Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder) (Wilson)

The Living in Americah project is a commentary on what consumers of the mainstream and social media have been subjected to in the years 2015-2020. It is intended to be over-the-top, provocative, satirical, sometimes ironic, and to provide an irreverent, and maybe even refreshing take on the state we’re in.
And speaking of the state we’re in, you can’t do that without including the project’s muse, Donald J. Trump. Just about everything that has happened in the media in the last five years has either been caused or co-opted by Trump. He is at the heart of the LIA project, and you will hear his own words in his own voice often over the course of the series. He also has a musical imprint in the form of a 12-tone row (from the 12 letters in D-o-n-a-l-d-J-T-r-u-m-p) that makes its appearance in each of the first eight episodes, but purposely absent from the final episode. Thus, his musical DNA is heard throughout the project, and hopefully, listeners will have fun finding occurrences of the “Trump Row.” (Hint on Ep. 1: the swirling sounds at the beginning and the walking bass line at the end.)
Of course, the LIA project could not have happened without its incredibly talented co-conspirators. The fun part of this project was our modus operandi (forced on us by COVID19, of course): I would send a score, instructions, and stem files to each person, and they would record their parts at home - with the freedom to interpret them as they saw fit. In some cases, I did some minimal editing, but only to tighten things up a bit. The results were always better than I could have imagined. So to Greg, Hans, Will, Scott, Matt, Steven, Jonah, and Jackie - thank you! I owe you one!

1. June 15, 2016 - featuring Greg Simon

Tom Larson

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