A deep-dive guide to the Emerald City’s musical DNA and ultimate playlist
interview by Cathy Carroll
What happens when a Seattle-born-and-raised musician joins forces with her music-journalist husband? You get The Sound of Seattle: 101 Songs That Shaped a City, in which authors Eva Walker and Jake Uitti explore the songs and artists instrumental to developing the “Seattle sound.”
Locals grow up learning the city’s music history as others do with sports heroes, writes Uitti. “Kurt, Jimi, Quincy, the Heart sisters—these are our founding figures.”
The book is a love letter to the city, written by the couple who met at the Tractor Tavern (he was invited to write about the music; she was onstage with The Black Tones). Organized by the last eight decades, the guide profiles seminal songs, from jazz, rock, punk and riot grrrl to pop, rap, grunge, indie and emo, with design elements evocative of zines and concert posters.
Interviews with Seattle legends such as Heart’s Nancy Wilson are interspersed with must-see spots such as Sub Pop Records and Kurt Cobain haunts. What is the connective tissue between Ray Charles, Quincy Jones and Kenny G? Between Melvins, Sleater-Kinney and Foo Fighters? What about between Sir Mix-a-Lot, Macklemore and Travis Thompson? You’ll find out in this book.
What was the most surprising discovery in researching this book?
For both of us, it was discovering the history of country music here in the Pacific North-west. Not only did Willie Nelson write and record some of his first songs in Washington, but Loretta Lynn did, too. You won’t find a more country duo than them, and they were both here in the Seattle area. It’s kind of incredible. Add to that the presence of people like Bing Crosby and Ray Charles, and you realize just how lush local music history is. Of course, grunge and all that is amazing, but it’s far from all we have in the region to appreciate. Those are the roots of what we make in the area today, and that’s pretty amazing.
In what ways might the book change how a reader views Seattle?
When people think of Seattle, it’s always the 1990s. Sports teams like the Mariners and SuperSonics were doing great. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Riot Grrrl—music from the city was critically acclaimed and at the top of the charts. But our book begins way before the 1990s and goes to present day. It highlights people like Tina Bell, Heart, Jimi Hendrix, Deems Tsutakawa, Travis Thompson, Deep Sea Diver and Vitamin D. A single genre does not a city music scene make. It takes so many people. In fact, we had a hard time trimming the list to 101 people over eighty years. So, we hope readers see how vast our city’s history is and, thus, how significant our future is, too.
What made the two of you uniquely qualified to write this?
Eva is an award-winning DJ personality on one of the most significant radio stations in the world (KEXP-FM, 90.3, a noncommercial radio station in Seattle, specializing in indie music programmed by its disc jockeys). She’s also the frontwoman for one of the most important rock bands in the city today (with her twin brother, Cedric Walker). But in her personal life, she’s a music historian. I have been writing about Seattle music for nearly twenty years, and in my career as a journalist, I’ve written for outlets like American Songwriter, Vice and The Guardian. With our powers combined (and our marriage on the line), we felt like we could do a pretty good job!
