More on the 2010 Music Issue & CD
The Table of Contents
[Read the 2010 Music Issue online now]
Front Porch
by Harry L. Watson
"For most of us, roots music is not something we absorbed with our first breaths, but something we looked for and seized on, hoping to fill a void that other music could not plumb."
Fiction
"Fabor"
from the forthcoming novel Nashville Chrome
by Rick Bass
with an introduction by Jocelyn R. Neal
"She wasn't going to sleep with him, of course, not to improve her voice, or for any other reason, but she worried about it, was made a little insecure by that sustained gnawing that she was somehow holding her siblings back."
Interview
"Fixin' To Die Blues": The Last Months of Bukka White
with an afterword from B. B. King on Bukka White's Legacy
interviewed by David W. Johnson
"There's a gang that would travel if you get on a freight train and couldn't get off. If I'd stayed on there I'd been getting killed."
Photo Essay
The Legend Catcher
Rarities from the Collection of Photographer Dick Waterman
"The backstage Dylan--dutifully practicing with harmonica and guitar--wouldn't have predicted a portfolio that would include forty-five more albums."
Interview
Touching the Music: Charles Seeger
interviewed by William R. Ferris
"Pete thumbed his way all over that triangle from Maryland to Florida to Texas. Whenever he saw someone carrying a banjo or guitar, he would cotton up to them. And if they knew anything he didn't know, he'd just find out what it was, learn to do it, and then go on to the next."
Top Ten Southern Folk Singers
by Charles Joyner
"Frank Proffitt learned most of his repertoire of songs, hymns, ballads and banjo tunes from his family and sang them in a hickory-smoked baritone that flowed subtly and poignantly through his ballads like a quiet mountain stream."
Interview
Hello, America: The Life and Work of Willie French Lowery
interviewed by Michael C. Taylor
"The Oak Ridge Boys--you've heard of them--came into town, and they said, 'Willie, we'd like for you play.'"
Essay
Growing Roots in Rocky Soil:
An Environmental History of Southern Rock
by Bartow J. Elmore
"In 1967, the Allman brothers headed to California, hoping to make it big in a band called Hour Glass. The band quickly became popular on the Los Angeles music circuit, playing at popular clubs like the Whiskey a Go Go and drawing the attention of rising rock stars like Neil Young and Janis Joplin."
Mason-Dixon Lines
Women Dancing With Babies on Their Hips
poetry by Cathy Smith Bowers
". . . coupling on the dance floor, two women,
alone, dancing with babies on their hips,
weaving in and through, stitching up
the random piece-goods of the night."
Upbeat Down South
Jimmy Anderson: Natchez Swamp Blues
by Vincent Joos
"I learned how to sing from the radio. I didn't care what kind of songs. I like music, period. Any kind, you know. Country-western or blues, I would jump on it."
Not Forgotten
Saxie Dowell: Saxaphonist, Bandleader, War Hero
by Terrence S. Tickle
"Admiral Davison recommended that Captain Gehres abandon ship. The captain refused, fearing that there were sailors still alive below decks. Dowell was one of those soldiers."
And then there's Dreaming about Chords, the amazing FREE CD.
