Sublime eclectic mayhem. That’s been my playlist project and musical life, one that begins with The Muppet Movie soundtrack and later involves performing hymns, death metal, surf, and bluegrass. I’ve played in theaters, tents, and basements, for multi-stage festivals and squirrel rodeos. I’ve written and recorded music for The Drunken Odyssey. Sublime eclectic mayhem. A warning and a welcome for joyous noise, for those navigating what Beckett called “this bitch of an earth.”

The rock from space had more names
than fragments: angular rhombus, 
H-chondrite, UFO, 1685 Toro, 
speck of solar nebula, brute blood of the air.

A glossary booming and unwholed
across the Alabama sky.

We could call it homewrecker,
though the roof was repaired 
and the radio replaced. 

Some call it a hammer.
If her hip the anvil, then
the heart the broken crucible, 
untempered and cooling.

“I feel bruised,” she said.
Though the hip healed, the mark 
never did. The sudden blow too baffling 
to navigate for even her fifteen minutes.

Pieces of life shed like space dust,
unable to enter the atmosphere
of the after. 

(For Ann Elizabeth Fowler Hodges)

Stars Fell on Sylacauga

Listen on Tidal. Listen on Spotify.

1. “Stars Fell on Alabama” – Percy Faith
2. “Common Loon” – Xiu Xiu
3. “Asleep at the disco” – Luca Sguera, Giovanni Iacovella, Joe Rehmer, Arch
4. “Primitive London 1” – Basil Kirchin
5. “Stars Fell on Alabama” – Frank Sinatra
6. “The Horse Has a Voice (feat. Theon Cross)” – Matthew Herbert, London Contemporary Orchestra
7. “I Skovens Dybe Stille Ro” – Teis Semey
8. “Elizabeth Montgomery’s Face” – The Embarrassment
9. “Stars Fell on Alabama (Live)” – Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette
10. “Steady On” – Human Resources
11. “And the Red Light was my Mind” – Alec Goldfarb, David Leon
12. “Plastic Skank” – Rolo McGinty, Rob Miller
13. “Stars Fell on Alabama” – Sun Ra and His Arkestra
14. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Closing Theme)” – Jack Nitzsche

Stephen McClurg (Episode 473) composes and improvises in Serenity Dagger, The Abdomen, and other projects. Along with session work for mid-Alabama singer/songwriters, he frequently collaborates with musicians across the state adding bass, guitar, and synths to friends’ recordings. He currently writes reviews for Horror DNA and is the substitute low end wrangler for Mobile-based punk rock band Future Hate. You can find out more about his work here.