I'm Heneep Abdurakib, I'm a writer, poet, essayist, cultural critic, and sometimes contributor

to the New York Times magazine.

In the summer, particularly early in the summer, I felt myself hitting the stage of the pandemic

where I was mourning live music.

I live in Columbus, Ohio, and summer here is kind of concert season traditionally.

The outdoor venues open up, more bands come through, it is an experience that I think

really defines the kind of emotional arc of the summer.

Some bands come in the beginning of the summer to really set things off as some kind

of the end, really tied up in a bow.

And so, the beginning of the summer, I found myself kind of aching for that kind of interaction,

but also confronting the reality that I don't know when I'll ever feel comfortable going

to a live show again, you know.

I was thinking too about the collaborative nature of live music and how the audience are

effectively collaborators with whoever is on stage trying to reach a kind of shared set

of emotions.

And this kind of emotional rabbit hole took me to Gillian Welch and David Rawlings who

are maybe the greatest collaborators in contemporary music.

And I wanted to go see them in Nashville, this loud, to coffinist music city that is

kind of startled into silence.

But, I think through our conversation, the one thing I left with was the sense of optimism

that I don't normally feel, I'm not normally an immensely optimistic person, I am somewhat

say a verse to optimism.

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