Following on the heels of 1971 Songbook, the UK polymath Joanne Roberston and the American record bum, Byron Coley, have chosen to celebrate the recorded music of 1979. From the Germs to Loretta Lynn to Meredith Monk to Cecil Taylor, 1979 offered a wider selection of pleasures than is generally recalled.
The idea for doing books of poems functioning as reviews of records released in a certain year was originally hatched as a transatlantic jape. But upon further consideration, it seemed like a pretty fine way to investigate the culture of a specific year. 1979 is the year in which one of our principals was born, and the other was drifting across the United States, writing for punk fanzines. As with the earlier volume, records are dealt with as both the hard coinage of accrued knowledge as well as wisps of forgotten magic, discovered by sheer happenstance.
We are quite pleased with the results, and promise to continue this journey as far as it will take us.
Ms. Robertson is a visual artist/musician/writer currently based in Glasgow. Mr. Coley is a writer/archivist who lives on an old dairy farm in Massachusetts. Over the past decade, the two have collaborated on a series of projects, curating shows, writing books of poetry, and chatting about skiing, as their busy schedules permit.
Tenderbooks, 2019 with bad taste press
-
36 pgs, 20.5 × 15 cm, Softcover, 2019,