In an art installation full of faces, Becca Mancari can't face herself. This performance of the introspective centerpiece to her album Good Woman underlines the song's lonely atmospherics.
by Lars Gotrich
I can't face myself. Becca Mancari repeats the line like a broken admission spoken through a pinhole camera, a whispered truth so potent it can't be looked right in the eye. The song that line comes from, "Dirty Dishes," is the introspective centerpiece of last year's Good Woman, and in this South X Lullaby, Mancari removes the clicking pulse of the studio version to underline the song's lonely atmospherics.
There are moments in this video where the Nashville-based singer-songwriter turns away from the many faces of the Life Underground installation by Hervé Cohen, which is part of the SXSW Art Program and supported by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States. What's being projected onto the screens in the room are interviews with subway passengers from around the world who share their stories and dreams. The installation's notion is that empathy often comes by just asking a few questions, which, maybe for "Dirty Dishes," is just too damn hard right now.
CREDITS
Producers: Bob Boilen, Mito Habe-Evans; Director/Videographer: Nickolai Hammar; Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Photo: Aaron Rogosin for NPR; Executive Producer: Lauren Onkey.
