Kristina M. Jacobsen, associate professor of Ethnomusicology, Songwriting and Anthropology (Sociocultural and Linguistic) at The University of New Mexico, clearly has a deep love and affinity for the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. That love comes through in her conversation, writing, and music.
Jacobsen now has a new book that reflects that love for the place, its language and its music that has charmed her. Sing Me Back Home is published in both English (University of Toronto Press) and, later this month, Italian (NeoClassica Press, Rome).
"The book title is a nod to my favorite country artist, the late singer-songwriter Merle Haggard, who penned a song of the same name," she said.
To introduce the book and the songs in the book, Jacobsen will have a book release event Sunday, Nov. 17, at 6 p.m. (doors open at 5:30 p.m.) at Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande Blvd, Albuquerque. This will be a special combined reading and concert of original songs featured in the book. Joining this event will also be Cuncordu Monte Sindria, a Sardinian cuncordu led by UNM Italian Fulbright Scholar and ethnomusicologist Diego Pani, featuring songs and an invitation to guests in the Sardinian, or Sardu, language.
The event is free, but reservations are requested as space is limited. Reserve seats on the AMP Concerts site.
She will also be in the KUNM Studio, 89.9 FM and streaming at the KUNM website to play some songs and talk about the book on Tuesday, Nov. 12, from 7-8 p.m. for the show, Studio 505.
Jacobsen will take this unique reading-concert combo to Italy and Europe in the spring.
Set on Sardinia, Sing Me Back Home explores language and culture through songwriting as an ethnographic method. Based on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork writing songs with Sardinian musicians, artisans, shepherds, poets, and language activists, Jacobsen examines how Sardinian lives and language ideologies are narrated against the backdrop of American music.
The book shows how Sardinian musicians sing their own history between the lines. It reveals how Sardinian songs become a site of transduction where, through the process of songwriting, recording, and performance, the energy from one genre of music and lingua-culture is harnessed to signal another one much closer to home.
"In my first book, I sang and played the steel guitar, touring with Diné country western bands across the American southwest and as a non-Native guest on the Navajo Nation. In this new book, my second musical ethnography, I take the idea of co-creation to a new level and write collaborative songs with musicians, songwriters, poets, and storytellers on the Italian island of Sardinia, where I have been living and doing ethnographic research since 2017. I call this approach to anthropology, 'ethnographic songwriting,'" Jacobsen explained.
Sing Me Back Home is accompanied by original songs written and recorded in the field, with links to songs in each chapter. It includes songwriting prompts and lyrics, a glossary of key terms, and photographs from the field. Drawing on work from critical collaborative research, auto-ethnography, public anthropology, arts-based research, and ethnographic poetry, this sensory ethnography offers new ways for us to hear culture through stories and songs.
"The book is available wherever fine books are sold and I strongly encourage folks to purchase their copies at your favorite local, independent bookstore," Jacobsen said. Sing Me Home is available at Bookworks and at Organic Books in Albuquerque.
Photo by Matteo Carta: UNM Associate Professor and author Kristina Jacobsen with her guitar in the Villa Nova neighborhood of Cagliari, Sardinia (Italy).
