Writing the lauded memoir Just Kids may have “sidestepped” work on her next LP for a spell, but Patti Smith isn’t letting the film adaptation get in the way of completing her 11th full-length studio effort: “I’m doin’ some stuff with Patti,” actor/playwright Sam Shepard told the Washington Post recently, adding that the pair have been recording “old tunes” by the likes of Ivory Joe Hunter, Richard “Rabbit” Brown, Charlie Poole, and others at NYC’s Electric Lady Studios. Smith’s former Cowboy Mouth partner isn’t the only famous guest contributing to the set, as Television’s Tom Verlaine also recorded “some guitar,” she told Spinner. Earlier this year, Smith revealed that the forthcoming album was inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi, the home of Dylan Thomas, and Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita.
While we wait for the record to arrive, not to mention her tribute to U2, Smith published a short piece of non-fiction in The New Yorker this week: “Off the Shelf,” the tear-jerking story about how she obtained her first encyclopedia at 10 years old. You can give it a read here.