sights and sounds III

 Terry Evans. Girl Who is Blind with Radio, Kansas City, Kansas. 1973.

 "Perfect Day to Chase Tornadoes" by Jim White.

a killer's dream

Lately I've become smitten with the songs of Miss Rachel Brooke. She draws from smoky old-time blues, honky-tonk, and rockabilly with heavy shades of gothic Americana; the perfect soundtrack for rainy and mysterious Springtime evenings! It's just a shame that artists like her are pushed into this obscure alt-country niche, 'cause she sounds like she'd be right at home on the country airwaves in the days of the Carter Family or Hank, back when country skewed spooky.

I'm crazy about this duet with Lonesome Wyatt!!
(Just hope my roommate doesn't take it the wrong way, ha.)

Her official website: http://rachelbrooke0.wix.com/rachelbrooke

She's also trying to raise funds for a European tour right now.

  Hope you're doing well out there and enjoying some beautiful Spring weather ♥

let us now praise famous feedsacks

While my interests in literature, rural culture, and fashion history seldom intersect, when they do it leaves a strong impression! From one of my most cherished books, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, here is James Agee describing one 1930s rural woman's wardrobe in beautiful detail :

Saturday, Mrs. Gudger:
Face, hands, feet and legs are washed.
The hair is done up even more tightly than usual.
Black or white cotton stockings.
Black lowheeled slippers with strapped insteps and single buttons.
A freshly laundered cotton print dresses held together high at the throat with a ten-cent brooch.
A short necklace of black glass beads.
A hat.
She has two pairs of stockings. She sometimes goes bare-legged to Cookstown, on saturdays, but always wears stockings on sundays.

outfit: easter weekend