Listen and subscribe to The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | StitcherIn the fall of 2018, Hanif Abdurraqib, the author of today’s narrated story, saw the folk duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings perform live at an outdoor show in Virginia. Halfway through the show they played “Hard Times” — Ms. Welch’s song about a man, his mule and his plow. A performance that has been worked into Hanif’s memory. “It’s a patient and heartbreaking song, filtered through a vague but believable promise of something better,” he wrote. “Especially when played live, it feels like you’re nursing an open wound that is slowly stitching itself closed, inch by inch.”

Source: New York Times November 15, 2020 13:52 UTC