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Dear friends,

Cyrus from Mississippi here. I spoke with one of our favorite artists, Angel Bat Dawid, for the newsletter about one week before global protests kicked off over the police murder of George Floyd. I checked in again to see if Angel had anything to add in light of the demonstrations, before realizing it was the wrong question. What more is there to say after all these years? “We’ve been knocking at your door for decades,” Lonnie Holley recently wrote.

There have been some grumblings about music as a distraction right now, about how it’s frivolous or not necessary. But we recognize the power – spiritual and political – of these sounds. There’s a reason dictators and theocracies ban music, and capitalists try to buy and control it.

As a kid visiting Iran, there was music and poetry that we could only listen to in the house. These same songs could get you arrested on the street. People with guns and the state behind them were worried about the memories, myths, and feelings carried in those old songs. That was thrilling and terrifying. That was power, even if secret and quiet.

Last year in South Georgia, I recognized a similar power. The great spiritual singer Brother Theotis Taylor, 92 years of age, left hand trembling from a lifetime of harvesting turpentine, described the spirit that came down on him and inspired his home recordings. These songs, performed in private and at small church gatherings, maintained the artist, his family, and his community in a state that, for Black Americans, is in some ways as brutal as the one I know in Iran.

“There are certain things locked down from you,” Brother Taylor said. “But you keep your spirit.”

Today, we’re releasing Brother Theotis Taylor’s album digitally (the vinyl will be ready in July). Bandcamp is waiving all its fees on Friday, and we’re donating 100% of digital sales from our catalog to Assata's Daughters, Chicago Freedom School, and Black Trans Femmes in the Arts.

Keep listening.

all the love,
Cyrus, Eric, & Gordon

PS. For deeper analysis on music as a form of power in an American context, we can recommend Angela Davis’ “Blues Legacies and Black Feminism” on the early female blues singers, and George Lewis’ massive book on the AACM, “A Power Stronger Than Itself.”

OR

Just listen to this playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhg6ikhbGe-ZQpWbdzu9ddUeybeIcBfOM

PPS. Here's a list of resources and ways to contribute, financially or otherwise....
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CjZMORRVuv-I-qo4B0YfmOTqIOa3GUS207t5iuLZmyA/mobilebasic

mississippirecords.bandcamp.com