Writer, singer, composer and poet Rick Moody first gained widespread acclaim with his 1994 novel, The Ice Storm, a portrait of dysfunctional suburban life that plays out over the course of a long Thanksgiving weekend. In 1999, The New Yorker named Moody one of America’s most talented new writers, with a voice that constantly pushes the stylistic boundaries of modern literature. He has published five novels, three collections of short fiction and two nonfiction works. He also performs with the Wingdale Community Singers, an acoustic band that blends the sounds of old-time folk, gospel and bluegrass, with hints of rock and baroque chamber music to augment their arch, literary lyrics. Their most recent album is Night, Sleep, Death, released only on LP by Drag City. Moody will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Moody: Well, they just released all those Self-Portrait tracks in August, without the strings and choirs, and I have heard some of them, and I’m sure this release will be an improvement on the original, and the same goes for the Christmas songs from 2009, when that bootleg comes out. But Blood On The Tracks is album so holy and perfect that I don’t let myself play it too often now, lest it should be robbed of its perfection by excess familiarity. Nevertheless, I was on a panel recently talking about music that had influenced me, and I played this to the assembled, and it hung around in my consciousness, hours later, still challenging me to do better in candor, simplicity and expressiveness.
Video after the jump.
