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Spectacles

by Shirlette Ammons

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  • Streaming + Download

    Pre-order of Spectacles. You get 2 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
    Purchasable with gift card
    releases April 26, 2024

      $10 USD  or more

     

1.
On Spectacles, Pt. 1 (feat Mykki Blanco, Fred Moten, Shorlette Ammons, Anansi Stephens, Tunde Wey)
2.
3.
Spades
4.
Spectacles
5.
6.
On Spectacle, Pt. 2 (feat. DJ Doowap, Vivica C. Coxx, Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs)
7.
Delight (feat. Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn)
8.
All The Things (feat. G Yamazawa & Kane Smego)
9.
Clown Faces (feat Justin Robinson & Daniel Chavis)
10.
Neighborhood Headlines
11.
Temperature (feat. Jessamyn Stanley)

about

shirlette ammons is a Black queer southern truth teller, an Emmy and Peabody award-winning TV producer, poet, and musician. She is also an identical twin who hails from a tiny, wonderfully-named pocket of eastern North Carolina earth called Beautancus.

Given this wild set of identifiers, the thought of being someone else’s “spectacle” is not some theoretical consideration for shirlette; she has been “othered” her entire life. Her new album Spectacles, co-produced with Phil Cook, is a captivating and electric 11-track examination of the duality between being objectified by the proverbial, patriarchal, white gaze and cultivating attention when rocking stages. The record is a poignant expression of her own multitudes (here as songwriter, MC, bassist, producer & poet) rendered by a modern wellspring of Black Southern brilliance and her wider creative community featuring contributions from musicians, filmmakers and writers including genre-and-gender-defying performance artist Mykki Blanco, MacArthur-winning poet Fred Moten, Nigerian writer and chef Tunde Wey, Amelia Meath of Sylvan Esso, and radical feminist writer Alexis Pauline Gumbs, “the Beyoncé of yoga” Jessamyn Stanley, as well as her twin sister Shorlette Ammons and niece, Anansi Stephens. Ammons has always been a highly collaborative musician, whether making a record with the likes of soul-rock band The Dynamite Brothers or pairing The Indigo Girls, Hiss Golden Messenger and Meshell Ndegocello on the same LP, 2016’s Language Barrier.

credits

releases April 26, 2024

PLAYERS:
Shirlette Ammons - Vocals, Programming; Synth bass, “Spades”
Amelia Meath - Vocals, “Delight,” “Hello. It’s Alright.”
Mavis Swan Poole - Vocals, “Short,” “Spectacles”
Jessamyn Stanley - Vocals, “Temperature”
G Yamazawa - Vocals, “All The Things”
Kane Smego - Vocals, “All The Things”
Central Park School For Children - Vocals, “Hello. It’s Alright”.
Brevan Hampden - Drums, “Clown Faces”
Darion Alexander - Bass Guitar, Moog Bass
DJ Harrison - Drums, Clavinet, Juno, Moog, Rhodes; Piano, “Clown Faces”
Phil Cook - Programming, Piano, Guitars, Percussion; Vocals, “Neighborhood Headlines”
Chris Boerner - Bass, “Delight”
Brad Cook - Op-1, “On Spectacles Part 1,” “Delight” “On Spectacles Part 2;” Bass, “Temperature”
Nyk Baglio - Drums, “Spectacles,” “Hello”
Matt McCaughan - Drums, “Spectacles,” “Short”

TECHNICAL:
Recorded at Break Alive Studios in Durham, NC by Jeremy “Bean” Clemmons
Assisted by Lynn Grissett and Brevan Hampden
Additional Recording at Overdub Lane in Durham, NC by Chris Boerner and Brad Cook
Additional Recording by James Anthony Wallace at Central Park School
Additional Recording at Home and at The Old Pillow by Phil Cook
Additional Recording at GMMc Digital by Kwesi Justice
Additional Recording at Home Studio by Shirlette Ammons

MIXED BY KWESI JUSTICE AND CHRIS BOERNER

MASTERED BY CHRIS BOERNER AT THE KITCHEN IN CARRBORO, NC

PRODUCED BY PHIL COOK and
SHIRLETTE AMMONS

ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION:
DJ Harrison - “Temperature,” “Clown Faces”
Nick Sanborn - “Delight,” “Spades”
Kwesi Justice - “Spectacles”
Brad Cook - “On Spectacles Part 1,” Short, Spades, Spectacles, “Delight,” “On Spectacles Part 2,” “Temperature”
Ari Picker - “Hello,” “Short,” “Temperature”

ALL SONGS WRITTEN BY SHIRLETTE AMMONS EXCEPT
“HELLO. IT’S ALRIGHT” BY SHIRLETTE AMMONS AND PHIL COOK
“ALL THE THINGS” BY SHIRLETTE AMMONS, G YAMAZAWA, KANE SMEGO AND PHIL COOK

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about

Shirlette Ammons Durham, North Carolina

Shirlette Ammons is a Mt Olive-native and Durham, NC- based poet and musician who also directs a youth arts program. Her most recent projects include Matching Skin feat the John Anonymous EP, a collection of poetry published by Carolina Wren Press and And Lovers Like, a collaborative album with the Dynamite Brothers. If you see her in the street, ask her about Bentley Mode. ... more

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