David Dalle
Thursday February 17th, 2022 with David Dalle
Tanya Tagaq: A mother's rage. The violent, tragic, and joyful history of New Orleans through Jazz.

"The past has birthed the bricks that build my bones" - Tanya Tagaq on "I Forgive Me" Tanya Tagaq's new album "Tongues" seems driven by the fury of an Indigenous mother in Canada. Tagaq has two young daughters, and I am sure she feels very deeply all the First Nations and Inuit mothers who had their children ripped away from them by the Canadian government, placed in the horrible residential schools, often never seen again by their mothers. This incomprehensible tragedy, recognized as cultural genocide against Canada's original inhabitants, is seething beneath the surface of this album and often explodes, as in the song "Teeth Agape": 'I will sharpen my claws Bare my teeth I bare my teeth Touch my children And my teeth welcome your windpipe' In her song "Birth" she answers the trite platitude: "Don't hang on to the past they say/ The past has birthed the bricks that build my bones" This echoes Faulkner's famous line "the past is never dead. It's not even past". "Tongues" is fierce, furious, unforgiving, it left me gasping by the power of this incredible artist. She is joined by the American slam poet and musician Saul Williams and American experimental hip hop artist Gonjasufi. They help shape the mostly electronic music which accompanies Tagaq's searing vocals. Rage and fierce mother's love are the main themes of "Tongues", and it ends quietly with a loving lullaby sung for her young daughters. We will hear the full album.