North Carolina faces a long road to recovery. Our communities need support now more than ever.
To aid in relief efforts, we're dedicating our North Carolina Music Issue to those affected.
$10 from each sale from now until 10/31 goes to the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund.
“The South seems always ready to rise again, bringing with it the best of the fused forces that made it the first place where jazz came into being.” — Stanley Crouch in “Crescent City”
Steve Martin praises the banjo. Greil Marcus asks “Who was Geechie Wiley?” and Tom Freeland wonders “Where the Blues Was Born.”
Featuring John Jeremiah Sullivan, William Gay, Larry Brown, Willie Morris, and Karen A. Mann. Fiction by Madison Smartt Bell. Poetry by Michael Chitwood and Anthony Martin.
Dear OA
Uncle Art's Things You Should Know
Dealer’s Choice:
Doc Watson's Gifts
by Hal Crowther
Gone off up North:
The Blues and the Gray
by Roy Blount Jr.
Perspective:
Transcending Sight
by Randall Curb
Family Life:
A Long Gone Daddy
by Connie May Fowler
Family Life:
Married to the King
by Carol Henderson
Argument:
Crescent City Rising
by Stanley Crouch
Argument:
Mozarts of the Sahara
by Phillip Ratliff
Scrapbook:
The Greatest Garage Band Ever
by Diane Roberts
Scrapbook:
Aerosmith in My Garage
by Wendy Brenner
Scrapbook:
They Were Our Heroes
by Willie Morris
Departures:
The Queen of Blond Soul
by Jerry Wexler
Departures:
FISHING WITH CHARLIE
by Larry Brown
Departures:
Our Poet of Loss
by Douglas Brinkley
Spotlight:
Hold On! He’s Comin’!
by Ron Carlson
Spotlight:
Hot on the Heels of His Own Genius
by Alan Jacobs
Spotlight:
Tell Your Mama, Tell Your Papa
by Scott Billington
Spotlight:
Rough-Cut Diamond
by Jay Orr
Spotlight:
West Coast Fiddler
by Grant Alden
Spotlight:
Bob Dylan’s Mississippi
by Andria Lisle
Spotlight:
The Contrarian
by Bill Friskics-Warren
Spotlight:
From Disney to Daemon
by Karen A. Mann
Spotlight:
Doing It Right
by John Leventhal
Spotlight:
It Ain’t over till the Fat One Sings
by John Jeremiah Sullivan
Mystery:
Who Was Geechie Wiley?
by Greil Marcus
Mystery:
Where the Blues Was Born
by Tom Freeland
History:
Introduction to Another World
by Robert Gordon
Comics:
Hunting for Old Records: A True Story
by R. Crumb
Private Lessons:
Flatpicking with a Gentleman
by Craig Havighurst
Record Label:
In the Company of Soul
by John Morthland
Cuisine:
Barbeque Swinger
by John T. Edge
Book Review:
The End of Elvis
by John Shelton Reed
Music Review:
Rescued from Oblivion
by David Gates
Instrumental:
Devil’s Box
by Philip Stevens
Sidebars:
Truckin’ Teddy
by Sheri Reynolds
Sidebars:
John Fogerty’s Southern Sense
by Jeff Baker
Sidebars:
Free Bird? Free Me!
by David Menconi
Sidebars:
Roadhouse Hip
by Rick Clark
Sidebars:
“Struttin with Some Barbeque”
by John T. Edge
The Back Door Frontman
Here is D. L. Menard, the musician who wrote the Cajun National Anthem
by Tom Graves
Banjo
I wanted everyone in listening distance to understand that this was something very special, indeed
by Steve Martin
Still Smoking
One of rock & roll's founding fathers, Ike Turner, declines a quiet exit.
by John Lewis
Gone to Jazz Fest
New Orleans is filled with people who came for jazz fest and never left
by Tom Piazza
No Hiding Place
Dorothy Love Coates is the greatest singer you've never heard
by Dave Marsh and Daniel Wolff
Sweet Songs Never Last Too Long
Navigating the darker currents in the music of John Prine
by William Gay
Leadbelly in Paris
by Madison Smartt Bell
The Donated Organ, by Michael Chitwood
Blackface, by Anthony Walton
June Carter Cash
by Holly George-Warren
Bobby Bland’s Influential Voice
by Les Black
Nina Simone
by Kristine McKenna
Bill Wyman
The OA Interview
So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star?
Interview with Jason Morphew
On the cover: Collage by A. Newt Rayburn
