Lore Article Archives
Get In Union: Bessie Jones with the Sea Island Singers: 1959-1966
Get In Union: Bessie Jones with the Sea Island Singers and Others: Alan Lomax Recordings 1959-1966 Tompkins Square By James Calemine Alan Lomax once declared the Golden Isles of Georgia home of the American song. Get In Union: Bessie Jones read more...
Deep Water And Blue Souls: Roger Pinckney's Blow The Man Down
Deep Water And Blue Souls Roger Pinckney's Blow The Man Down By James Calemine "Got two reasons why I cry away each lonely read more...
The Bloom of Underhill Rose
By James Calemine "I've been told I've got a restless soul How much dirt do I need to dig through Before I hit the gold I tried to be read more...
Bloodkin's One Long Hustle
By James Calemine CLICK ON LINKS WITH
Gimme Some Sugar, Darlin': The Quintessential Southern Cookbook
If you love to cook or just love to collect cookbooks, start making space on your bookshelf now because there's a new cookbook in town. This delightful compendium of all things culinary, Gimme Some Sugar, Darlin' by Mississippian Laurance Daltroff Triplette, is true piece read more...
Stranger In Paradise: The Works of Howard Finster
Stranger In Paradise: The Works of Reverend Howard Finster By James Calemine "For nation will rise read more...
New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music
New Horizons By James Calemine "I'm gonna sail like A ship on the ocean..." --The Georgia Sea island read more...
The Shoals Area Heats Up for the 31st Annual W. C. Handy Music Festival
It's almost that time again when the hills of North Alabama are alive with the sound of music. The 31st annual W. C. Handy Music Festival, which runs July read more...
Luther Dickinson: A Thousand Footprints in the Sand
By James Calemine Luther read more...
Games People Play: Atlanta Songwriter Joe South
Games People Play: Atlanta Songwriter Joe South By James Calemine Joe South's songs remain timeless. To me, he always epitomized the story of a living legend that no one can seem to find. He's out there somewhere, but no one has heard from him read more...
The Paintings of Georgia Artist Steve Penley
The Paintings of Georgia Artist Steve Penley By James Calemine Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1964, Steve Penley was raised in Macon, Georgia. By the time he attended the University of Georgia, he'd been painting and drawing for as long as read more...
Tennessee Williams: 27 Wagons Full of Cotton
Tennessee Williams: 27 Wagons Full of Cotton By James Calemine Born in Columbus, Mississippi, on March 26, 1911, Thomas (Tennessee) Williams wrote plays, short stories, novels and poetry. Some of his characters rank as the most memorable in read more...
Inning of a Lifetime
Inning of a Lifetime By Jerry Grillo One inning of Class D ball almost 60 years ago gave Joe Louis Reliford a lifetime of fame and free baseball – that’s right, Reliford gets into Major League ballgames on charm alone, because as an read more...
Levon Helm: Across The Great Divide
Levon Helm: Across The Great Divide To me, Levon Helm's voice captured the authentic roots of America's south. Born in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, Helm grew up on Sonny Boy Williamson, traveled with
"What Does the Lord Require of You But to do Justice...?"
By Patsy Glenn, Guest Writer
American Roots Music: "The Jefferson County Sound: Alabama's Black Gospel Quartets"
The new documentary film, "The Jefferson County Sound: Alabama's Black Gospel Quartets," (One State Films, Stone Ridge, NY, 2012) is a tribute to and an affectionate preservation of roots music, in particular black gospel a capella quartet music. The read more...
My Year of Scary Movies: (Part 9) The Shining
My Year of Scary Movies (Part 9): The Shining By Daniel Hutchens The story goes that during filming of The Shining, director Stanley Kubrick once called novelist Stephen King (from whose book the film was drawn) at about 3:00 in the read more...
A Georgia Son in the Big Apple: The Brit Whittle Interview
A Georgia Son in the Big Apple The Brit Whittle Interview By James Calemine Acting is a rough trade. Few attain moments on the silver screen. The streets of Hollywood and New York are paved with bones of dead aspirant thespians. Georgia read more...
My Year of Scary Movies: (Part 8) Halloween
HALLOWEEN (1978) Directed by John Carpenter Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence By Daniel Hutchens "He came home..."
My Year of Scary Movies (Part 7): Roman Polanski's Unholy Trinity
My Year of Scary Movies (Part 7) Roman Polanski's Unholy Trinity by Daniel Hutchens Roman Polanski made three horror films over the course of eleven years which have come to be referred to as his “Unholy Trinity” or his read more...
