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May 4, 2021
J. Nicole Jones's Playlist for Her Memoir "Low Country"
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.
J. Nicole Jones's memoir Low Country is as affecting as it is surprising, a stunning book.
Bustle wrote of the book:
"J. Nicole Jones' devastating memoir examines the realities of living in a picture-perfect, privileged family where nothing is as it seems to the public eye."
In her words, here is J. Nicole Jones's Book Notes music playlist for her memoir Low Country:
There’s a famous Kurt Vonnegut line about writers wishing they could be musicians instead. It’s a claim I would never argue with. Music—and the craft of songwriting—were integral parts of a childhood with a father who taught himself how to write country music. When I began to write my memoir Low Country, I had to figure out how to weave in the music that was always around our house. Playing music felt like trying to understand a language that I just couldn’t crack, but I loved the rhyming dictionaries and books by songwriters that lingered in messy stacks on the coffee table—the perfect height for a nosy kid. Below are a few songs that were in the background of the events of Low Country.
John Prine, “Sam Stone”
My dad recalls singing this song as a busker on Broadway in downtown Nashville when he was just starting out as a musician, and I remember him singing it around the house. The line “There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where the money goes” might be the first memory I have of really getting figurative language, and thinking it was powerful.
Guy Clark, “Anyhow I Love You”
Lines from Clark’s songs are quoted around my parents’ house constantly, like proverbs. “The only thing money can’t buy is true love and homegrown tomatoes,” is a summertime refrain, which is not from this song. I love this one for the harmonies, Emmylou Harris and Waylon Jennings, very recognizably.
Loretta Lynn, “One’s on the Way”
She’s got so many good ones. This one is so witty and sly, but somehow from the perspective of an overburdened wife and mother. It’s written by Shel Silverstein, the children’s book author, which is one of those facts that I love.
Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty, “You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly”
A classic. Their duets were on a lot in our house growing up, which I mention in the book. It was a toss-up as to whether I should include “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” or this one. Their bickering at the end is fun.
Hank Williams Jr., “Red, White & Pink Slip Blues”
I don’t know that I can say he’s anybody’s favorite, but this song took off on the radio for a while, and it’s the song my dad wrote that I allude to at the very beginning of my book. I recognize the pick-up truck and the desperate feeling from childhood, of the bills not being paid and struggling to make ends meet.
Brandy Clarke, “Hold My Hand”
Clarke is probably my dad’s favorite writing partner. He really loves her, and they wrote this one together. (Possibly throwing the baseball back and forth out in the yard, he likes to tell.) It’s the song that was nominated for a Grammy for “Best Country Song,” and she sings it beautifully. It’s very much the opposite of “Red, White & Pink-Slip Blues,” which I think my dad is proud of.
The Commodores, “Easy”
I can remember my dad trying to figure out this one on the piano and singing it coming home from morning shifts waiting tables. The year he got to go to the Grammys, there was a tribute to Lionel Richie and we got to see him onstage. That was pretty special.
Glen Campbell, “Wichita Lineman”
In my book, I write about the presence all over my childhood home of my dad’s rhyming dictionaries and thesauruses and legal pads with song lyrics. Jimmy Webb famously wrote this one, and he wrote a book about songwriting called Tunesmith that still floats from countertops to bookshelves in my parents’ house.
Taylor Swift, “I Think He Knows”
I have listened to a lot of Taylor Swift over the last year, especially during lockdown. Sixteenth Avenue is Music Row in Nashville, which features in the book. It used to be all these cool old homes turned into publishing houses where artists would drop off demos and meet to write.
Dolly Parton, “Two Doors Down”
I love this song so much, she is really a huge, beloved part of my childhood—as I’m sure her music and her persona are for so many. This one’s definitely a bop.
J. Nicole Jones received her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Columbia University, and has since held editorial positions at VICE magazine and Vanity Fair. Her viral essay defending the art of memoir, "Why's Everyone So Down on the Memoir?" was published by the Los Angeles Review of Books and Salon, and her reviews and other writings have appeared in magazines including Harper's. She grew up in South Carolina, and now lives in Brooklyn and Tennessee.
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