Hear two beautiful new songs from TJ Douglas
Time's the revelator, as Gillian Welch once sang.
Over a decade ago, we covered a beautiful record on the blog called Joey, by the New York-based singer and songwriter TJ Douglas. Recorded and released in their mid-twenties, the album marked the first time TJ had begun to publicly unpick and explore their journey as a trans person, through a series of hushed and moving songs that announced Douglas as a voice of great care and attention.
In the years since Joey, Douglas has continued releasing music, most recently on 2024's Dying LP, as well as a stand-alone single last year. Throughout this timeline they've also "studied theology, attended seminary, trained and now works as a hospital chaplain in palliative care."
All of these varying threads have been woven into the music Douglas has released, folded into the passing of time alongside their transition which has taken in top surgery and the taking of testosterone, the effect of which has shifted the tone and timber of Douglas' voice as they approach their new chapter as a 38-year-old.
Exploring that shift fully, Douglas releases two new songs this coming Friday, and views them as a return, a subtle nod, to the ethos that encapsulated the Joey LP over a decade ago. Something of a full circle moment in their life, the songs were recorded with the same group of people that brought Joey to life, and mark the first time TJ has shared their new voice alongside a full band sound. The results are as heartfelt and captivating as all that's come before.
Written about a patient Douglas worked with – "a mystical man who drew strength from the trees" – 'Joseph, It's Me' is beautifully reflective, an ode grief, loss, death; to the magic that can pass between us in the short time we're here. "I understood his tears – the loneliness, and comfort, of accessing a reality beyond words or concepts." TJ explains of their meeting with the patient in his final days. "I accompanied Joseph out of his body while I was finally landing home in mine."
The second of these new songs, 'Be Longing', is equally arresting, the sound slightly more strung out, conjuring a mood that hovers in that complicated space between a day spent really living, and the emptiness that invariably has to take its place. "The way our deepest desire to be seen, to be known completely, to be understood, attaches itself to people, places, feelings, and memories," Douglas says of the song, "but what we’re really reaching for is something larger than any one of these. Maybe you could say it’s longing for God. For me, it’s an ache I’ve felt my whole life."
However you choose to attach it, that ache is palpable here, always hovering on the periphery as the song rolls on, as the band adds tender, intuitive textures that quietly build the song into something far greater than the sum of its parts.
In many ways, it's the heart of the whole thing; gentle reminders that to live is to feel, and that the battle for both is one worth fighting for.
Both tracks are released this Friday, June 5th, via Team Love Records
