A Southern Gothic - Aida Victoria (2021)

Ideated from: a Black History Month reminder that black artists largely built the modern world of music

Another one I picked up from other people’s best-of-year lists, and I’m glad I did. I had this in the queue for a couple weeks earlier, but listening to it I realized it was a great way to kick off my February project.

She said about this record in an interview:

“It made me ask questions […] About belonging, and about the way that a group forms its narratives, about private memory versus public memory and the way our memories are shaped by the culture we live in.”

“You have your [William] Faulkner, your [Eudora] Welty, your [Flannery] O’Connor, but it’s not common you’ll see Alice Walker included in that list as well. I wanted to include myself in the history of the South. I wanted to make this young Black girl’s narrative just as emblematic of a Southern experience as Faulkner could write.”

Produced by roots-music mastermind T-Bone Burnett, it finds a lot of modern edges in the mostly traditional instrumentation. It ends up sounding thoroughly modern as well as thoroughly rustic.

Tracks I Liked

Mean-Hearted Woman - An interesting reversal of an all-too-common narrative in old blues songs of a man getting revenge on an unfaithful woman. Or maybe we could just not kill anyone over jilted love, but I’m probably too level-headed to be of much use in these matters.

Whole World Knows - Slick and mean

Far From Dixie - Not exactly a love song to where she’s from, but not a kiss-off, either.