BONUS TRACKS: Party Music at the Democratic Convention

The Democratic National Convention gets rolling in Chicago next week, and besides all the politicking, it’s also a party. And what’s a party without music? Among the musicians known to be performing at convention-related events, according to this roundup from The New York Times, are Drive-by Truckers (said to be “a favorite of the Harris campaign staff”) and SistaStrings, from swing state Wisconsin. The big (musical) question is whether Taylor Swift or Beyoncé might make a surprise appearance. Swift wraps an international leg of her Eras Tour in London Tuesday night, and Beyoncé hasn’t yet announced dates for a tour in support of her latest release, Cowboy Carter (ND review), so conceivably they’ve both got the night off on Thursday, when the DNC wraps up. This election season has been full of surprises, so why not one (or two!) more?

(To be fair, the Republican convention last month had musical guests as well, including America’s sweetheart Jason Aldean, Kid Rock, and, inevitably, Lee Greenwood. Gonna guess there was a lot of clapping on the 1 and the 3.)

Yo La Tengo is also happy to lend their voices and songs to the Harris/Walz ticket, but instead of playing the convention, they’ll come to you! This week the band announced it is willing to play an acoustic show in your living room, backyard, basement, whatever — if you pledge to give “a sizable donation” to the campaign. They’re gathering proposals via an online form, and will greenlight house shows based on location, schedule, and the size of your Harris/Walz campaign donation. The details of the show, they said in the announcement, “are up to you, Mx. Big $pender.” Read more about Yo La Tengo’s call for proposals in this coverage from Billboard.

To keep the political (but also musical!) theme right on going, former President Barack Obama has released his annual summer playlist. This is, of course, not a requirement of being president, but just a thing he does, and it’s always fun to see where a president’s cultural experiences align with ours. Roots music fans might nod in approval at Obama’s selection of “Unsuffer Me” by Lucinda Williams, “Old Dutch” by Bonny Light Horseman, Bob Dylan’s “Silvio,” and Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ’Em” for his playlist. You can check out his full playlist here, along with his summer reading list.

And now a couple of deaths to mark and mourn together. Seattle music journalist and Kurt Cobain biographer Charles R. Cross passed away last Friday from natural causes at the age of 67, according to his family. In addition to Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain, Cross wrote biographies of Jimi Hendrix, Heart, and Led Zeppelin. From 1986 to 2000 he was editor of Seattle music magazine The Rocket, and he founded and was editor for a time of Backstreets, the Bruce Springsteen fanzine. Read more about Cross’ work in this remembrance from Variety.

Wallace “Wally” Amos passed away on Tuesday at age 88 from complications from dementia. He’s the Amos in Famous Amos, maker of delicious chocolate chip cookies, but music was always part of the story. In the 1970s he’d set out to be a talent agent in Los Angeles, and he started baking cookies using an aunt’s recipe as an evening stress reliever. Clients came to clamor for his cookies, and in 1975 he made the leap to selling cookies full time, with Helen Reddy and Marvin Gaye among his early investors. Helping him in those early days was his son, Shawn — known to music fans today as the Reverend Shawn Amos. In 2022, Shawn Amos published a book for middle-grades readers titled Cookies & Milk that was based on his childhood assisting with his dad’s business. (No Depression tapped our very own in-house middle-grades reader, my daughter Nora, to review the book.) Read more about Wally Amos in this remembrance from The Washington Post.

WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO

Here’s a sampling of the songs, albums, bands, and sounds No Depression staffers have been into this week:

Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars – “Die With a Smile”
Nedski & Mojo – “Act Naturally” (Buck Owens cover)
Julian Taylor – “Weighing Down,” from his new album, Pathways, coming in September
Larry & Joe – “Ya Volveré a la Sierra Blue Ridge,” from their new album, Manos Panamericanos, coming in September
Nan Macmillan – “Both Eyes Now”
Gothard Sister – “Hurricane Ridge”
Caleb Klauder & Reeb Willms – “He’s Gone”
Josh Hou – Diaspora
Maygen and the Birdwatcher – Leap Year
Chucho Valdés Tiny Desk Concert
Folk Bitch Trio – “God’s a Different Sword”
Weekend With Pete [Seeger] podcast
Sierra Ferrell Tiny Desk Concert