Thank you, Michelle. Good to see fellow fans of her music here.I just looked at your Stack again and read your vivid piece about waiting for the next tornado, which seems fitting.
Music is the best time&space travel machine !! In one wink of an eye, you're transported! I really loved your post and your daughter's poem is gorgeous
We love Let England Shake and frankly don't play it enough. I actually found that it set me on edge - I think it was meant to - so for a while would actually get nervous about playing it (we have it on vinyl)!
My 8-y-o- niece and I sang Taylor Swift all the way to Leicester last week, and Katy Perry all the way back. When she didn't know the words she sang anyway. One day, she and her brother might, or they might not, also appreciate our lifelong predilection for very dark rolling drum'n'bass, Aphex Twin or, like you, some Polly.
We'll see. They sing and they love music, and I'm so relieved.
Thanks, Sarah! Yes, the Let England Shake album is full of dissonance, and yes, I think you’re right, it’s meant to unsettle. It’s become one of my favourites.
Great that your niece and nephew are into music. That’s the main thing. Though Milo’s indifferent to Peej, he has excellent broad musical tastes. I love his playlists.
PJ Harvey's not really my style, but listening to it for the first time, I'm not surprised it left a mark, though funny that it wasn't so with your son!
Thank you - I haven’t played her albums as regularly while my son was growing up - different phase of life. So it makes sense she hasn’t registered with him in the same way.
What are your favourite artists? I know you previously mentioned wanting to join a choir - hope you can find one you like.
I can appreciate most musical genres and eras, though rap, grunge and heavy metal are not my preferred choices. Favourite artist at the moment is probably Sara Bareilles, but it is a long list!
She is an amazing singer and lyricist, and she has picked up her anxieties and used them (or in spite of them?) explored other talents. She wrote the music for the musical version of "Waitress" and then went on to act in it & has now made tv shows, too. I'd love to see her in concert.
Thank you, Prajna. Yes, I've always been able to trust Milo to come up with a frank and succinct opinion! He's very funny.
PJ Harvey's first album was released in 1992 and her voice lends itself to everything from rock to pure choral. She's really experimented over the years, which I admire. Never stays still.
I hope you have a wonderful time here in England. Where will you be based? Or are you travelling around?
I'm off to France for a week. Looking forward to songs and camaraderie.
I will look up PJ Harvey. Milo sounds like a wise soul, perhaps this is why he can be funny.
I don’t have great Internet right now so I can’t even play the video.
I want to I will
I am in Totnes to facilitate a healing retreat. It will be very nourishing on all levels, of course I get to be a participant as well.
And I’m going to the rose festival to lead a workshop.
It’s titled “the emerging feminine consciousness”
In simple terms: the feeling function, allowing ourselves to be fully human, regardless, and finding what it is that supports us to be authentic, in a nutshell.
Great writing Wendy and yes a big PJ Harvey fan and saw her in Manchester in 2009. I also once served her a jacket potato around 1996. A story for another day. Enjoy the choir. X
For good or ill, the children are always listening.
What an amazing and evocative poem by your daughter, Wendy!
Thank you Emma – I was so moved by the poem and its recognition of place, of music, and of our mother/daughter relationship.
I listened in to so much adult conversation as a child. Too much, sometimes! For good or ill, as you say.
Yes the poem is rich!
It really is, isn’t it?
I found the poem incredibly moving. I can hardly imagine the strength of your feelings as a mother reading it. What an immeasurable treasure!
🥹
I just went to see PJ in Seattle this fall with my eldest son. It was so special to connect either him on this music and performance!
Glad you and your son got to see her in concert, Hollyce. Thank you for reading and commenting.
Polly Jean (music, art) always intertwined with our own biography. Back and forth. Love your substack. :)
Thanks so much, Yolanda! Good to ‘meet’ you here!
Pleased to meet you! :)
Yes yes yes!!!!
Oh that’s DR P.J. To many who love her so much we would say anything to see her live.
Beautiful recollection; simpatico !
Thank you, Michelle. Good to see fellow fans of her music here.I just looked at your Stack again and read your vivid piece about waiting for the next tornado, which seems fitting.
Music is the best time&space travel machine !! In one wink of an eye, you're transported! I really loved your post and your daughter's poem is gorgeous
Thank you! So kind of you - and to share.
What a lovely piece of writing.
Thanks, Mike & Jackie.
