No essay today, just a bunch of smaller stuff I wanted to share with you all. First up: democracy!

Over on the Strong Songs Patreon, we’re in the midst of the bracket vote to pick an artist for the upcoming eighth season. The theme of Season Eight is “second helpings,” which means that each episode will return to an artist I covered in my first few seasons for a second episode on a different song. The winner of the bracket will be guaranteed an episode.

All Patreon supporters are eligible to vote and, let me tell you, the votes so far have been CLOSE. That shouldn’t be a surprise, given that all of these artists are iconic, but it’s still been remarkable.

The vote for the Elite Eight is ongoing, and three of the four matchups have been within a single percentage point. The final two rounds will happen this week, so if you’ve been thinking about joining the Patreon, why not join now and get in a vote?

I’ve run a couple of interview episodes in the past few weeks. First, the wonderful Wailin’ Jennys—Ruth Moody, Heather Masse, and Nicky Mehta—came by The Caldera to talk about singing, songwriting, and creativity.

You can listen to the episode here. Our conversation covered a lot of ground and was an absolute blast. The Jennys were on their way to a show that night at the Schnitz, during which Nicky shouted out Strong Songs from the stage! I have to think there were at least one or two listeners in the audience other than me who enjoyed that. Also, the audience spontaneously broke into a rendition of “O Canada.”

More recently, I ran an interview with Matt Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell of the Know Your Enemy podcast. In addition to being well-read political historians, Sam and Matt are lifelong Bob Dylan sickos (their words). I thought it would be fun to have them take me on a tour of Dylan’s various eras.

The episode, titled “A Beginner’s Guide to Bob Dylan,” achieves that goal pretty well, I’d say. While Matt and Sam certainly have their own complex relationship with Bob and his music, that’s likely true of any longtime Dylan fan, and understanding that is a good first step toward understanding his appeal.

For the past month, I have been consumed by Hollow Knight: Silksong, the long-awaited follow up to one of my very favorite video games, 2017’s Hollow Knight. (Here’s my review from 2018.) We’ve already talked about Silksong on two separate episodes of Triple Click, and are recording a full spoilercast (“beadscast”) for Maximum Fun members this coming week. I completed the game over the weekend and, while I am exhausted, I am also satisfied.

Several years and a couple home studios ago, I recorded an elaborate musical arrangement of “Greenpath,” one of my favorites of composer Chris Larkin’s pieces from the first game. I figured I might as well do something musical for the sequel, too.

Larkin has unsurprisingly given Silksong a beautiful musical score, building on themes he introduced in the first game, and incorporating no small amount of Dies irae. The in-game characters are all quite musical, as well. The game’s mysterious fallen kingdom based its religion on music and music nomenclature, and the second act is a quest to uncover hidden melodies. Our heroine Hornet converts her deadly blade into a harp (a “needolin” in the game’s parlance) and accompanies many of the friendly characters she meets, some of whom have unexpectedly lovely singing voices.

One standout is Shakra, a recurring character who sells you maps. You’ll hear Shakra before you see her, always calling out a beautiful traditional song. I isolated that melody and wrote my own accompaniment, which was a rewarding process. You can listen on Instagram or Bluesky.

Next up: Sherma’s Song.

That’ll do it for now. Thanks as always for reading along, and to everyone participating in the Patreon vote! I’m very much looking forward to seeing who wins.

I’ll leave you with this pic of our friends’ dog Coleslaw, who was staying with us for a few days and decided to help out in the studio. She has great ears.

Take care, and keep listening-
~KH
9/28/2025