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May 7, 2020
Jordan Farmer's Playlist for His Novel "The Poison Flood"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others.
Jordan Farmer's compelling novel The Poison Flood explores the power of art to overcome adversity.
Publishers Weekly wrote of the book:
"Affecting . . . combines an unconventional lead with a sobering portrayal of an environmental disaster’s impact on a small community. Readers who like their fiction to have a social conscience will want to take a look."
In his own words, here is Jordan Farmer's Book Notes music playlist for his novel The Poison Flood:
My novel The Poison Flood follows Hollis Bragg, a reclusive musician and ghostwriter for The Troubadours, a popular rock band he created in his youth, but abandoned before the group found fame. After a toxic chemical spill sends his community into chaos, Hollis struggles to survive, witnesses a murder and finds his desire to compose music rekindled. While writing The Poison Flood, I became aware of how music haunts certain passages, the ghosts of absent crooners and reverberating guitar chords as impactful on the characters’ lives as the Appalachian landscape they inhabit. It’s a novel about an environmental disaster, but also about the way art often saves us. The following is a list of music that thematically connects to the novel.
“Painkillers” by Brian Fallon
The influences from classic rock legends like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty blend with Fallon’s punk roots to create a song that captures the narrator’s history of mixing musical styles as well as touching on Hollis’ personal loneliness. Fallon’s lyrics manage to be both poignant and irresistibly catchy. Who among us hasn’t used love to stave off a secret pain? The pop rock singalongs sugarcoat vulnerable, raw emotion. It’s something likely found in constant rotation on Hollis’ turntable.
“Ain’t No Love in the Heart of The City" by Bobby Bland
A few hearts are broken in the novel, so at least one tearjerker seems appropriate. With this track, Bobby Bland performs the greatest break-up song of all time. Despite the cool groove, Bland is obviously filled with the pain of some distant, disastrous romance that the swelling, weeping horns can’t drown out. If it doesn’t move you, you’re just cold.
“Winds Change” by Orville Peck
The masked cowboy delivers a lamentation on the past and how unbridled ambition can sever our deepest bonds. The track has an obvious Sun Studios influence with Peck’s vocals sharing a Roy Orbison or Elvis flourish. It sounds like something precious lost from another era, discovered in the stacks of a used record shop, yet manages to be completely fresh. Peck’s penchant for wearing costumes on stage also fits perfectly with The Excitable Boys, a horror influenced rock group that plays a role in the novel. Who doesn’t love the theatricality of a good gimmick?
“The Comeback Kid” by The Midnight
The Midnight’s version of electronic music feels like the natural progression from groups like The Killers who’ve been influenced by Duran Duran and The Cars. Lyrically, the song is about an underdog rising to the occasion, a theme found in the creative struggles experienced by Hollis and others trying to make art. I imagine it playing along scenes of Hollis writing with his battered acoustic guitar, crumpling up handwritten notes and tossing them in the floor during the sort of 80’s movie montage we hope will end in success.
“I Walked all Night” by The Cramps
Not only do The Excitable Boys cover this song during a scene in the novel, but The Cramps fusion of punk and rockabilly reflect the way the book blends influences from multiple literary styles. There’s a fearless nature to the track, something both unmistakably devoted to a musical tradition while concerned with establishing its own signature sound.
“On the Lips” by JD McPherson
There’s something incredibly cool about McPherson’s sound. Drums lead listeners into a sonic lick that allows the notes to ring out before the vocals begin. McPherson knows a solid refrain when he’s found it, the chorus nothing but the repeated “It hit me… on the lips” that’s as impactful for the listener as the kiss must have been for McPherson. The song personifies moments of awkward, yet brave and hopeful young love experienced by Hollis.
“Carrying Your Love with Me” by George Strait
This era of country hits would’ve permeated much of Hollis’ youth with similar songs the background soundtrack to many early memories. I think this track best exemplifies the years of transition from his childhood toward adolescence.
“Out in the Streets” by Blondie
Debbie Harry never recorded better vocals than during this Shangri-Las’ cover that mirrors the cool demeanor of Rosita Martinez, the photojournalist who begins documenting the Coopersville chemical spill after traveling to West Virginia in hopes of interviewing The Excitable Boys. Rosita is motivated, talented and interested in artistical innovation. Similar to how Blondie utilizes a staple to create something unique, Rosita engages in art initially misunderstood by some characters, but her pursuits carry an undeniable yearning to make something impactful.
“Young Love Lost in a Flood” by John Moreland & The Dust Bowl Souls
Moreland is one of today’s most versatile songwriters. Whether playing solo or accompanied by a band, it’s the sort of music that feels born from both timeless radio staples by Bob Seger and punk rock basements shows. The first time I heard this track, I could imagine the road weary band performing in the sort of small-town clubs I frequented in my youth. I’ve been to hundreds of those kinds of shows, and a talent like Moreland is what you’re always secretly hoping to find when you pay the cover charge. It’s the same kind of musical power wielded by Hollis & The Troubadours in their early days.
“Hold on” by Tom Waits
A coda for the book by one of the greatest recording artists we have. A song with so many themes it’s a novel sung in Waits’ signature rasp. Waits has been a huge influence of mine, and he would’ve had the same impact on Hollis.
Jordan Farmer was born and raised in a small West Virginia town, population approximately two thousand. He earned his MA from Marshall University and his Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
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