randomWalks

And so this new groove needs to come hard, come angry, and come sexy as hell. It needs to remind us that soul music is always grounded in a community, in a life, and in the spaces and places that that life takes place in, and that times are fucking insane right now. We need Wilson Pickett wailing, Millie Jackson growling, Dave Hollister snarling, Mary J. groaning, Jodeci moaning, Donnie Hathaway breaking our hearts, Aretha and Chaka lifting them up, and Prince getting nastier than he's ever been before. And it better be over a groove that shifts and changes, morphs and grows, never gets stuck in any one spot. Because we need to quit chilling and really start feeling the vibe — remember that music can move minds, move bodies, move hearts, move souls, and if soul music doesn't start moving real damn soon, we're all just gonna be sitting here, stoned and kicking it, while the world rushes by.

At home my housemates were saving newspaper pages for me, important stories about the downfall of the Backstreet Boys, reviews of Neil LaBute's dreaded Possession, and a piece in the New York Times Magazine by David Hajdu on the state of folk music, which apparently has been taken over, B-movie style, by lesbians. Even coming back from a zone somewhat dominated by the sound of folk music made by lesbians, I have trouble understanding. "Folk music has become the sound of lesbian culture," he says. The idea feels as far away as the Manistee National Forest, where the tents have now come down and the power lines will soon be buried under the earth for the winter. Here in San Francisco the lesbians I know are more likely to spend their time at drag king competitions and dance clubs where you get in free if you're wearing hot pants.

There's a visible women's folk scene. Spaces like Dolores Park Cafe offer song-cycle nights and other performances by local folksingers, mostly women, many queer. But a male singer-songwriter interviewed by Hajdu claims he's "working in a lesbian art form," as if O Brother, Where Art Thou? never came out to make the world of folk and bluegrass safe for lovers of Blood Simple. I also know boys who won't go to certain rock shows where the quotient of dykes is too high. So I'm wondering if a visible presence is being trend-spotted as world domination.