Put A Record On: Songs For Keeping Going

Things are dire, but the music is still good.

mavis, because of course.

By Natalie

I don’t have any reassurance, and I certainly don’t have any answers. We’ve collectively been watching horrors — inconceivable brutality abroad and at home, now accompanied by unprecedented administrative destruction — through our screens for years, and they’re only getting worse. In spite of the very justified feeling of calamity, music and art remain anything but trivial. We cannot imagine and work towards a better world without them (and why would we want to?).

When I think about artists who have shown unbelievable resilience and persistence and joy, who have been so generous with their gifts and steadfast in their principles, it’s hard to think of many people besides Mavis Staples. She’s been doing this much longer than I’ve been alive, and yet I’ve been lucky enough to witness the way her voice — singing and otherwise — is capable of convincing people that anything is possible.

And right now, we need to believe. Or maybe I need to believe — that there are steps to take and work to do, that I can keep pushing for a fairer and freer future instead of acquiescing to the overwhelm. In any event, I made this playlist as kind of a sequel to my songs for fighting back playlist — full of music that’s about taking the small steps even when they feel futile. I’m just an old chunk of coal, but dammit I’m gonna be a diamond someday!

First: A couple non-musical resources that I think are useful — this “procedure for having to behold,” for processing the horrors or trying to, and this list of actions you can take that aren’t protesting or voting. No one person can fix this by themselves; the only way out is through community, everyone doing what they can to help. Giving some people food or money to people who are giving people food is an easy way to start, I think, but it all matters — the mindset of giving over hoarding is most important.

Here are a few of the songs on the playlist — the full 50+ song playlist is at the end, for paying subscribers.

“Slept Alone,” Wayne Graham: I have the line, “There will always be a place for you to run to,” tattooed on my forearm; my husband has “Try to fall asleep while the grass gets wet” on his. Good reminders, always.

“Joyful Motherfuckers,” Allison Russell: It is not wrong to feel joy right now! Without optimism we don’t have anything at all, as Allison so eloquently outlines here.