Recording: Bonjay

Artist: Bonjay

Song: Medicine for Melancholy

Recorded at at Array Space (Musicworks at 40), November 15, 2018.

Bonjay - Medicine for Melancholy

Though celebrating its fortieth anniversary, Musicworks Magazine's resolute focus on the here-and-now means there's not much time for nostalgia. Given that, I was glad that I was able to cajole my way into a small part in making sure that the occasion didn't go unmarked. After co-hosting some talkin' history back in September, I also helped curate the music for this fundraising event alongside Nick Storring (whose Riparian Acoustics is currently presenting plenty imaginative sounds).

Although coming from a different direction than night's other soundmakers, I was glad to have Bonjay at this show, nodding to several streams in Musicworks' past and present. The relationship between popular and decidedly unpopular music has long been an area of investigation (out of many possibilities, I'd recommend tracking down Paul Dutton's "Beyond Doo-Wop or: How I came to Realize That Hank Williams Is Avant Garde") as well as continuing conversations (from the 80's onward) on the boundaries between appreciation and appropriation of "other" musics. And this song, with its second-generation lament of "These days / I don't think I belong / Anywhere" also fits in with the queries that a lot of creators in the current pages of Musicworks are making.