My Year of Scary Movies (Part 6): Satan In the 70s
My Year Of Scary Movies by Daniel Hutchens Part 6: SATAN IN THE 70s Thrills and chills have always been popular entertainment, and of course this series of essays about scary movies I’m writing skips back and forth across several read more...
My Year of Scary Movies: (Part 5): Psycho
My Year Of Scary Movies by Daniel Hutchens Part 5: Psycho (1960) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh
Making Merry in the Marigny: FMIA Tour of Homes, New Orleans
Visitors to New Orleans who think the city is defined by the French Quarter and the Garden District are in for a delightful surprise when they wander past Esplanade and across Elysian Fields into the fabulous Faubourg Marigny. Popularly known as the
HOMEGROWN: An Exhibit of Regionally Influenced Designs in Nashville, TN
HOMEGROWN is a special exhibition of regionally influenced, culturally significant, contemporary design, bringing the designs to an underexposed market outside of the major design centers. The exhibit will take place from place from June 1 through June
The Secret To A Happy Ending
The Secret To A Happy Ending A Barr Weissmann Documentary (ATO Records) By James Calemine "The secret to a happy read more...
Matthew Nolan: Crumpled Paper Dolls and Exhuming Juliet.
"My pen sustains me, " writes poet Matthew Nolan in his poem "Muddy Hearts" from his first volume of poetry and prose Crumpled Paper Dolls (2004). Nolan, through his read more...
My Year of Scary Movies (Part 4): My Trip To Meet Fritz
MY YEAR OF SCARY MOVIES by Daniel Hutchens Part 4: My Trip To Meet Fritz “Iʼm just happy Iʼm still able to warp your young minds.”
My Year of Scary Movies: (Part 3): Nite Owl Theatre
MY YEAR OF SCARY MOVIES by Daniel Hutchens Part 3: Nite Owl Theatre “Greetings, Good Groovers.” As a kid I would sometimes visit my older sister Sandi in the summertime. She lived in Athens, Ohio, and one of read more...
My Year of Scary Movies (Part 2): Plan 9 From Outer Space
MY YEAR OF SCARY MOVIES by Daniel Hutchens Part 2: Plan 9 From Outer Space(1958) Directed by Edward D. Wood Jr. Starring Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, Vampira. “You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable. read more...
My Year of Scary Movies (Part 1): Bats On My Birthday Cake
MY YEAR OF SCARY MOVIES by Daniel Hutchens Part 1: Bats On My Birthday Cake When I turned six years old, my birthday cake was decorated with bats. Not bats of the baseball variety, but bats with wings. As in vampire bats, as in read more...
Rock and Roll in the Rocket City: Rocking The Army
by Jane DeNeefe First among Alabama cities to integrate public facilities relatively peacefully, Huntsville could thank musicians and read more...
Meeting the Icons: Flo Kennedy and Rosa Parks
by Patsy Glenn So many of the high points in my life are framed and on the walls in my computer room. One of those is the program from the 1985 State Conference of the Alabama National Organization for Women. We met in October that year at the Econo Lodge on Battleship read more...
Alabama's Artisanal Goat Cheese Belle Chevre:"You Can Taste the Love!"
Belle Chevre Fromagerie, a tiny creamery nestled in the countryside of rural north Alabama, is a small business that packs a big punch. Just pick up any food related magazine this month and you may see
The Roots of Rock and Roll in the Rocket City by Jane DeNeefe
Huntsville's rock and roll scene got its start in a racially segregated world. Black and white neighborhoods and business districts coexisted side-by-side downtown, with separate record stores, churches and night clubs. When Sun Record tours came through read more...
The Buzz Around Savannah Bee: The Ted Dennard Interview
The Buzz Around Savannah Bee: The Ted Dennard Interview By James Calemine Ted Dennard's company, Savannah Bee, ranks as one of the most vibrant read more...
When The Saints Went Marching Out: Artists Remember Katrina, 24 August 2010
by Diann Blakely “I do not know much about gods, but I think that the river Is a strong brown god-- T. S. Eliot, “The Dry Salvages” At first I thought it was the Dog Days: that period between July and September when it is not only read more...
Young Man With A Horn: Ken Watters, Jazz Trumpeter Extraordinaire
"Ken Watters is one of the finest young trumpet players to come along in a very long while. His is a unique trumpet voice that utilizes the read more...
Widespread Panic's Michael Houser: Eight Years Gone
Michael Houser: The Quiet Genius: Eight Years Gone By James Calemine Eight years ago Widespread Panic’s founding guitarist died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 40. It doesn’t seem like eight years since he’s been read more...
