Linda Smith
At the end of the 90s I was buying any cassette released by Shrimper, no matter if I knew the artist or not, I completely trusted Dennis Callaci’s taste for music, and I still do it. And it was for this reason that one day I found in my cassette player a copy of ”I So Liked Spring” by Linda Smith. It was a wonderful meeting. Linda sings, accompanied by a guitar and a keyboard, the poems by Charlotte Mew, an english poet whose work spans the eras of Victorian poetry and Modernism. I still keep that tape as a treasure and if I have to mention my ten favorite cassettes released by Shrimper I would definitely include ”I So Liked Spring” in the list.
Linda’s style, her voice, her way of singing and playing slowly fascinated me. ”Fine De Fete” and ”I So Liked Spring” crept into my head and never came out from there.
I searched for some information about her on the internet today, but Google is not very helpful. There is an interview that Linda gave to Don Campau, very interesting indeed. You can read it here.
Linda and I have been talking a lot these days. We were chatting about Isik Kural, his album ”As Flurries”, Clarice Lispector, all the literary references contained in the album and how we both like to read. At the end of the conversation an idea came to me, to propose a new type of book crossing, an exchange. A copy of Isik Kural’s As Flurries for a book. And It didn’t take weeks since the first book happened to be in my hands. I’m reading a copy of ” Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! ” And guess what the first chapter is called ” He fixes radio by thinking ”, a really funny story. Thanks Wio, I’m already enjoying the book.
There is a thing, in that interview, that immediately strike me, a coincidence that makes me smile.
Linda says: ”In general, I was influenced by 1960’s AM radio, especially as I grew up listening to it on a small transistor radio.”
And so I found myself again thinking about Linda, Isik, Wio, Richard Feynman and Almost Halloween Time Records.
Linda has released an entire album and a song called ”Emily’s House”. My daughter’s name is Emilia, my grandmother’s name is Emilia.
Linda’s last unreleased recordings are from 2001, since then Linda has devoted herself almost exclusively to painting.
If I have to think about 2020, considering everything that has fallen upon us, I cannot help but put on the other side of the scale ”Untitled 1-10 Plus 1”, the new album by Linda Smith which is going to be released by Almost Halloween Time Records in 2021, one of the best news of 2020 for me.
And it is with eager anticipation that I check my mail every day, waiting for news from the pressing plant.
Yes, because ”Untitled 1-10 plus 1” is going to be out sometime soon on vinyl.
And on it there are eleven new instrumental songs that will tell us again something about Linda.
