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December 11, 2020
Kasey Thornton's Playlist for Her Story Collection "Lord The One You Love is Sick"
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.
Kasey Thornton's novel-in-stories Lord The One You Love is Sick empathetically navigates the currents of life in a small southern town.
Publishers Weekly wrote of the collection:
"These stories collectively coalesce into a resonant, emotionally searing nexus of hard truths, buried secrets, and emotional pain that readers won't soon forget. Thornton's accomplished stories are full of insights on their rural American setting and inhabitants' psychology."
In her words, here is Kasey Thornton's Book Notes music playlist for her memoir Lord The One You Love is Sick:
In thinking about this list, I had an instinct to include the songs I listened to as I wrote the book, but the thing is, I actually don’t listen to music when I write. It’s a quirk that differs from my partner, Kevin Kauffmann, who wrote his thirteen novels with his headphones blasting. I suppose I have trouble concentrating on multiple things at once. I also worry about his hearing.
But I know music. Oh, do I know music. I grew up in the South, and through various members of my family I was privy to '90s country, '70s and '80s rock, and Deep South blues before I could walk. My mother is the organist and music director at our church, so I definitely knew my way around a hymnal, and I learned several instruments myself. Not only that, but I grew up in the era of Limewire (shh). We exchanged mixed CDs at school, which exposed me to a lot of eerie it-grows-on-you genres that have evolved throughout the years—some for the better, some for worse.
I suppose I could’ve included those strange, esoteric genres and songs here, but as I thought about it, I realized that a trip back to my roots was necessary—which is funny, considering the message of the book. These stories deserved simple songs that tell the story of poignant emotions, and I hope that’s what I’ve presented here.
Simple Man (Acoustic) by Shinedown
Where I come from, it's practically sacrilege to say that there is a better version of "Simple Man" than Lynyrd Skynyrd's original (and I expect blowback for it), but the mournful groaning and hoarse wailing of Shinedown's version very much fits the dark, confusing, at times antagonistic mood of the first story in my novel. "Simple Man" is a very common song to play at Southern funerals, and this version—I believe—captures a darker aspect of grief than the original, really capturing the face that Gentry's death is the catalyst for so much of the suffering in the book.
Old-Fashioned Morphine by Rising Appalachia
Poor Nettie. Obviously no mother should have to bury their son from a heroin addiction, so it's no surprise that she falls into addiction herself. The "hiss, crack, pop" of beers being opened was the soundtrack of her life for years after she buried her boy. We all know what that old-fashioned morphine is, and perhaps we've all partaken of it for pain-relief at some point.
Daddy Come and Get Me by Dolly Parton
According to Nettie Coats—an avid Dolly fan, as we all should be—this is the saddest song on earth. She does not go into detail, nor does she let it be played in her presence, lest she lose her precious composure and cry. Take a listen, and make up your own mind about it.
You Don't Miss Your Water by Rising Appalachia
Gosh, as if this song could get any more mournful from the original. The sisters of Rising Appalachia have a way of capturing simple, straightforward despair with nothing but a couple of guitars. "I sit here and wonder how this could be. I never thought you would ever leave me." Earl and Nettie had a good marriage until they lost their boy, and then everything has no choice but to change. Some people cope by digging their heels in, and some cope by running. In his own grief, Earl left Nettie on her own, with their one living son and her dead one down the road in the cemetery.
All for Believing by Missy Higgins
When the relationships we're in turn destructive and abusive, it's so difficult (perhaps impossible) to pretend that things are fine, even though the instinct is to do just that in the hope that the problem will just go away with time. The strain of doing that for weeks and months on end—and watching the man she loves descend into untreated mental illness—tears Charlie apart. All she wants to do is help, desperately so. "I need to know just how you feel to comfort you. I need to find the key to let me into your heart, to find your soul."
What I've Done by Linkin Park
Many people with severe mental illness have to deal with the guilt associated with hurting their loved ones in various ways. Dale is no different. As his psychosis wanes and fades in the psychiatric ward, he is faced with the horror of what he's done to his wife and his marriage, and the blistering confusion about what to do to rectify the situation. "Put to rest what you thought of me, while I clean this slate with the hands of uncertainty. So let mercy come and wash away what I've done."
