Playlist: Listening with Alela Diane

About Playlist

On “Cusp”, Alela Diane has set aside her acoustic guitar for a grand piano on which she created her new songs, the fifth album from a woman who has decided to draw up a balance sheet which was as much personal as it was artistic. This balance is reflected by her own musical recommendations, commented track by track below:

Ola Belle Reed - High on the Mountain
My parents used to perform this song, I remember my mom singing it at the top of her lungs at small folk festivals in the pine trees. My mom told me that she heard this version of the song on the local radio station while she was standing on the counter reaching for something on a high shelf. She jumped down and quickly pressed record on the tape deck so she could listen back and transcribe all the lyrics.

Patsy Cline - Walking after Midnight
My mom would listen to a greatest hits Patsy Cline tape while she cooked dinner, and we’d sing along. My parents performed Walking after Midnight in one of their bands in the late 80’s or early 90’s, and I think that hearing my mom belt out this song must have taught me to sing with all of my voice.

Cat Power - Metal Heart
I remember sitting in my dear friend and fellow songstress, Mariee Sioux’s, Volvo in a vacant parking lot as we grappled with feeling like teenagers. We turned up the volume and blasted Moon Pix, we felt the way music makes you feel when you are young and high on hormones. We loved this album, and I still love it. I have always been so inspired by the simplicity of Chan’s guitar playing, it always made me feel like I could play guitar too.

Elliott Smith – Angeles
I love this song so much. Again, it takes me back to high school. To get out of taking Physical Education, I took a dance class through the community college. Mariee and I and our friend Katie did an interpretive dance routine to this song. I have such nostalgia for this music and I know that deep down somewhere, Elliott Smith is part of the reason I started playing music.

Joni Mitchell - A Case of You
I remember listening to Blue my first year at college in San Francisco, before I ever wrote a song. I discovered the album late one night while painting a self-portrait and I listened to it over and over again while I cried and put color on canvas.

Neil Young - Til the Morning Comes
When I was 21, I lived alone in a log cabin in my hometown. I had just recorded my first album, and I listened to After The Gold Rush on repeat for an entire summer. Til the Morning Comes played on my answering machine, I had a landline then, which makes me feel a little old.

Townes Van Zandt - I’ll Be Here in the Morning
The self-titled Townes record has been on heavy rotation in homes of mine for over a decade. Many Sunday mornings dappled in lazy light are spent with Townes.

Fairport Convention - Who Knows Where the Time Goes
Sandy Denny has one of my all time favorite voices. Song for Sandy, off my new record, Cusp, was written for her. I’ve been listening to Fairport Convention since around the time I recorded To Be Still, and they’ve been an influence since. I wish I could be in a band like Fairport Convention.

Carole King - Home Again
I’d love to write a hit song in the effortless way that Carole King seems to. The songs on Tapestry are so catchy, but in such an understated and humble way. When I met my husband, we both had tattered copies of tapestry in our record collections. I love that she’s with her cat on the album cover, my cat has appeared on a few record sleeves too.

Paul Simon - Duncan
I remember listening to Graceland in our kitchen as a kid. My parents didn’t have a lot of records, because they were usually the ones playing music, but I remember Graceland. I didn’t discover Paul Simon’s self-titled record until my twenties, but I love this album. Duncan is a track that reminds me of driving with all the windows rolled down on a country road in the summertime.

Grateful Dead - Dire Wolf
My dad has been in a Grateful Dead cover band since I was 12. The Dead Beats, as they are called, rehearsed at our house at least once a week, so the soundtrack of the endless jam session was an unavoidable backdrop to my youth. I’ve always been secretly amused that Jerry Garcia didn’t write any of the lyrics for the Dead songs. This music is in my bones, not by my own choosing, but it’s in there, and I love it.