A Rabbit Hole of Music Discovery

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how difficult music discovery has become. Perhaps it’s just a heavy dose of nostalgia, but I miss the days of gathering in the dorm common area with all your friends, laptops out, and thumb drives in hand. Each person would pull songs and albums from their library and drag them into the thumb drive to share, digitally passing music from friend to friend. Afterwards you’d have a specially curated collection from a person you knew and cared about. You’d discover something new and unknown, surprising and fun. This was how I discovered music in my college years, always relying on recommendations from my friends.

Now, it feels impossible to find new artists and albums, even when we have the entire history of music right at our fingertips.

Lately, I’ve been looking for new routes and pathways to get to albums I may never have explored before. I intentionally go on tangents or trails that could lead me to something special.

A couple weeks ago, I went down a musical rabbit hole of my own making and uncovered a lovely little bit of music history. One morning, before I started my workday, I put on the 1977 album Patti LaBelle from my vinyl collection. I am obviously familiar with who Patti LaBelle is, but I can’t say that I am deeply intimate with her discography.

After listening through the album, I decided to read up on the history on this particular album. The 1977 self-titled album was her first solo album, after having been the lead singer for the band Labelle. At this point, Patti LaBelle had already had a lengthy career.

After reading a little bit about LaBelle’s history, I decided to check out some of her other albums, particularly from the group Labelle, via the streaming library. When you scroll through the band page, one of the first albums that appears in their discography is a 1971 album called Gonna Take a Miracle by Laura Nyro and Labelle. The record is filled with covers from the 50s and 60s and Labelle serves as backing vocalists.

I was completely unfamiliar with Laura Nyro—I had never heard her name before. But I decided to explore her page to see what else she had done. Her most played songs included Stoned Soul Picnic, Eli’s Comin’, Wedding Bell Blues—all songs that I know well. But I had never heard any of these versions.

Nyro was a singer-songwriter who wrote several songs that would become hits by other artists in the late 60s and early 70s, including those mentioned above.

I was captivated as I uncovered the writer of many songs that I grew up listening to. My family used to have a Three Dog Night greatest hits CD that we played on repeat, and now I learned that Laura Nyro was the creator of Eli’s Comin. And apparently in junior high, she played an early version of this song in music class to prove to her teacher that rock and roll “wasn’t junk.”

Nyro dated Jackson Browne. She helped care for Pattie LaBelle’s child while LaBelle was suffering from postpartum depression. Nyro just seemed so central to these musical traditions and sounds that I love, and yet I had never heard of her before. And in some ways, her story reminded me of Carole King, another female songwriter, but whose name I’m deeply familiar with.

I read this excellent article that dives deeper into Nyro’s personal history, influences, and impact of her career.

Now this history feels like something that I probably never would have stumbled on if I had just been listening to my normal playlists. I’m not sure that I would have even gotten here in a recreation of my nostalgic digital discovery days. No, this could only be revealed through sheer curiosity, opening one door, to the next, to the next.

I can only encourage following the rabbit holes of music curiosity. You truly may never know what you will encounter. A new song. A new band. A writer of some of your favorite childhood tunes. There is no limit to what you will stumble upon, as long as you continue to engage an inquisitive mind.

What I’m Listening to Right Now

Imaginal Disk by Magdalena Bay

This album came out last year, but I must have missed it. I’ve been listening to it a lot these days, particularly Image and Love is Everywhere. It’s groovy and playful.

Switched on Pop: Empress Of asks for your consideration

In attempting to clear my podcast queue, I listened to this episode of one of my favorite podcasts featuring artist Empress Of. I’ve been a big fan of her for many, many years. It was interesting to hear her approach to music and to putting together albums. It actually made me revisit her most recent album, For Your Consideration, from 2024. I don’t feel like I had given it enough attention when it first came out, but this episode gave me a new appreciation for it. Empress Of has a very special way of incorporating various genres and sounds into her work—something that we’re seeing a lot of important and popular artists do right now.