Photo by Alysse Gafkjen
A while back, we asked a bunch of roots musicians to tell us about their favorite standards, in conjunction with the theme of our current print journal, Standards & Stanzas. Molly Tuttle, this month’s Spotlight artist, chimed in with this:
“A Few Old Memories” – Hazel Dickens
This was the first Hazel Dickens song I learned after falling in love with her music in seventh grade. My dad put it on a playlist that he played on the living room speakers sometimes and I was enthralled by the honesty and rawness of Hazel’s voice. I sat in my room for hours trying to copy her phrasing and the turns in her voice. As I got older the lyrics started to mean more and more to me, and I began to add in my own stylistic variations. The song now feels so personal to me since I’ve sung it from such an early age. Hazel’s music taught me so much about singing, songwriting, and life. I feel like as I have grown, the way I sing this song has grown with me, and now it feels like an old friend when I come back to it each time.
Hear about more artists’ “gold standards” here and in our Spring 2019 print journal, available here.
