Big Thief - Two Hands
My dear friend and fellow Good Thing subscriber Amy had the perfect way to sum up the news of Big Thief’s second album of the year. “How dare they!” she exclaimed, remarking that their May 2019 album _U.F.O.F._ is just too good to have so quick a follow-up. But here we are. And, really, aren’t we all glad for it? Calling Big Thief a folk band is sort like calling Radiohead a rock band. It’s way more complicated than that. Adrianne Lenker’s vocals often have a restrained intensity that gives a incredible sense of urgency to the lyrics. Only rarely, like on the track “Not” does the wavering, quaking sound of her voice fall away into a split second of rage. Her lyrics have a certain poetic distance, but are at the same time so intimate and accessible that it’s easy to listen to the same track over and over again ready to discover some new meaning, to ascribe some new emotion. _Two Hands_ is like looking into some sort of mystic pool of water for answers to whatever is troubling you, only to discover that the water is simply just a mirror reflecting back what’s in your heart.
-Kevin Smith
Todos Santos Cuchumatanes - Huehuetenango, Guatemala
We really love Guatemalan coffees. For five years now we have been buying coffee from Bella Vista, a super impressive mill in Antigua, Guatemala. The coffees we have received from Antigua were so clean and sweet, we just couldn’t imagine how Guats could be any better. But then we got the opportunity to cup some new lots from Huehuetenango, a region about 7 hours away from Antigua, that Bella Vista was bringing in. Ohhhhhh BOY were they something special! So jammy, so fruity, so darn juicy. We were completely smitten. This lot is from a small producer group called Todos Santos Cuchumatanes. These producers grow Pache, Caturra, Catuai, and Bourbon on small farms between 1700-1900 masl in Huehuetenango. The coffee is so delightful, with big juicy blackberry jam notes balanced out by sweet marzipan and creamy milk chocolate. It's gonna blow your mind!