Lisa Bastoni, The TVD First Date

“I grew up spending most afternoons at my grandparents’ house. They were commercial artists, and my grandmother was a hobby songwriter and guitar player, and a huge fan of folk music. When I was thirteen years old, she gave me a guitar and started teaching me some chords—that’s around the time we really started digging into her record collection.”

“She kept her records stacked on the floor, under a big wooden table covered with all kinds of vintage knickknacks, rolls of butchers’ paper, rubber stamps, cups of sharpened pencils, and heavy old tape dispensers. You had to practically crawl under the table to find what you were looking for, but it was worth it.

We’d listen to my grandmother’s records on the hi-fi or on the portable player, while working or cooking or cleaning up. Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Linda Ronstadt were all in heavy rotation, but her absolute favorite was Emmylou Harris. She had every single Emmylou Harris record, including the ones where Emmylou sang “only” harmony.

One afternoon I was looking through the stacks, and stumbled upon Bob Dylan’s Desire record. I remember laying the needle down, and the little hiss before “Hurricane” starts. At first it’s just the guitar, then the band kicks in, then Dylan starts singing—that song hit me like an actual hurricane! Emmylou’s harmonies and Scarlet Rivera’s violin are everything on that record for me. I was hooked. On Bob Dylan, harmonies, music, songwriting, all of it.

After my grandmother died a few years ago, I inherited her guitar, as well as her record player and some of her records. It’s been so amazing to go back and listen to Emmylou (Pieces of the Sky, Elite Hotel) and Joni (Blue, Court and Spark), and to everything we listened to when I was a kid. That Desire album is a particular treasure—hearing it again, with all its pops and crackles, takes me back to the warmth and beauty of that sunny room, and reminds me of the joy I felt when I first found it.”
—Lisa Bastoni