It’s episode 165 of Adobe & Teardrops! Thanks for sticking with me!
Well, everything is coming up Rachel this week. I’ve been on spring break. I joined a fantasy baseball league. I joined a queer softball league. Opening day is in less than an hour as I record this. We might be moving into a 2-bedroom apartment in the same building. Oh yeah — things are good.
So I’ll try not to bore you all with my softball stuff as the summer progresses, but I will say that, after 20 years of not playing, my fielding is still…not distinguished. Like, I was under the ball every time, I just didn’t make the catch. But that’s just practice. As for hitting, I brought my bat from when I was in middle school and all the old butches were laughing at me. So I used an adult bat that was a little too heavy for me and I just crushed the ball. It felt good. I was, like, shaking with adrenaline. And I got drafted to the beer-leaguest team in the beer league division, so I’m stoked. But most importantly, it felt really good to be playing sports with people who looked like me! I had really underestimate that.
So I hope you find something awesome and healing this week. Speaking of which, we’re going to kick things off with some gospel music just in time for Easter. Living in the Last Days is Elizabeth King’s first full-length album at the age of 78. I wrote more about it on No Depression, which is linked to in the show notes. This is a fun ride, as you’ll see on the title track. And Patreon subscribers will listen to “Reach Out and Touch,” both from Living in the Last Days.
Elizabeth King — “Living in the Last Days” (Living in the Last Days) (2:46)
Cristina Vane — “Blueberry Hill” (Nowhere Sounds Lovely) (5:55)
Kai Mata — “Wine” (Single) (9:55)
Henry Conlon — “Lucy” (Single) (13:59)
(17:45) We got a little bluesy with Cristina Vane’s “Blueberry Hill” and “The Driving Song,” both from Nowhere Sounds Lovely. I played some of Vane’s music back on episode 154, so it’s really cool to hear what she can do with full production. Then we jumped into some pop with Kai Mata’s “Wine.” Mata is one of the few out Indonesian recording artists. Last but not least, Henry Conlon got us into some Americana with his single “Lucy.”
Let’s get spacey with Valerine June’s incredible album The Moon and the Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers. We’ll listen to “Stay” and Patreon subscribers will get “Stardust Scattering.” Then we’ll jump into our album of the week: Hope Dunbar’s Sweetheartland. This is the kind of music I’ve been looking for since I started Adobe & Teardrops. Dunbar has an awesome heartland rock sound while staying true to herself, something that, frankly, I haven’t seen many women who go for that sound really succeed at. She’s a great storyteller, which we’ll hear on “What Were You Thinking,” and can really pull out the stops with “Evacuate,” which Patreon subscribers will hear.
Valerie June — “Stay” (The Moon and the Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers) (19:00)
Hope Dunbar — “What Were You Thinking” (Sweetheartland) (22:01)
Scott Making Cents — “Profile Picture” (Dog EP) (25:28)
Andrew Waite — “Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That” (Single) (28:55)
(28:55) That one made you laugh, right? I got a hold of Scott Making Cents’ “Profile Picture” 2 or 3 months ago and I’ve been SO impatient to get it on here. Everything about the song reminds me of The Refreshments. I love it. And then we kicked it up with some awesome rock by Andrew Waite and his single “Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That.”
Our last full set for the episode is chock full of two different queer country artists who landed on the same aesthetic — completely independently. al Riggs is a nonbinary musician out of North Carolina whose husband wrote a beautiful note for the record called I Got a Big Electric Fan To Keep Me Cool While I Sleep. The album covers a lot of ground, focusing on the anxieties of being queer in the South. Then, reigning Adobe & Teardrops chart queen Amina Shareef Ali released her album In The Dark (Awake Of Course). The album is a primer in folk punk and the lyrics dig really deep. We’ll listen to “Honest Song” and Patreon subscribes will get a load of “David.”
al Riggs — “Ragged But Right” (I Got A Big Electric Fan To Keep Me Cool While I Sleep) (33:20)
Amina Shareef Ali — “Honest Song” (In The Dark (Awake Of Course)) (36:33)
The Barker Brothers — “Thinkin’ June” (Single) (39:41)
Claire Kelly — “The Restless and the Reckless” (The Scenic Route) (42:39)
(46:26) We got a little punk bluegrass in there with the Barker Brothers’ “Thinkin’ June,” and then closed it out with a song from Claire Kelly’s new album The Scenic Route. That was “The Restless and the Reckless.”
Before we head out, remember you can cop some Adobe & Teardrops swag over on the website, sign up for the Patreon, chip in to the Ko-fi, or send music through SubmitHub. I’m going to be on hiatus from SubmitHub for another week or two, but if you sign up now you’ll get a notification when I reactivate the account.
So we’ll end the episode with an interview with Hey, King!, a queer LA-based rock band. I posted most of our interview over on the website (linked to in the show notes), but in this clip we talk about what it was like to tour and work with bluesman extraordinaire Ben Harper, and listen to one of the most distinctive songs on their self-titled debut album: “Half Alive.”
Be safe out there! In music we trust, in music we believe.
Hey, King! — Interview and “Half Alive.” (Read the interview here.) (47:26)
Podcast intro by Alma Contra, music from Two Cow Garage’s “Stars & Gutters”
Send me music via SubmitHub! Send me money via Ko-fi or Patreon. Find Rachel and her comic via https://linktr.ee/rachel.cholst