Portraits

55

Fifty-five studies in listening. Each portrait enters a musician's world through place, voice, and the question of what gets passed down.

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Mississippi John Hurt
Keeps the Slow Time
Avalon, Mississippi
Elizabeth Cotten
The Left-Hand Question
Carrboro, North Carolina
Ali Farka Touré
River Logic
Niafunké, Mali
Hazel Dickens
What the Union Asks
Mercer County, West Virginia
John Fahey
American Primitive / American Myth
Takoma Park, Maryland
Dorothy Ashby
The Harp Nobody Counted
Detroit, Michigan
Shirley Collins
The Field Recording That Stayed
Hastings, East Sussex
Bukka White
Sky Songs, Ground Songs
Houston, Mississippi
Connie Converse
Before Anyone Was Listening
Concord, New Hampshire
William Onyeabor
The Factory and the Groove
Enugu, Nigeria
Moondog
Standing in the Street
New York City, New York
Alice Gerrard
Inheritance and Insistence
Burlington, Vermont
Lonnie Johnson
The Guitar as Evidence
New Orleans, Louisiana
Ruth Crawford Seeger
Dissonance as Precision
East Liverpool, Ohio
Otis Redding
The Weight of That Voice
Dawson, Georgia
Jean Ritchie
What the Mountain Gave Back
Viper, Kentucky
Captain Beefheart
Painting Against the Frame
Glendale, California
Mavis Staples
The Church and the Movement
Chicago, Illinois
Bola Sete
Between Two Audiences
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Odetta
Voice as Landscape
Birmingham, Alabama
Skip James
The Minor Key Problem
Bentonia, Mississippi
King Sunny Adé
The Guitar Never Stops
Ondo, Nigeria
Bessie Smith
The Tent and the Stage
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Vashti Bunyan
The Song That Came Back
London, England
Blind Willie Johnson
Sacred Steel
Marlin, Texas
Marian Anderson
The Lincoln Memorial Step
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Ry Cooder
Who He Listens To
Los Angeles, California
Cesária Évora
Barefoot in the Harbor
Mindelo, Cape Verde
Albert Ayler
The Cry as Structure
Cleveland, Ohio
Nina Simone
The Piano and the Question
Tryon, North Carolina
Leo Kottke
Twelve Strings and No Theory
Athens, Georgia
João Gilberto
The Quiet Revolution
Juazeiro, Bahia
June Tabor
Severity as Style
Warwick, England
Ray Charles
The Ear That Crossed Everything
Albany, Georgia
Bobi Wine
The Ghetto and the Parliament
Kampala, Uganda
Alice Coltrane
After John, Toward the Infinite
Detroit, Michigan
Doc Watson
Flat Pick as Mother Tongue
Deep Gap, North Carolina
Miriam Makeba
The Passport and the Song
Johannesburg, South Africa
Fred McDowell
I Do Not Play No Rock and Roll
Rossville, Tennessee
Astrud Gilberto
The Accent They Heard
Petrópolis, Brazil
Blind Lemon Jefferson
The Walking Bass Before the Name
Coutchman, Texas
Charley Patton
The Showman and the Source
Edwards, Mississippi
The Bothy Band
Session as Form
County Donegal, Ireland
Howlin' Wolf
The Body in the Room
West Point, Mississippi
Ravi Shankar
The Raga as Argument
Varanasi, India
Norma Waterson
Family Music, Inherited Weight
Hull, England
Compay Segundo
The Song Remembered at 90
Santa Clara, Cuba
Ali Hassan Kuban
The Nubian Crossroads
Nubia, Sudan
Carolyn Hester
The Session That Changed Rooms
Waco, Texas
Bukky Leo
Talking Drum Testimony
Lagos, Nigeria
Odetta
The Second Sitting
Birmingham, Alabama
Sandy Denny
Who Knows Where
London, England
Henry Thomas
The Quills and the Track
Upshur County, Texas
Nat Adderley
In the Shadow of the Horn
Tampa, Florida
Noah Lewis
The Jug and the Harmonica
Calhoun County, Mississippi