Fake Fur Coat (9th anniversary version)

Celebrating nine years of Sukierae

Sukierae, my first solo album of sorts, came out nine years ago this week. It’s hard to believe all that time has flown by. To Spencer and me, it still feels like the “new project” we worked on in the wake of Mavis Staples’s One True Vine. In celebration of Sukierae’s anniversary, I recorded this version of “Fake Fur Coat” last night, on my phone.

I also thought I’d share some of the images that went into the final artwork for the album.

I loved Mark Twain as a kid. Still do. I highly recommend the massive autobiography that came out in 2010 after the 100th anniversary of his death—a time gap stipulated in his will to ensure that no one he wrote about could read the book. Growing up in the lower Midwest and loving Twain pretty much guarantees a car trip to Hannibal, MO, where someone will take a snapshot of you—in my case, it was probably my mother—at this “Huckleberry Finn fence” set up for that purpose.

The original idea I had for the cover of Sukierae. I thought maybe we’d cover “fuck” up with a “Sukierae” sticker. I regret not following through because this one altered image kind of sums up my feelings at the time. Susie was getting clobbered with scary tests and bone biopsies and treatments… just a brutally uncertain time. I truly felt like a child with little say in anything. “Fuck” was on the tip of my tongue.

And the final cover, which I think is simultaneously less offensive than the previous version and possibly more offensive in terms of cultural appropriation. Susie’s doing great, BTW.

P.S. Just nine days until Cousin is out!

Fake Fur Coat (9th anniversary version)