As fun as it can be to review sex toys, I love reviewing all kinds of things. I’m incredibly lucky to have fallen into an interesting space where I get to review sexuality-focused gear. I’ve loved reviewing a wide range of other things. I will say, though, that it’s been a few years since I reviewed an album.
Yikes… okay, it’s been a decade. This is what happens when you start getting close to middle age, kids.
Thankfully, my friend Gaelynn Lea offered her new album – Learning How to Stay – in exchange for my thoughts about it.
First off, if you don’t know who Gaelynn is – or why we’ve connected – this video is mandatory viewing.
I apologize for the lack of subtitles. TedX is notorious for that, even when they’ve had D/deaf and hard of hearing speakers.
Simply put, Gaelynn is amazing. Her music brings in the coolest mix of celtic notes, folksy melodies, and amazing harmonies.
This album has some of my brand new favorite songs.
While the lyrics make an impact, it’s perhaps the music itself – like Gaelynn’s violin – that gets stuck in my head, time after time. Her voice is the perfect blend of uplifting and haunting, down-to-earth and otherworldly all at once. The melodies back up these conflicting and, yet, co-existing themes, leaving me with both joy and chills.
Bound By a Thread is my favorite track – it invokes ideas of Paper Chase’s discordant and eerie sounds, and combines it with sweet and simple lyrics. It’s also the song I feel best fits Lea’s amazing vocals.
Dark to Light and Dark Again shows some of her activist roots:
Muscles, nerves and skin and bones
They carry us on our journey home
Day by day they sustain us
In the end they betray us
But our bodies, they never fully contain us
It’s so clear to me where this song came from, and that’s a place full of conversations around mortality, disability justice, and so much more. I Wait is another song that projects images of my disabled siblings fighting against the man, from the early 1990s to today.
How long must we keep fighting
For our right to be living?
Wrongs overdue for righting
We’re a bit too forgiving
With Gaelynn’s background in political science, it’s not hard to see these tie-ins. Her initial career path was leaning towards becoming a disability rights lawyer and activist. As someone similarly inclined, to see these ideas touched on in her music is comforting. Perhaps more people will see how much disability isn’t discussed, or how we aren’t given the oppotunity to speak for ourselves. Within the larger disability community, people refuse to recognize how intersections affect our experiences of disability. We’re both far too forgiving to abled people, who should know better, and our fellow activists, who definitely know better, for transgressions.
If you’re looking for big celtic feels, Jim and Judy’s Wedding is absolutely a song you should check out. Listening to it brings up images of a small wedding under a tent on a rainy day. Surrounded by loved ones, a couple weds. The song conjures up hope, kindness, and love.
Someday We’ll Linger in the Sun is the song that keeps getting stuck in my head. It feels so optimistic despite these ideas of impermanence.
The entire album is just golden. Listening to it has inspired me to start writing poetry again, too, which is pretty cool.
Lea’s discography is beyond impressive, ranging from traditional folksy tunes to experimental and funky stuff. She is a master with a violin, and it’s been an honor to see her play in-person. Beyond that, knowing Gaelynn and having a growing friendship with her is something I cherish in ways I can’t find the words to say.
Perhaps the best way to say it is through her own lyrics. Gaelynn reminds me that, “We cannot do it all on our own.” We’re all lucky to know other activists, other sex educators, other people who can help carry us when things are hard. While this album won’t make any big-picture issues ease up, it reminds me that community is something we have to start appreciating more.