Annie Proulx. Photo by Gus Powell.
A friend who knows I have a deep love for both the books of Pulitzer Prize winning author Annie Proulx and the music of The Gourds sent me a link to the NYTimes review of Proulx’s newly released memoir “Bird Cloud.”
In the review, Dwight Garner writes:
I like her abiding fondness — I share it — for an under-sung band out of Austin, Tex., called the Gourds. Ms. Proulx nails the lead singer Kevin Russell’s voice — it’s an original American instrument, in the moonshine-soaked vein of Levon Helms’s — as “like a graft of a carny hustler onto a Missouri River flatboat man, roaring about putting down his brown cow.” (Here’s one thing to do today: download the Gourds’ songs “Last Letter” and “Dying of the Pines.”)
Put me in a room with Brad Pitt, Bill Clinton, Martin Scorcese and Annie Proulx and I would make a beeline for Ms. Proulx. That’s how much I love her searing, brutal prose.
And so it was satisfying to find out that she too has an appreciation for The Gourds, who make music for the “unwashed and well-read.”
I have the fun good fortune of sometimes spotting members of The Gourds around town (In January, 2005, I saw Jimmy at the Quik Mart buying a six-pack. “How are you?” the cashier asked. “Just got back from the inaug-aug-augeration,” Jimmy slurred. The cashier rolled his eyes at the mumblings of a drunkard. I stifled a giggle, knowing The Gourds had indeed just played George W. Bush’s $40 million inaugural bash.)
But Annie Proulx, who lives in the far removes of Wyoming, can only be conjured in my imagination. However, after reading that NYTimes Review which revealed our shared musical taste, I was inspired to send Ms. Proulx’s literary agent an email asking if she would be willing to forward Ms. Proulx a missive from me, an aspiring writer and fan.
Her agent said she would indeed. And so a couple days ago I penned Annie Proulx a little letter. While I await a reply, I think I’ll put on a Gourds record and start reading “Bird Cloud.”
photo from The Gourds website.
thanks for the funny jimmy story. btw, this is not Annie Proulx's 1st mention of The Gourds…if you start listening at the 12:06 mark of this interview, you'll hear how a character in her 2008 book was inspired by and created around one of The Gourds' voices:
http://feeds.kcrw….com/~r/kcrw/bw/~5/396645145/…
p.s. follow the gourds at http://thegourdsnews.blogspot.com/
This is lovely. I too, love both Annie & The Gourds. How on earth did she ever hear them? I thought they were just MY favorite little band. This makes so much damn sense, though.
Que viva Austin!