In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
The poems in Silas House’s collection All These Ghosts impressively evoke both Kentucky’s landscape and people.
Chapter 16 wrote of the book:
“By turns plaintive and exhilarating, All These Ghosts conjures an attentive, nuanced reckoning with what it means to call a place our home ground.”
In his own words, here is Silas House’s Book Notes music playlist for his poetry collection All These Ghosts:
There’s quite a bit of memoir at play in my first poetry collection, All These Ghosts. Music has always been a tremendous part of my life, so it makes sense that plenty of songs show up throughout the collection. There are also several poems in the book about musicians—or in tribute to them—including Hazel Dickens, John Prine, The Everly Brothers, and others. Even when a song isn’t mentioned, I was often playing music while I was writing to put myself in a specific time or mood. The major binding theme of All These Ghosts is what I call timesickness, or a deep pining for the way a place was in the past and the realization that it can never be that way again. In my case I am grieving the loss not only of people but also of a way of life since I come from Appalachia, a place and culture that has changed radically since I grew up there. Many of the songs I listened to while writing the book either enhanced or softened my nostalgia for a way of life that is long gone.
The book is told in a mostly chronological order, from poems about ancestors who lived before I was ever born all the way to the current moment when I am grieving the loss of my country while it is caught in the grasp of perhaps the most vitriolic and divisive time in our history. More than anything, though, it’s about being haunted by a place and people, but also about being the haunter who is often wandering back into the past like a ghost visiting somewhere they long to be again.
I Wanna Be Free – Loretta Lynn (I Wanna Be Free, 1971)
No other artist was a bigger part of my childhood than Loretta Lynn. She was from fairly nearby and we were incredibly proud of her. At that time she was everywhere, not only burning up the country music charts but also appearing on talk shows, at the White House, on magazine covers, and even in Crisco commercials. Best of all she refused to change her accent or way of being despite the fact that most of the world told us all to be ashamed of where and who we are from. She shows up a couple times in poems but even when she’s not on the page her music was often playing in the background of my childhood. Many of these poems is about loving and being proud of where I’m from even when I’m frustrated by it. This is a lesser known track of mine but it’s long been one of my favorites by her.
Night Moves – Bob Seger (Night Moves, 1976)
My aunt Sis was like a third parent to me and I’ve been in deep grief ever since we lost her in 2015. She shows up in several of these poems, in a variety of ways, including one of the poems, entitled “Ghost”, that most informs the entire collection. When I think of her I always think of this song. The way she’d tell me to put on the record then sit on the edge of the couch smoking Winston Lights with tears welling in her eyes. She always said she had “the blues” and wouldn’t explain further. In retrospect I see that she was often dealing with timesickness, as well, the malady that serves as the main theme of the book. All Bob Seger songs zoom me back to the past, one that was fraught and difficult but also wonderful and full of magic that only a child can witness.
Fast Car – Tracy Chapman (Tracy Chapman, 1988)
This song came out when I was a sophomore in high school and I had never heard anything as raw and vulnerable. When I hear it now I immediately think of what it felt like to be seventeen years old and all of those big dreams one has at that age. But it also makes me think about the many ways my life was shaped by being raised in a working class family that was trying to rise up out of poverty. That has been one of the major forces in my life and has certainly had a strong bearing of many of the poems in the book. One of its lines, “I had a feeling that I belonged”, shows up in one of my poems; that’s an important feeling to me because I’ve always felt like I rarely fit in. Which is a rich field for a poet.
Little Fire – Patty Griffin (Downtown Church, 2010)
This is a strange little song, almost abstract. But its chorus has been a comfort to me ever since I first heard it. I named a poem in the collection after this song. It’s about being a gay teenager who was sure his family would abandon and hate him if he came out, and the religious trauma I carried for years because of my childhood church. I love the line “Come rest beside my little fire/We’ll ride out the storm that’s coming in” because that young man needed so badly for someone to say that to me. Eventually I found people and a church that accepted me for who I am. Eventually most of my family came around. I also love the lines “All that I want is one who knows me/
A kind hand on my face when I weep”. The poem is about finding that for myself.
Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt, D877/4 – Dorothea Röschmann (Portraits, 2014)
Classical music is an important part of my writing life. I listen to it a lot. There are many love poems in the book—some to friends, one to my dog, some to my children—but most of them are dedicated to or about my husband. I heard Renee Fleming sing this song at the Kennedy Center with Evgeny Kissin accompanying on piano (neither of them have recorded a version of it,) and it was one of the most moving performances I have ever witnessed. That moment is preserved in my poem “Couples” but this same kind of emotion is present in every poem about him in the book.
Linger – The Cranberries (Everybody Else Is Doing It, Why Can’t I?, 1993)
Speaking of emotion, few voices can pull at my heartstrings like that of Dolores O’Riordan, the lead singer of The Cranberries, the band that absolutely defined my college years and twenties. A line from this song leads to the title of one of my poems, “Don’t Burn, Don’t Fade”, but this song also allows me to float back to the 1990s very easily. Love and heartache are at the core of so many of these poems and this song could easily serve as the soundtrack for many of them.
Dogs of Mexico – Senora May (All of My Love, 2021)
A couple of my favorite poems in the book, “Quality of Life” and “Night Watch”, are set in Mexico, a country I love deeply. Both of the poems are about animals and concepts of home, and this song captures that perfectly for me. Senora May has one of my favorite voices; it’s so real and full of honesty. She sounds like Appalachia to me. This is one of my favorite love songs, partly because it conjures the pining that has always been such a constant throughout my life, and that is a thread throughout the book.
Blood – Allison Moorer (Down to Believing, 2015)
Allison Moorer is one of the greatest singer-songwriters of my lifetime. So many of her songs resonate intensely with me and this is certainly one that plays a major role in the writing of this book. To me the song is about the unconditional love that often exists between family members. At one point she sings “I am the keeper of the flame”, and as someone who preserves the stories in writing I’ve always been that person in our family. Those are two things that many of the poems in this book are about as well.
This is to Mother You – Sinead O’Connor (Gospel Oak, 1997)
Sinead O’Connor is one of the essential artists of my lifetime. Her music has been a balm to me and her activist spirit has inspired me to speak truth to power. One of my favorite poems in the book is about her but her influence is all over the book. This song in particular was a lifesaver for me and I always like to share it with as many people as possible because I hope someone who needs it will find it.
Wild and Blue – John Anderson (Wild and Blue, 1982)
John Anderson is maybe the most underrated country singer of our time. When I was growing up and in my twenties he was constantly on the radio. This song came out when I was only eleven but even then I deeply identified with the line “You’ve always been wild and blue” because I have always felt that way. To me it’s about an overwhelming desire to live as fully as possible, which can be a blessing and a curse. The song shows up in one of the poems but that attitude informs many of the poems in this book.
also at Largehearted Boy:
Silas House’s playlist for his novel Southernmost
Silas House is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels. He served as the 2023-2025 poet laureate of Kentucky and in 2024 he was a Grammy finalist for writing, co-producing, and serving as the creative director for the Tyler Childers video “In Your Love.” In 2023, he was the recipient of the Southern Book Prize, as well as the Duggins Prize, the largest award for an LGBTQ writer in the nation. House’s writing has appeared recently in Time, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Bitter Southerner , Garden and Gun, and many other publications. He serves as the National Endowment for the Humanities Chair at Berea College. All These Ghosts is his first poetry collection.