Aleise Barnett//You Will Descend Me

On Local Music Friday, life is like a ziplock bag of fresh Michigan farm-grown hand-picked cherries, just like the one I currently have on my desk.
Tell me...what is this Local Music Fridays?

Aleise Barnett might actually be the nicest person I have ever met. She’s so smart, so fun and such a sweetheart—I’m very lucky to have her as a friend.

The first time I met Aleise/saw her play music was at the end of the summer of 2002. Black Elk was having an acoustic show, and Michael and I were on the bill. Aleise also played and while she strummed her slightly out-of-tune acoustic guitar and sang along, in the lush backyard of the Elk, Mike and I talked about how she reminded us of Cat Power. We approached her after: “Hey. We liked that. You remind us of Cat Power.” She told us it was all she had been listening to all summer.

But to just compare her to Cat Power would be doing girl a disservice, because I’ve seen a lot of versatility in Aleise’s music, from the CDR album she recorded in an Ann Arbor parking structure, to this track, which was included in the Fred Thomas/Ypsilanti Records-produced comp, Ypsilanti Folk Singers.

Lots to love about this song: the spindly tremolo-heavy early 60s sounding electric guitar riff, that brings you back to that retro-school dance you never attended, that sad little organ section, Aleise’s vocals, willowy and melancholy and sometimes French. Tres bien.

I think Aleise is currently in Atlanta, taking a little hiatus from music-making, but for my sake and yours, I will hope that this break will be short-lived.



You Will Descend Me.mp3

But you never fall completely in love.