Culture
Suggested Listening 2024: Caitlin Kraus
By: WOUB Culture Team
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Caitlin Kraus (she/her) is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and Licensed Professional Music Therapist providing services to students at Ohio University in Athens, OH. She is also a musician and songwriter, performing her music both solo and with a band under her name. She has released two full-length albums: “Gone Beyond” (2023) & “What Rises” (2020). She is the proud companion of two very special dogs, Leonard and Tippie. While it is difficult for her to make only 10 recommendations and nearly all selections were released in years (often decades) prior, she is honored to share some of the music she has been listening to in 2024 in no particular order. She hopes you can enjoy these also.
Swiss female-fronted punk rock at it’s finest. Formed in 1978, Kleenex released a couple of albums in the early ’80s. Songs like Ain’t You, Beri-Beri, Nice, and Hitch-Hike are just a few from LiLiPUT (1982) that pack a powerful (and fun) punch that make me want to dance, sing, and play along.
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (2004) Instagram: @nickcaveofficial
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds have many newer albums I adore–such as this year’s Wild God—but my ears keeps calling upon Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (2004) with songs like There She Goes, My Beautiful World, Nature Boy, and Let the Bells Ring. The musical drive and lyrical content motivate me, especially at times when it feels as though our beautiful world is headed into darkness. These songs propel me toward change and give me hope… they “move something deep inside of me.”
Shira Small – Eternal Life (1974):
During time away from her East Harlem home, Shira Small recorded Eternal Life for a 1974 senior project, encouraged by her music teacher at a Pennsylvania Quaker boarding school… an unlikely, sweet, poignant album of ten songs that have made my little heart soar. Her voice, the piano, and the harmonies on songs like Lights Gleam Lonely and My Life’s All Right send my mind on sometimes much-needed vacations while simultaneously bringing me to the present. That’s magic!
La Perla – Bruja (2018 single) Bandcamp: Music | La Perla
I was lucky enough to see La Perla–an all-female percussionist group from Bogotá, Colombia–play at the Festival International de Louisiane 2024. There is nothing as empowering as seeing them live, but their genuine performance shines through on albums like Callejera (2022) and older songs like Bruja. They are a team, taking turns leading and layering vocals and trading instruments to deliver a distinctive mix of traditional sounds from Colombia and various Latin American cultures with modern styles, including beatboxing.
Blind Willie Johnson – The Complete Blind Willie Johnson (1993 compilation release):
Compilations of Blind Willie Johnson–such as The Complete Blind Willie Johnson (1993)–have been an important part of my year’s soundtrack. Songs like It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine and Everybody Ought to Treat a Stranger Right showcase his vocal range—higher, smoother tones that eventually flow into a low growl, which I love the very most. The guitar picking and sliding rings true through the crackle and hum of these original recordings (1927-1930), and only adds to the sense of preserving a very important piece of history.
Patti Smith – Radio Ethiopia (1976) & Hey Joe/P*** Factory (1974) Instagram: @thisispattismith
Patti Smith’s music, writing, and art is important to me in a nearly biblical sense. I never travel far from her, but in 2024 I’ve been finding special potency in songs like P***ing In a River from Radio Ethiopia (1976) and P*** Factory (1974)—a punk poem collaboration with Richard Sohl. While it was unintentional to choose songs with “p***” in the title, it is not lost on me that the vulgarity and explicitness of this word begets the raw energy that Smith brings to so much of her music. These songs electrify a pleading for transformation, the fight, and the frustration I have often felt this year.
Adam Remnant – Big Doors (2024) Bandcamp: Music | Adam Remnant
Athens, OH-based Adam Remnant’s Big Doors—an actual 2024 release!–strikes me as nothing short of epic. Each song is thoughtfully arranged and fills me with a kind of meta-nostalgia–the personal nostalgia of a voice that sends me back to my first years exploring music in Athens (circa 2006) combined with themes of reminiscence that his lyrics often evoke; these songs wake me from a dream of the past into consciousness to challenge what I’ve been taught and to seek the truth. Songs like Keys to the Kingdom and Coming Down drive me to tearful inspiration, and the overall journey that this record summons me on is one I’d like to travel repeatedly. If I am “an animal looking for heat,” as Remnant sings in Three Days, then this album is “a bright golden sunbeam / beaming right down on me.”
Volta Jazz – Air Volta (2022 compilation release)
Volta Jazz was an evolving group of musicians in the 1960s/70s from Upper Volta in West Africa. Described by label Numero Group as music combining “Congolese rhumba, American R&B, French yé-yé, Cuban son, and regional Senufo traditions,” the compilation album Air Volta has been an uplifting addition to what I’ve been listening to this year. Bi Kameleou and the title track are favorites, but the whole album is filled with sounds that move my body both internally and externally as though I’m in a parade—joyous, up-tempo, and free-flowing in a way that heightens my spirits while still helping me relax into myself.
Viv & Riley – Imaginary People (2023) Bandcamp: Music | Viv & Riley
Vivian Leva and Riley Calcagno are based in Durham, NC, and their release Imaginary People (2023) has delighted me with songs like the title track and Kygers Hill. While foundational folk tradition is audible, this record’s songs feature distorted guitar, synthesizer, and melodies that make unexpected twists and turns alongside the fiddle and banjo. The album takes me on a sunny country drive, though one that compels me to come face-to-face with the bittersweetness of memory and introspection (“who I was and who I am and who I want to be / are all imaginary people just out of my reach”)… and what it might mean to grow and move forward. (Also a big fan of the instrumental Chance Creek—that chord progression in the B part! F#m – D – F#m – B, I believe)
Bill Fay – Time of Last Persecution (1971)