My Contribution for the White Label Series comes by way of my hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Sharon Udoh is known around here by many names and for many talents, but she most robustly burst onto the scene as Counterfeit Madison. There have been many golden eras of live local music in my hometown, but few of them felt more memorable to me than when I could see Sharon playing with her band once a week, sometimes more. There is an exuberance to the live performance – a hunger to pull people in and offer them an experience that goes beyond song.   

As any artist making songs knows, it is hard to bring the energy from the stage to life on a record, but even in the recorded form, what I love, and what I believe you might love, is how the songs do beckon a listener to that elsewhere. Even though these are recordings, they fill a room, a car, a mind with the beauty of live performance. The songs are a portal, as all the best songs are.  

- Hanif Abdurraqib