Jolene Playlist #10

The nights are drawing in. The leaves are starting to turn. The morning dog walk has an extra bite to it. Root vegetables are ready to be loosened from their earthy grip. Change is in the air.

There’s something about the early autumn months that always puts me in a slightly reflective mood. As one season gives way to another, old routines return, life falling back into a familiar rhythm. Music has a funny way of marking this shift. A record pulled from its sleeve for the first time in months can suddenly seem new again. More time spent indoors means the chance to get reacquainted or give something different a spin.

Music has been a central part of Jolene’s story from the very beginning. We’ve written before about the joys of crate digging – whether in a physical record store or at a local car boot sale – and we want to bring that same sense of discovery and adventure to the Jolene online store in a more fully realised way than we have done in the past.
So, we’re revamping our music offering, with a wider selection of pre-loved records, as well as cassette tapes, books, and other ephemera. We’ll also be running regular features spanning everything from original interviews with musical folk, to deep dives into our favourites labels and subgenres, to general musings on listening culture. Each piece will be accompanied by a specially curated playlist, some seasonal in flavour, others more esoteric. Watch this space.

To kick things off, here’s a collection of songs that don’t necessarily represent change in the literal sense of the word – although this is true in a few instances – but rather evoke a particular kind of transition: an arrival or a departure; starting again or simply moving on. Some of these tracks are available to buy in physical form on their corresponding albums through our new-look Music section, and all are yours to keep via this playlist.

There are obvious markers of late September here, not least Makaya McCraven’s take on the jazz standard Autumn in New York, but the theme soon starts to wander. The opening track from Willie Nelson’s 1974 concept album Phases and Stages takes us into emotionally complex territory, before Charles Bradley’s stirring cover of Changes by Black Sabbath makes the sentiment explicit. By the time we arrive at Mahalia Jackson’s closer, An Evening Prayer, the wistful tone mellows to something more like acceptance.

The eagle-eyed (or should that be eagle-eared?) among you will have noticed that we have retired the Jolene Spotify account; in the spirit of change, we’re swapping to a different platform – one that not only boasts superior audio quality, but also compensates artists more fairly than the major streamers.

Here’s to the things that change, the things that stay with us, and the music that somehow manages to bridge the two. Old songs, new seasons. A little nostalgia, a little mystery, and the quiet promise of what comes next.