We love Let England Shake and frankly don't play it enough. I actually found that it set me on edge - I think it was meant to - so for a while would actually get nervous about playing it (we have it on vinyl)!
My 8-y-o- niece and I sang Taylor Swift all the way to Leicester last week, and Katy Perry all the way back. When she didn't know the words she sang anyway. One day, she and her brother might, or they might not, also appreciate our lifelong predilection for very dark rolling drum'n'bass, Aphex Twin or, like you, some Polly.
We'll see. They sing and they love music, and I'm so relieved.
Becky's poem is darkly thrilling, too. x
Thanks, Sarah! Yes, the Let England Shake album is full of dissonance, and yes, I think you’re right, it’s meant to unsettle. It’s become one of my favourites.
Great that your niece and nephew are into music. That’s the main thing. Though Milo’s indifferent to Peej, he has excellent broad musical tastes. I love his playlists.
I went down a rabbit hole after reading this, Wendy, to your daughter, her writing… and onwards.
How important it is to remain ourselves and find time and place to let loose with them, and without them.
Happy singing! 🎵
Oh that’s wonderful to know, Kate. Becky’s a wonderful writer (and very astute daughter).
And beautifully put, how important it is to remain ourselves.
PJ Harvey's not really my style, but listening to it for the first time, I'm not surprised it left a mark, though funny that it wasn't so with your son!
Thank you - I haven’t played her albums as regularly while my son was growing up - different phase of life. So it makes sense she hasn’t registered with him in the same way.
What are your favourite artists? I know you previously mentioned wanting to join a choir - hope you can find one you like.
I can appreciate most musical genres and eras, though rap, grunge and heavy metal are not my preferred choices. Favourite artist at the moment is probably Sara Bareilles, but it is a long list!
I will look up Sara Bareilles’ music when I get home. Thanks for the tip!
She is an amazing singer and lyricist, and she has picked up her anxieties and used them (or in spite of them?) explored other talents. She wrote the music for the musical version of "Waitress" and then went on to act in it & has now made tv shows, too. I'd love to see her in concert.
What a poem!
Yes! Thank you Jolene. I hope my daughter Becky – @strangecomforts – happens along to see these comments! (After the PJ Harvey gig has finished!)
I love this piece Wendy, the poems, PJHarvey, how your daughter understood there was a wild part of you that wasn’t hers.
That line will stay with me. Hope your choir trip is fun and wild.
Thank you, Lisa. Yes, it gets me every time.
I'm sure we'll have great/wild fun on the choir trip. A chance to get to know the other sections better!
This is all so lovely - the author’s reflections, the daughter’s poem. The photograph! Thank you for posting.
Thank you, Francesca. Really good of you to comment.
Hi Wendy, this is great. “That woman is proper crazy” 😉
A hoot of a family with fond memories.
Thx for the intro to PJ Harvey
Yes, I think children are always listening, and it might be one of their finer senses. You know the expression, “big ears“
All of my children have big ears.
Enjoy singing!
I’m in England now and will get to nourish my soul with song.
Thank you, Prajna. Yes, I've always been able to trust Milo to come up with a frank and succinct opinion! He's very funny.
PJ Harvey's first album was released in 1992 and her voice lends itself to everything from rock to pure choral. She's really experimented over the years, which I admire. Never stays still.
I hope you have a wonderful time here in England. Where will you be based? Or are you travelling around?
I'm off to France for a week. Looking forward to songs and camaraderie.
I will look up PJ Harvey. Milo sounds like a wise soul, perhaps this is why he can be funny.
I don’t have great Internet right now so I can’t even play the video.
I want to I will
I am in Totnes to facilitate a healing retreat. It will be very nourishing on all levels, of course I get to be a participant as well.
And I’m going to the rose festival to lead a workshop.
It’s titled “the emerging feminine consciousness”
In simple terms: the feeling function, allowing ourselves to be fully human, regardless, and finding what it is that supports us to be authentic, in a nutshell.
Sounds fascinating, Prajna. And Totnes is a very creative place.
Great writing Wendy and yes a big PJ Harvey fan and saw her in Manchester in 2009. I also once served her a jacket potato around 1996. A story for another day. Enjoy the choir. X
Yes, the film Let England Shake, is pretty cool. Nice one👍💯
I was just rewatching those two videos as I put the post together, Nancy. Took me right back! Let England Shake was such an inventive album.