Top 102 Albums, No Minus 18 - No Such Place

Top 102 Albums, No. Minus 18 - No Such Place

No Such Place - Jim White

In the early 21st Century this was the album that dominated my listening more than anything else and while it has never left my playlist I haven't listened with quite such intensity until these last few days as I prepare to see Mr White play live for the first time.

I have previously written about White as a filmmaker - his documentary, Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus is a trawl through the south of Harry Crews, Flannery O'Connor, Raptures, Snakes and Mr White.

I've been searching for the right word to describe him and I keep coming back to fatalist. There is a richly humorous and life affirming fatalism that permeates these songs. Life may be bad, you may be at an all time low, but hell, it could always be worse, as in the opening song, Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi:

YOU GOT TO GET IT IN THE BLOOD.

Original post - Thursday, March 04, 2010

Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus

I finally got around to watching this film, which has been on my list of films to watch for a few years now. As an admirer of Jim Whites delicate take on Southern Gothic and fascinated with the south of Flannery O’Connor and Harry Crews this road movie through the marginalized heart of the south looked like something I would surely enjoy.  ....

It is an impressionistic journey, where roadside minstrels and storytellers pop up to sing songs or tell stories of death and redemption and other affairs of the spirit. Jim White is our Virgil in this journey, and though the journey finds hellfire it also finds the vigour and resilience of the south.....