“It must have been these stories that convinced me to go with him to a Texas gun and knife show. Camera slung to my chest, an AR-15 assault rifle strapped to his back, we walked into the Longview Civic Center.” He let himself in the house without knocking, as had become his habit, and placed »
“Birds flock, flutter and fly, strut, preen, and roost through the art of Thornton Dial.” Birds flock, flutter and fly, strut, preen, and roost through the art of Thornton Dial, citizens in a remarkable graphic menagerie that speak, sometimes forcefully, sometimes joyfully, to what he termed “hard truths.” Tigers, signifying the artist as well as »
I could not bring myself to warn Joe,doing so would cause his legs to give out,his heart collapse: you told me every life is sacred. Army of the CumberlandFebruary 5, 1862, cold and snowing Dear Father,More pitiful than packs of feral catsthe horde staggered into camp,their black faces smothered in clay,arthritic fingers mangled with dirt,echoes »
“Katrina, Ike, and Sandy—are these extreme events the new normal?” Katrina, Ike, and Sandy—are these extreme events the new normal? The emerging realities of a changing climate, as manifest in sea level rise and more intense storms, further exacerbate risk in ways that we are struggling to understand and prepare for. The associated challenges are »
“A commission! I thought. My big break, at last! And then I went off to sober up.” I’ve always enjoyed giving poetry readings. To me, each one is a literary entertainment, a chance to hold the attention of listeners in a hospitable way, an opportunity to engage and delight them with some well-chosen language. It »
We pulled off the main road, rolled down the windows, and drove toward the music. Tune into this playlist from our 2015 Music Issue, featuring off the beaten tracks suited to summer wanderings. Pressed into the pages of an imagined southern music scrapbook, photos and clippings tell of the hard work, heartbreaks, late nights, and »
Music Issue Companion CD Despite a devotion to the idyllic homestead, the southern journey circumvents the globe. The traveler takes to the road on a never-ending search for home, that ever-elusive sanctuary constructed in memory and remodeled in song. The seeker looks to the edges of the earth for enlightenment, and the sinner looks beyond »
Music Issue Companion CD Spanning a century, and offered by musicians from Texas to Tennessee, these are songs about murder and memory, songs asking for mercy. In short, these are songs about living. Track List 1| “Salvation Song” THE AVETT BROTHERS 4:48 Mignonette, Ramseur Records, theavettbrothers.com, ramseurrecords.net 2| “This is Everybody’s Song” BISHOP MANNING AND THE »
Music Issue Companion CD Track List 1| “The Early Bird Always Gets the Worm” MICHAEL HURLEY 3:13 Face a Frowning World: An E. C. Ball Memorial Album, Tompkins Square, tompkinssquare.com, snockonews.net 2| “Walking Jaybird” ETTA BAKER 2:40 Banjo, Music Maker, musicmaker.org 3| “Birmingham Is My Home” BIRMINGHAM HERITAGE BAND 7:32 Composer Amos Gordon, arranger Sammy Love, band »
Music Issue Companion CD Track List 1| “Georgia Blues” CECIL BARFIELD 5:12 Art of Field Recording Volume II: 50 Years of Traditional American Music Documented by Art Rosenbaum, Dust-to-Digital, dust-digital.com 2| “Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down II” MURRY HAMMOND 3:46 I Don’t Know Where I’m Going But I’m On My Way, Hummin’bird Records, myspace.com/murryhammond 3| “Must »
Southern Cultures was one of these beneficiaries. Doug was a friend and supporter from our earliest days. On July 10 Doug Marlette was killed when the pickup truck in which he was a passenger slid off the road in a rainstorm near Byhalia, Mississippi. He was on his way to Oxford to help some high »
Music Issue Companion CD Track List 1| “A place called the South. . .” PETE SEEGER All Pete Seeger tracks are from William R. Ferris and Michael K. Honey’s 1989 San Francisco interview, courtesy of the William R. Ferris Collection #20367 in the Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, UNC-CH 2| “Barbry Ellen” LEAVES FROM OFF »