Grant Hart - "Evergreen Memorial Drive". Landed beautied & battered back in Montreal City. Heard chimes in the branches, saw streamers in the tulips, felt sure-footed with two soles on sidewalk slabs. You go a long way and then you come on back; you hear bad news and brace yourself for the good; you throw on "Evergreen Memorial Drive" and imagine driving for one whole viridian night. Grant Hart may have written this song about a road into Duluth, MN, but that scarcely matters; forget "the actual intent", "the original intent"^* - let this song be the small anthem for any voyage or return, for the moment that you refuse to be depleted, for hearing chimes and seeing streamers. Summer, brothers and sisters, through a cloud.

^* For years people have said there are covens of witches in Askov ... And farther up the road there's a town called Nickerson and everyone from Duquet was like, "Oh. Don't go to Nickerson. They'll just overcharge you if they know you're from Duquet." [So] I liked the way that Nickerson worked with "son-of-a-bitches." That's how it goes: "Askov has northern witches, Nickerson has son-of-a-bitches." That's the insider version of it, which is... meaningless. Whatever other people are putting into it is probably more valid to more people than the actual intent, or the original intent.

[Originally released by Nova Mob in 1991, "Evergreen Memorial Drive" is at last back in print. Buy it from Hazelwood Vinyl Plastics.]

Fairewell - "Others Of Us". She was rashly beautiful. He knew it, from the first day they went down to the canal and she seemed like she wanted to shove him over the edge. The water was dark, filled with steel points and ridges, cold muck. There were gardens on the banks but when she talked he could see the wish in her eyes, the yearning to lean back and throw him bodily down. Her eyes and hips and arms made her pretty, but it was this that made her beautiful; just standing beside her, he felt scraped up. He imagined a hundred years of awful gorgeous love-affair, empty cups, torn anniversary cards. He knew if he didn't take her, someone else would. He wanted to clutch her in his arms and hold her still in the azaleas until she stopped writhing and just lay beside him, inhaling slowly through her nose. [Fairewell are a new act from Britain]

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Internal business:

Thank you so much to Jordan for filling in for me during my absence. He wrote such good things and chose such fine songs. I am not sure whether we have persuaded him to come back more regularly, but certainly we continue to expect him on the last Wednesday of every month.

Montreal business:

Three wonderful record launches in YUL this week, from three Said the Gramophone favourites: On Wednesday, Little Scream launches The Golden Record at Il Motore and James Irwin launches the handmade version of Blue Dust at Cagibi. On Sunday, Snailhouse debuts Sentimental Gentleman (discussed here last week) at La Sala Rossa. There's also a lovely folk benefit on Saturday night, starring the Mittenstrings and local legends the What 4.

Elsewhere: