Cover of See See Rider for the WNYC Centennial Song Project

And some miscellany

Hi all-

Just came across it, thought you might like to hear it.

I recorded this song in January of 2024 in a little apartment I was renting that I dubbed the monk hole. (I was raised Buddhist and feel irreverent and guilty having coined and now shared this name.) It was a very ascetic time in my life. Only toward the end of my stint did I acquire and put up one piece of art:

By my director/photographer friend Pete Lee. It is still the only piece of art I own.

Public radio station WNYC, of which I am a great and grateful fan, was celebrating its 100th birthday asked if I would contribute to an anthology of covers and musical adaptations of works from around 1924. See See Rider was on the list. I don’t know if anything ever happened with it but I DID turn the recording in on time and I’d like to celebrate myself for that.

When I studied in London I would play open mics at this pub and a friend ish I made there had a 6 string banjo that was tuned and strung like a guitar (cheating or fine? :) and he would play See See Rider in his set. My time in London was mostly galavanting around and playing music in pubs. I won’t recount much here because my mom reads this newsletter and she paid a lot of money for me to study abroad my junior year.

I had no idea See See Rider was co- written by Ma Rainey ( and Lena Arant). I wanted to cover it to honor the under-recognized, under-appreciated truth of Ma Rainey as a songwriter, as a nod to country blues playing (Lightnin’ Hopkins, Muddy Waters, especially his Folk Singer album, Junior Kimbrough, so many more) that so vitally informed my own, and as an ode to my younger youth.

I’m playing 5 string banjo (tuned and strung as a banjo ;) with a slide, lap steel, some SPDSX drums, and ambient tambourine and crash cymbal:

t

PS- It feels odd to send you correspondences out of time, as though we are not in the throes of … everything. I have always intended my work and career to be in reflection and conversation with what is happening to people and how we can help each other. I just wanted you know I am not blithely doing anything— all is with a worried and confused heart. I regard art making as both a way to capture the essence of reality and also to architect a reprieve from it. But the reprieve is temporary, and it is to help us continually return and awaken to each other. That said, I hope you can escape into some music and then use some music to come back on someone’s behalf. Having said that, I will compile some song suggestions for the next newsletter. xx