Joanna Newsom
Ala Harp
Published: 9/8/21
By: Andrew Neyer
Some music can transcend genre and time. I used to trade music (.mp3’s) around with friends via our hard drives filled with our collected catalogs back in the day. In 2005 my college roommate, Ryan, gave me the album, The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004) by Joanna Newsom. It begins with a harp plucking polyrhythms. I was hooked instantly. Next, Joanna Newsom’s voice comes squeaking in. Jarring at first, but then the creaky tones start to make sense as you realize you’re spelunking a treasure.
The sounds of The Milk-Eyed Mender transport the listener to an unrecognizable era, and her lyrics are both fable and fey. The second track, The Sprout and the Bean, is a beautiful duet between the harp and vocalist, capturing Newsom’s forte: colliding ancient tones with modern poetry. My favorite song, En Gallop, springs up like a swirling, avant-garde folk-tale in the middle of the album.
Newsom’s lyrics have mystical undertones threading in and out of her captivating harp playing. Her music inspires more profound and more reflective thought. While listening, I find myself exploring concepts and the patterns of my life. Just as I’m hiking farther down a curious tangent, she delivers a gentle lyric that stops me in my tracks every time,
“Never get so attached to a poem you forget truth that lacks lyricism, and never draw so close to the heat that you forget that you must eat.”
– Joanna Newsom, En Gallop
Music coupled with lyrics has supernatural powers. Two works of Art colliding at once, just like Newsom’s polyrhythmic plucking. Her fable-like lyrics accompany her harp like a wave’s crest and trough.
Context
The Milk-Eyed Mender, 2004
“Music isn’t about plucking [harp] strings, it’s about plucking heart strings.”
6:5 Polyrythm
Thoughts
– Are y’interested?
– Has a song or poem ever stopped you in your tracks?
– Can you think of another combination of the ancient and modern?
