Roll Call of Muses

On A Year Filled With Writing About What You Love

I looked back over what I’ve written for Loose Connections this year and was not surprised to discover that I’m still as fascinated by my subjects as I was when inspired to explore and go deeper on ‘comma f**kers’ and the meanings of words, naming and getting to know your guitars and female trailblazers in audio engineering, to call out my 3 favourite Loose Connections essays from 2023:

1.The Weight Of The Word: On Freedom, Gratitude & Comma F*ckers

2. Call Me By My Name: On Low Action, High Action, Allegiances & Nun's Guitars

   

   3. Stories We Tell/The Room Where It Happened: On How History Gets Made & Lost

   

   The freedom of being about write about the things that matter to me in as deep, irreverent, heartfelt or nerdy fashion as I feel is appropriate, has truly been such a gift. To know that there are people out there actually reading my missives gives me such a thrill.

   As a voluminous reader, to be served up a continuous platter of interesting writing on this platform has also been a total joy.

   Here are my 5 favourite essays from other Substack writers this year.

   1. Beautiful Strangers at the Bataclan: An Essay by

   Kevin Morby

   “A year after the shooting, I wrote and released a song called “Beautiful Strangers,” which references the tragedy at the Bataclan, along with the Pulse nightclub shootings in Orlando and the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. The song has arguably become my most popular, and though it’s been seven years, its rise within my catalog is a testament to our ever-horrendous current events. Its subject matter of mass shootings and police brutality has aged all too well…”

2. Room At The Top: by

   Amy Rigby

   “I thought of a good number that wouldn’t land me in prison if he asked to search the trunk of my car.  “Umm…seven?” I remembered how Eric has coached me to never volunteer more information as is my general inclination ie “AND I have CDs! Books! And maybe you’d like to see all my tea towels and shirts? I print them myself!”…”

3. Confessions of a Crybaby 1: Beside Myself in the Concert Hall: On grieving in public, thanks to a folk song, 1973 by

   Robert Burke Warren

   “This confluence of words, music, light, shadow, and movement ushered my father into my mind, my body. I began to cry uncontrollably. The sadness blindsided me like a sneeze. A song had never made me cry before, much less unhinged and in public. I was suddenly beside myself…”

4. My Buddy: Remembering Sam Shepard by

   Patti Smith

   “Going over a passage describing the western landscape he suddenly looked up and said, I’m sorry I can’t take you there. I just smiled, for some-how, he had already done just that. Without a word, eyes closed, we tramped through the American desert that rolled out a carpet of many colors- saffron dust, then russet, even the color of green glass, golden greens, and then, suddenly, an almost inhuman blue.  Blue sand, I said, filled with wonder.  Blue everything, he said, and the songs we sung had a color of their own…”

5. Sailor's Dream: Louis Tillett's journey to a faraway shore by

   Mark Mordue

   “For some reason we never mention the rusty jerry can in his hand. We talk about music, ego, prayers, dreams, a lost amplifier, Athens, jazz. After a while it feels like the jerry can could in fact be full, not empty and, in the heat of this sun that is wearing me down, it might just explode. When I start to get uneasy, Louis takes off his hat. He is pale, sweaty, his breathing heavy, his hair matted. He looks terrible. Then he puts his hat back on and bids me good day…”

Here’s hoping 2024 brings good things. Thanks for being here with me x