Empress isn’t primarily about a coming-out struggle, that it’s more concerned with friendship and love and the sometimes blurry lines between them.

And, in that same vein, were there novels that you read as a teen that helped you when you were finding yourself?

Actually, I’d say the most helpful work to me — as I acknowledge in the recommended booklist in the expanded edition — was Alison Bechdel’s long-running comic Dykes to Watch Out For. That said, I also read classics like Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, and Zami: A New Spelling Of My Name by Audre Lorde. I wish I’d known about Nancy Garden’s Annie On My Mind when I was a teen, but I didn’t discover it until I was in my twenties.

Total comics question, where do things stand with Bad Houses, your collaboration with Carla Speed McNeil.

I’m so pleased that Dark Horse will be publishing Bad Houses. They’ve been doing a terrific job with Carla’s Finder books, and I also think it’s a nice fit to have an Oregon publisher for a book set in Oregon. Carla’s art is tremendous as usual — the things I’ve thrown at her to draw in Bad Houses include but are not limited to creepy antique dealers, a carnival, an aikido dojo, and an abandoned brewery. Also: makeouts.

It’ll still be a while before the book is released, but we’ve been talking about doing some exciting things in advance of publication, so stay tuned.

Thanks to Caissie St.Onge for making me aware of this gem.

But it is likely my favorite song of theirs came from the first album, The Bears, a tune called Fear Is Never Boring.

But I found out later that actually that song predated The Bears, as it had originally been recorded by The Raisins (who a good chunk of The Bears belonged to, except for Belew–who produced The Raisins album). Here is the originally video for the song, back in the early 1980s.

Then here’s The Bears performing the tune back in 1987, tune into about the 31-minute mark to see the song.

It was not until tonight, when I was watching a 2007 version of the song, that I realized how much this song works not because of Belew, but because of lead singer Rob Fetters.

One last version, from the most recent non-Bears line-up of Fetters, Chris Arduser & Bob Nyswonger in a band called Psychodots. In the 2006 video, it appears they are playing at a Cincinnati Reds-related event. And I love how the song comes full circle in a sense, the original Raisins video starred a few children. So to see children dancing at the live version when Fetters sang “Mama’s little darling likes violent sex” just amused the hell out of me.