Wildflowers by Tom Petty
For those who have read "Out of Our Suffering," a story about two young girls in a brutal home, you likely understand why this song is appropriate. May every abused child have someone to tell them that they belong among the wildflowers, somewhere they feel free.
Hunger and Thirst by the Wailin' Jennys
The world turns around Bethany, only vaguely aware of the terrors in its dark corners. For the most part, the old patriarchs sitting at the diner—as they do every morning—are convinced that these issues are no different than the issues the town has always faced, and that the Lord will solve it all. "I will cry unto God, I never will cease, 'Til my soul's filled with love, perfect love and sweet peace." Apparently, it's just that simple... right?
Deeper Well by Emmylou Harris
The aggressive, almost rebellious pulse of this song begs for its listener to at least notice whatever chains are holding them back, if not shake them off entirely. After being abused by her mentally ill husband, Charlie has decided to take his cruel treatment as an invitation to explore other avenues and possibilities in her life, taking another lover and moving to the city. Whether it's was right or wrong thing to do doesn't matter one lick to her. "Well, I did it for kicks and I did it for faith, I did it for lust and I did it for hate, I did it for need and I did it for love, addiction stayed on tight like a glove."
A Home by The Chicks
Dale, on the other hand, his mental illness now treated and managed, is now living in his house alone, a house that used to be a home he used to share with his beloved wife. The loneliness is tangible in the air. He simply wants closure—reconciliation or divorce—though his preference would be the former. "Four walls, a roof, and some windows, just a place to run when my working day is through. They say home is where the heart is if the exception proves the rule i guess that's true."
Seven Devils by Florence & the Machine
This song actually inspired one of the first stories in this book that was written, many years ago and while it's gone through several iteration since then, one image has remained: an abandoned son flinging his father's abandoned alcohol around his abandoned business before holding a lighter victoriously over his head in a shaking hand. "Holy water cannot help you now. A thousand armies couldn't keep me out. I don't want your money. I don't want your crown. I've come to burn your kingdom down."
Name by the Goo Goo Dolls
By some twist of fate, the two people who ran from Bethany found each other. It would be well within Ethan's rights to call CPS on Abigail, who is too young to be on her own, to make sure she gets to a decent place. But he understands her better than that, and allows her to stay. "And now we're grown up orphans that never knew their names. We don't belong to no one, that's a shame. If you could hide beside me maybe for a while, and I won't tell no one your name and I won't tell 'em your name.
Nothing But The Water by Grace Potter
"I have seen what man can do when the evil lives inside of you." I don't think there's a more appropriate song for Abigail, a young abused girl who escaped Bethany to become homeless in lieu of staying in a barbaric home. She has no love for the town's dependence on the Word of God when it has done so little for her. Abigail is a quiet girl, but with every movement and word, you can hear her soul screaming. "I've tried my hand at the Bible. I've tried my hand at prayer. But, now, nothing but the water is gonna bring my soul to bear."
No Place Like Home by Todrick Hall
"Sometimes Home is where your deepest scar is." This dark, broody intro to a wonderful album by young artist Todrick Hall is my constant companion while writing. Parts of it makes me think of Ethan and Abigail, stuck in their rut, pacing in their minds about what their next steps should be. And Ethan finally says, "We need to go home." As a gay man and abused young woman, he knows their town needs to see them, needs to be faced with the reality that they exist.
Rise Up Lazarus by Patty Loveless
The theme of Lazarus is desperately important to the novel itself, which explores the many facets of death as it manifests itself in complicated issues—the death of people, yes, but the death of love, the death of trust, the death of courage. And while the book is not Christian fiction, Bethany is a very Christian town, and they need to come to terms with the fact that healing doesn't happen when God snaps His fingers, but when a community pulls together and surrounds death with life. "Did I not tell you that, if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"
Kasey Thornton attended both the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and North Carolina State University for her MFA in Fiction. Her creative work has been featured in the Masters Review, TJ Eckleberg Review, tinyjournal, Colonnades Literary & Art Journal, and Apeiron Review. She lives with fellow author Kevin Kauffmann in Durham, North Carolina, where her family has resided for over two hundred years.
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