Music and literature have a long history. We often catch musical references in our books -- E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime and Nick Hornby's High Fidelity come to mind-- but less frequently do we find literary references in music.
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Can you think of a favorite song incorporating literature or authors/poets?
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That's what makes our very own Bryan “Buggy Jive” Thomas such a treasure. A resident of Bethlehem, just a few miles from the University at Albany, Bryan's lyrics often mine the literature of the past to make sense of the present – from Ralph Ellison to Toni Morrison to T.S. Eliot to Joan Didion.
You can catch Bryan/Buggy in performance on the arts/culture program AHA! A House for Arts at 7:30 tonight (Wednesday, July 28) on WMHT-TV. It’ll also be online at wmht.org/live and available after the broadcast at wmht.org/aha.
Here's a snippet posted to Twitter:
You may remember we posted a video conversation with Bryan and Writers Institute Director Paul Grondahl in June 2020. (See below)
He also joined Paul, singer/songwriter Taina Asili, and music journalist Michael Eck at Page Hall for the “Art of Songwriting,” an evening of conversation and musical performance in 2019.
Hear more Bryan Thomas / Buggy Jive at on his website at buggyjive.com and his YouTube channels, https://www.youtube.com/user/bt1soul and https://www.youtube.com/c/BuggyJive. Be sure to watch “Stole My Stealing from Eliot,” his homage to T. S. Eliot shot in London, Paris and Albany.
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