About
About this site
I'm Amber Palmer, an independent writer who studied musicology at Temple University. I kept coming back to "Double Dutch Bus" because every quick write-up seemed to flatten it into a novelty hit. The more I followed it, the more it opened up into Philadelphia session work, jump-rope rhythm, local slang, and the stubborn way people remember hearing certain records in real life.
Most of what I care about lives around regional pop, Black radio, and the records people remember from roller rinks, bus rides, and family parties. So this turned into a site. Some pieces stay close to Smith. Others widen out into the city and the culture around him.
Method
How I handled it
Outside sources are linked in the essays where they matter. I tried to keep the writing lively without letting it outrun the facts. If something felt too shaky to stand on, it stayed out.
The dated working notes live on the Field Notes page. That is where I keep the rougher part of the process visible, including open questions and places where the public record is thinner than it should be.
Off Hours
The rest of my taste is not a secret
I added a small Off Hours page for the side shelf: Philly food opinions, a few other artists I keep returning to, and the kind of taste spillover that makes a one-subject site feel more like a person and less like a sealed package.