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Our 18th annual Southern Music issue: “Visions of the Blues.” Across the 160-page magazine and 23-song CD compilation, we’re celebrating one of the South’s greatest cultural exports: blues music.
The issue comes in multiple covers, celebrating three generations of blues masters: John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt, and Adia Victoria.
Notes on the songs, including
Banning Eyre on Bassekou Kouyaté
Greil Marcus on John Lee Hooker
Ann Powers on Alabama Shakes
Play Me Down Home, by Rashod Ollison
Past Is Present, by Gayle Wald
Going Deep, by Jay Jennings
Picking Up the Piedmont Blues, by Benjamin Hedin
Think Twice, by Elijah Wald
Sip Slow, a story by Regina N. Bradley
That Winsome Moan, by Ian S. Port
The Thinning of Big Mama, by Cynthia Shearer
Unearthly Laments, by Christopher C. King
Put on my Clothes and Look Like Somebody Else, by Sarah Bryan
Dig If You Will The Picture, by Crystal Wilkinson
Still Around Here, by David Ramsey
That Look in His Eyes at 4:05, by Nathan Salsburg
Listening for the Country
The shape of Daddy’s hurt
by Zandria F. Robinson
Baby Boy Born Birthplace Blues
A hometown history
by John Jeremiah Sullivan
Sweet Bitter Blues
Encounters in Tokyo
by Amanda Petrusich
Mighty Tight Woman
Forty-five years after her debut, Bonnie Raitt still sings where she stands
by Jewly Hight
See My Face from the Other Side
Freedom is a blueswoman’s prerogative
by Daphne A. Brooks
Heads
A story by Jeffery Renard Allen
The Blues
by Nikki Giovanni
Peaches
by Alicia Ostriker
When Lucille Bogan Sings “Shave ’Em Dry”
by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Making Love to Buddy Guy
by Patricia Smith
Art by: Chris Sikich, Deborah Feingold, Lawrence N. Shustak, Joseph Desler Costa, Michael Abramson, Magdalena Solé, David Katzenstein, Danielle Osfalg, Augusta Palmer, Hongsun Yoon, Tim Duffy, Abetz & Drescher, Fahamu Pecou, Steve Miller, Cathey Miller, Carolyn Carr, Louviere + Vanessa, Danny McLean, Allen Beaulieu, Matt White, Hiraki Sawa, David Driskell, Eleanor Davis, Art Streiber, Delita Martin, Kelsey Dake
Covers: Adia Victoria (Photo by Chris Sikich), Bonnie Raitt (Photo courtesy of Deborah Feingold / Corbis Premium Historial / Getty Images), John Lee Hooker (Photo by Lawrence N. Shustak)
