april-2012

culture || The Month Ahead
The Doctor Is In
A Big Easy legend gets a new sound
Back in 2010, a summit of sorts took place in New Orleans. It was
between two men from diff erent generations—one the most celebrated
living Big Easy musician, the other a fast-rising star out of
Nashville (by way of Akron, Ohio). The younger man came bearing a
bold promise. If he were allowed to produce the legend’s next release, it
would be, he said, “the best record you’ve made in a long time.”
Those men were Mac Rebennack, a.k.a. Dr. John, and Dan Auerbach,
singer and guitarist of gut-bucket rock duo The Black Keys. The product
of their cross-generational partnership, Locked Down, comes out
April 3. It’s a fully assured, hard-rocking, big-sounding swamp beast
slicked with an appropriate sheen of NOLA grease. And as promised,
it’s as good as anything the Doctor has done in years. “For my money,
Mac’s one of the greatest who ever was and ever will be,” Auerbach
says. “I’m so honored to have had this opportunity.” Dr. John is more
succinct: “It was way cool,” he says. “It was real hip.”
A Man of His Words
Don’t be gulled by the title:
The Story of English in
100 Words may sound like
a shameless Cliff s Notes–style
gloss, but British scholar David
Crystal has plenty to say here. Playing
off the radio series “A History of the
World in 100 Objects,” his book limns
the quirky history of English through
100 coinages. A few author favorites:
42 APRIL 2012 • HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
Fopdoodle: “At my book
talks, everyone seems to fall
in love with this 18th-century
term for an upper-class twit
(‘fop’ for dandy, ‘doodle’ for
dunce). It went out of use
long ago—but I suspect
many feel there are enough
fopdoodles around today to
justify bringing it back.”
Gaggle: “One of the great
things about English is our
propensity to mess about
with it. We’ve been coining
collective nouns (as with a
‘gaggle,’ or group, of geese)
since the 15th century and
still play with them today. A
‘rash of dermatologists’ is a
good one I’ve seen!”
Track Stars
Three other worthy
releases to look out
for this month
jack white
Since he dissolved The
White Stripes (another lacerating
indie rock duo), White
has moved from Detroit
to Nashville; founded his
own record label; nurtured
a number of side projects,
including The Dead Weather;
and cut his fi rst solo album,
Blunderbuss, out April 24.
m. ward
The smokyvoiced
singer
and guitarist
has put out
a string of
well-regarded
albums over the years,
but it was She & Him, his
collaboration with actress
Zooey Deschanel, that won
him a mass audience. Said
audience will be relieved to
know that his new record,
A Wasteland Companion, out
April 10, features Deschanel
on two tracks.
alabama shakes
There may be no better set
of lungs in rock than those of
Brittany Howard, lead singer
of Southern-fried soul outfi t
Alabama Shakes. She’s been
likened to Janis Joplin and
Otis Redding, and her band’s
Boys and Girls, out April 10,
is one of 2012’s most hotly
anticipated records.
Doobry: “I love words that
absolutely everyone uses but
usually are overlooked by
dictionaries and aren’t posh
or exotic enough for word
books. ‘Doobry,’ like ‘whatsit’
or ‘whatchamacallit,’ is one
of those great nonsense
words you say when you
have to say something.”
LISA HOULGRAVE (DR. JOHN); AUTUMN DE WILDE (M. WARD); GERAINT LEWIS/ALAMY (CRYSTAL)