In the Wake of Hurricane Helene

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.

Become A Member Shop Login

Magazine


Issue 27/28, Summer 1999


Southern Music Issue Vol. III

“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.







COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 


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

FEATURES


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

SHORT STORY


Leadbelly in Paris
by Madison Smartt Bell

POETRY


The Donated Organ, by Michael Chitwood

Blackface, by Anthony Walton

SOUTHERN GALLERY


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