Dirty Laundry
Songs as a path to freedom from destructive social conventions
La ropa sucia se lava en casa. Don’t air your dirty laundry in public….
As a former Spanish language teacher, the similarity of idiomatic expressions in different cultures fascinates me. While the exact metaphor varies slightly, the core social programming remains intact. Seeing how certain expectations persist across borderlines reveals how hard it is to challenge them.
The old “don’t air your dirty laundry in public” proverb hangs on for dear life even in the era of therapists for every man, woman, and child. There’s a musty odor of shame that clings to the troubles that haunt all of us behind closed doors of family life, boardrooms, and romantic relationships. Somehow the one speaking out against their unjust situation is to blame for problems whose origins reach back to the dawn of time.
That’s why songs are such a powerful way of rewriting a new code of social behavior. A compelling story riding on the wings of a killer melody with mesmerizing rhythm and instrumentation cuts through the brainwashing of the ages to deposit a new perspective directly into the heart and mind. The dividing veil of shame disintegrates into a glow of connection and compassion thanks to the miracle of song.
In a couple days, Katie Phillips and me, Karen Joy Brown along with Little Door get to play a show at the Lost Church in Santa Rosa, CA (tickets here for the Friday, August 7th show!) with the express purpose of smashing the “dirty laundry” doctrine. We’ll do a round of three songs each before and after a short intermission that say the words that squeeze the back of all of our throats, but rarely make it out to the light of day. With humor, craft, lullabies, and bangers, we’ll take the audience on a ride to a new social compact where dirty laundry is recognized as something piling up in all our closets that could really benefit from some fresh air.
Join our new weekly Songwriting Hour on Thursdays from 9-10am, PT! Support your writing practice, re-kindle, or develop one! An $11 monthly subscription to the Supernova Support Substack gets you access to weekly meetings with a songwriting prompt and kit (plus one free Song Salon pass!) . Come whenever you can, and when you can’t, catch the replay. We’re excited about spreading this far and wide to experienced and new writers.