“There’s gonna be some trouble /A whole house will need re-building /And everyone I love in the house /Will recline on an analyst’s couch quite soon /Your father cracks a joke /And in the usual way /Empties the room.” — Morrissey, “Now My Heart is Full”
Britt Haraway’s stories are full of broken people, broken relationships, and lives that need renovation if not full on rebuilding. They are also full of music and musical references. Some of them are full of Memphis, where the author grew up, playing in bands. Thursday, December 22nd, he’ll blend music and literature at Bar DKDC when he teams up with Tim Regan from the band Snowglobe. Regan’s an old friend who’ll perform songs by various artists mentioned in Haraway’s short story collection Early Men, which was published this spring by Lamar University Press.
Britt Haraway
Today both Haraway and Regan live in Texas. In the early aughties, they were roommates who moved into a house on Evelyn, in part, because it came with its own piano. “Tim helped me meet a lot of artists and musicians, and it all pops up so often in my book,” Haraway says. “We could do a reading that’s not just a literary reading, of course. But I think a performance where the audience can hear the musical references after the passage read out will broaden the audience’s experience. It can broaden their experience of the literature, and the music, too, maybe.”
Haraway’s references range from Johnny Cash and Elvis to Morrissey and Broadway musicals like The King and I and The Sound of Music.
“People who might not ordinarily read a short story collection can go to the bar this weekend and get five minutes of short story and a song. The performance is audience-friendly in that way,” Haraway says.
Later that evening, members of Snowglobe will reunite for an “in the round” performance at Memphis Made Brewing
