Lee Bains’s Book Notes music playlist for his poetry collection Work Lunch

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others. Lee Bains’s poetry collection Work Lunch embeds the reader into the ever-evolving American South. Kiese Laymon wrote of the book: “Work Lunch is not simply the best of what poetry can be; it is proof that blues, soul and some god somewhere are real. This is what writing, witnessing with your senses, and giving a fuck can do. Lee Bains is one of them ones, y’all.” In his own words, here is Lee Bains’s Book Notes music playlist for his poetry collection Work Lunch: As somebody who has written songs for a long time, I’ve established the rule that, when I’m actively writing song lyrics, I very consciously stay away from listening to already existing music. I either listen to the piece…