Music

5SF - 4/10/26

I spend a lot of time on my feet. I don't know why, but I don't think as well without going for at least a few miles a day. Unfortunately, most of modern life isn't centered on mobility. Kinda hard to make a living from walking.

Jack T. Crawford

10 Apr 2026 — 2 min read

Moral Victory - Amble

Amble's one of my favorite folk groups right now, and this new single points them in a strong direction. The lean into a bluesier sound makes their work richer.

Sleeping on the Blacktop - Colter Wall

Give Mr. Wall a listen. Try to guess where he's from. Then look it up. You'll be confused, I promise.

His music captures some fragment of the imaginary West, the kind (perhaps only in Oklahoma) we dreamed of roaming as children. It echoes the sentiment of Kerouac's famous letter to Ginsberg. (Kudos, by the way, to fellow Okie Zach Bryan for his purchase and donation of the On the Road scroll.)

Tractor Beam - Snail Mail

Snail Mail's latest walks a line between early 2000s garage band nostalgia and perfectly present songwriting. It belongs to a time out of time when cell phones had more buttons and less destabilizing effects on society.

The Lady in My Life - Stanley Jordan

This week, I finished a novel called The Will of the Many, a fantasy novel in a pseudo-Roman empire where society has been shaped into pyramids. Those at the bottom of each pyramid contribute a percentage of their Will (life force, whatever) to those above them. Sapping vast amounts of power, those in the ruling class are capable of incredible magic.

One must wonder how many people go through life lacking in groove, their innate musicality sapped by Mr. Stanley Jordan. The guy radiates musicality as though he struck an arcane bargain for his powers.

This week, I had the great privilege to see Jordan play live. It was a profound concert, one man and two guitars. I'd known him for his style of tapping the strings, treating the fretboard of an electric guitar like a keyboard in ways that produce a unique bouncing sound, but he didn't stop there.

To hear him tell it, he's been playing two guitars at once for years, but when he first developed the technique, the equipment needed was too cumbersome for touring. Thank God for Moore's Law.

He switches freely between one and two instruments, joking at one point that it was easier to play on one simply because he doesn't have to consider so many possibilities. He grooves like a grandmaster, seeing openings in the strings and moving delicately to set himself up for advantage in the endgame.

When victories are reached, us onlookers are left remarking, "Ah hah, what an elegant solution!" The listener must appreciate his work note-by-note, the gestalt apparent only in hindsight. Jordan alone feels the process, conducting the sounds into place, and that sublimity shines in his eyes as he plays.