Smells Like Nanna's House • all my happiness is gone • 2019

Patrick Stickles • "Maybe I'm the Only One for Me" and "People" • 2020

Woods, Kevin Morby & more cover Purple Mountains at Woodsist Fest • 2019

Woods, Kevin Morby, Kyle Field (Little Wing), and Anna St Lous cover Purple Mountains’ “All My Happiness is Gone” at 2019 Woodsist Festival in tribute to the late David Berman. Nearly everyone on stage played on the Purple Mountains album.

Late Homework • The Songs of David Berman • 2019

There is an idea that poetry is not the poem itself, but rather the small tidbit here and there that you are able to find, make meaningful connections with. and carry with you in your heart. This is certainly true of what it’s like exploring the absurd yet strangely dignified world of David Berman. In every piece of his writing at any point you might stumble upon the most stunning view of the miraculous beauty of decaying American life. Every line had the same opportunity to blow your mind with it’s brutal and transformative honesty, achingly encompassing a landscape of tragedy-turned-comedy and vice-versa. 

Approaching Perfection • A Tribute to DC Berman • 2019

« The idea came from my friend Baptiste Fick, who taught me two decades ago how to play How To Rent a Room on a guitar. “What if we organized a tribute compilation of David Berman?” As is customary at Section 26, I responded : “Let’s do it. We’ll think about it afterwards.” The musicians we started to contact reacted the same way, with short and direct answers. We often got a modest : “I’m in, buddy!” Sometimes, we’d receive whole testimonies of an encounter, an interaction with David Berman around Jewish mysticism, or teenage memories which obviously struck a chord with Baptiste and me. Even the most legitimate refusals were encouraging. Xavier Mazure

RIP David Berman • 1967-2019

There’s a trapdoor in the country where we can disappear.

These giant evergreens are a promise redeemed

Let’s walk down the glassy top of a frozen pasture stream

Our minds can dream like soda machines

“I’m not convinced I have fans. In my whole life, I’ve had maybe 10 people who have told me how much my music means to them.”

We’re gonna take a ride in the dirt, we’re gonna die til it doesn’t hurt, then they can bury us side by side. 
“Room Games & Diamond Rain”

“It’s distressing to do this, but if I’m to grow, I have to do things that I didn’t do a long time ago. I’m tired. I need to take a few risks. I can’t keep living like this.” the ringer

I asked a painter why the roads are coloured black.

He said, “Steve, it’s because people leave

and no highway will bring them back.”

‘Random Rules‘

David Berman talks about the end of Silver Jews, the rise of Purple Mountains, every song on their self-titled debut… July 12th, 2019

Darkness and cold, darkness and cold
Rolled in through the holes in the stories I told
Conditions I'm wishing weren't taking control
Darkness and cold, darkness and cold
"Darkness and Cold"

What’s with all these handsome grandsons in rock band magazines? What have they done with the fat ones, the bald and the goatee’d? 

“Strange Victory, Strange Defeat”

Ten thousand afternoons ago

All my happiness just overflowed

That was life at first and goal to go

Me and you and us and them

And all those people way back when

All our hardships were just yardsticks then, you know

You know

Not the purple hills

It's not the silver lake

It's not the snowcloud shadowed interstates

It's not the icy bike chain rain of Portland, Oregon

Where nothing's wrong and no one's asking

But the fear's so strong it leaves you gasping

No way to last out here like this for long

'Cause everywhere I go, I know

Everywhere I go, I know

"All my happiness is gone"