I’ve always known that I would make an episode of Strong Songs about my dad. For years that was mostly an abstraction, similar to the eulogies we all know we’ll one day have to give, or the funerals we’ll have to plan. Then “one day” became “today,” and it was time to actually do it.

The episode, titled “A Song For My Father,” is now out in the world. I’m very glad to have made it. It’s about The Apocalypse, the Baltimore band my dad played in back in the 60s, but it’s also just about him, and the ways he taught me to love music. I think I’ve gotten pretty good at making episodes of Strong Songs, and it felt good to use those skills to pay tribute to him. It’s the best way I know how.

My therapist observed that in making the episode, I was doing what I could to temporarily bring him back to life. That this is part of what it is to memorialize someone. I assembled what remnants I could find—memories and voicemails, recordings of his band, stories from his friends—and used them to perform a sort of summoning spell. I like that idea a lot. Each time someone listens to it, some part of him lives again.

I particularly enjoyed learning more about the Baltimore/D.C. music scene of the 1960s; the bands, the sounds, the radio shows. It’s striking how little distance there was between the band members I spoke with—John Shorb and Tony Capuano, as well as my dad—and other guys from the region who went on to have careers playing music. Greg Novik, The Apocalypse’s bassist and bandleader, could have crossed that distance easily; that he chose instead to become a bagel impresario strikes me as more a matter of personal preference than of musical ability.

Novik’s subsequent band, the aptly named New Apocalypse, really is worth checking out. I feel fortunate to own a copy of their 1969 LP Stainless Soul, and grateful to Demir Kelebek for uploading a transfer to YouTube. Those guys could play.

I ended the episode with an abridged version of the eulogy I gave at my dad’s memorial, almost exactly one year ago. It’s about how music reflects and reverberates, and how each life creates a cascade that reflects into the future. When I say that’s more than a metaphor, I mean it; it’s an observable and demonstrable phenomenon. I find that comforting, like I can pass the meaning of his life through my hands, touching some small part and knowing it was real.

Thanks to everyone who has listened to the episode, or written in about it, or shared stories of your own parents. It has been deeply meaningful to watch it reflect off of each of you, creating new ripples in the process. His cascade continues.

Billy Joel, Thirty-Three Hit Wonder - I haven’t seen HBO’s new Billy Joel documentary, but reading about it brought me back to Nick Paumgarten’s terrific 2014 New Yorker article about the man.

The Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie - Also from 2014, check out John Jeremiah Sullivan’s deep dive into the story of the blues singers known as Elvie Thomas and Geeshie Wiley, and the ultra-rare and influential recordings they made.

“Let’s Talk About The Irish Music In Sinners” - I linked to this in my last newsletter, but it deserves its own separate mention here. Reactor Mag’s Leah Schnelbach broke out her substantial knowledge of Irish folk music to explain and contextualize the Irish traditional music performed by the oh-so-hungry vampires in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. Follow up reading: Coogler’s thoughts on same, and a nice interview with the great Buddy Guy about his cameo in the film.

A Love Letter to Music Listings - In The Atlantic, Oregon’s own Gabriel Kahane waxes nostalgic about a better way to learn about local music.

The Conspicuous Emptiness of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - IGN’s Max Evry shares an insightful take about the MCU’s shift away from depicting superhero support staff and toward a world where the heroes work alone.

ChatGPT’s Boethius meltdown - still one of the funniest things to come out of the age of generative AI. “Boethius never wrote a note of music. He’s just haunting this answer. I’m sorry.”

That’ll do it for now. As usual, you can find me on Instagram and Bluesky, though I genuinely hope you aren’t spending too much time on either of them.

I’ll leave you with this pic of Cooper, Emily’s folks’ new dog. He is seven months old and is already better behaved than Appa. He only weighs 35 pounds, which is a very good weight for a dog.

Take care, and keep listening-
~KH
8/18/2025