“It’s hard to point to another region with so much musical variety and so much music with world-wide appeal.”

Drumroll, please. This is Southern Cultures‘s second music issue, complete with another new CD full of ballads, blues, and bluegrass from great southern artists known and less known. While this is only our second version of this issue, it looks like we’ve found a tradition. No matter how people define southern culture, the subject of music comes up pretty fast, so a special issue on southern sounds is irresistible. When southerners mix African beats and Celtic tunes on compelling instruments like the banjo and guitar, the resulting series of unique gumbos—blues, jazz, country, and on and on—wins fans throughout the world. It’s hard to say why this is true, because many people besides southerners have their own musical genius, but it’s also difficult to point to another region with so much musical variety and so much music with world-wide appeal. Who can say why?