Meet David Lummis, Author of The Coffee Shop Chronicles of New Orleans
In April of this year I had the opportunity to spend four glorious days in that queen of cities, New Orleans. One of the highlights of the trip, as recorded in my
Athens Cobbler Practices "Dying Art" by Holly Hollman
ATHENS, Ala. (AP) — Dust particles dance in the dim light at Dobbs Shoe Shop as Mike Latimer grinds a custom sneaker sole for an orthopedic patient. Grit and black polish outline his calloused fingertips. The smells of beeswax, used for
New Orleans Journal Episode Three: Culture, Cuisine, and "Coffee Shop Chronicles"
Randy and I arrived in NOLA on April 9 by way of Hattiesburg, MS. We elected to spend the first night of the trip in Mississippi because we had heard of a superb restaurant in downtown Hattiesburg read more...
"Ain't No City Like New Orleans"--New Orleans Journal Episode One
April in Paris? How about April in one of the most incredible cities in the world--a city rich with history, redolent with aromas of exotic cuisine, and resounding with jazz-- New Orleans, Louisiana. New read more...
Six Degrees of Swampland: Drive-By Truckers
The Six Degrees of Swampland: The Drive By Truckers serves as a compendium of all DBT-related read more...
UA Press Releases Alabama's Civil RIghts Trail: An Illustrated Guide
This amazing 350 page volume, Alabama's Civil Rights Trail: An Illustrated Guide to the Cradle of Freedom, is every person's guide to the last 150 years of the civil read more...
Six Degrees of Swampland: The Dickinson Family
Jim Dickinson--The High Priest of Memphis Mojo--shines like a beacon of light in the music world. Dickinson’s indelible read more...
A Real Christmas Letter: Writer Counts Blessings
The following is a real Christmas letter that I received last year. It was too late to publish it on Swampland so I saved it for this year because I found it not only inspirational but very funny. During 2009 I read it over and over in order to remember to count read more...
Lisa Love's Soulful Mission for The Georgia Music Hall of Fame
Lisa Love’s Mission To Preserve The Georgia Music Hall of Fame By James Calemine My old friend
Johnny Mercer: A Georgia Peach of a Songwriter
by Billy C. Farlow Elk River November 2009 Johnny Mercer is not your usual Southern music icon. In the genre of down-home music greats most life stories are all too read more...
The Endorsement: McIntosh County Smoked Oysters
The Endorsement- In Defense of the Ga. Oyster McIntosh County Smoked Oysters Lately these days, from the high end destination restaurant with celebrity read more...
First Annual Southern Shorts Film Festival by Guest Writer Kelly Kazek
Organizers of the Southern Shorts Film Festival, the first of its kind in Athens, Ala, will be screening three feature-length films read more...
Pat Conroy: An Affair to Remember
by Penne J. Laubenthal When I read my first Pat Conroy book, it was love at first paragraph. I have just finished reading the prologue to
Cornbread Chronicles: Excerpts
by Jerry read more...
Alabama Filmmaker Robert Clem, Atticus Finch, and Big Jim Folsom
by Penne J. Laubenthal The New Yorker magazine, renowned for its esoteric analyses as well as its eclectic literary pieces recently published a provocative article entitled
Going Green in New Orleans--Worn Again Art in NOLA
by Penne J. Laubenthal Having had its share of trouble over the years but forever out there on the cutting edge, New Orleans is a city whose name has always evoked history, music, literature, and art. Now read more...
Billy C Farlow Talks about Jaybird Coleman and the Blues Harp
by guest writer Billy C. Farlow After my rant about harp blowers not getting enough credit in Ted Gioia's fine book
Renowned Artist James C. Watkins and the Trinity Museum Project.
by guest writer Diane Lehr On Friday July 17,2009, I spent the late afternoon in Athens, read more...
Celebrating Juneteenth and the End of Slavery in the US
by Penne J. Laubenthal "This is the use of memory/ For liberation -- not less of love but expanding/ Of love beyond desire and so liberation/ From the future as well as the past." T. S read more...
Barney Hoskyns' Biography Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits
Barney Hoskyns’ Biography The Lowside of The Road: A Life of Tom Waits By James Calemine “Take an eye for an read more...
Rags to Riches: From Anderson Books to Books-A-Million
By Penne J. Laubenthal The old Anderson Bookland store in downtown Florence, Alabama, will soon house the elegant corporate headquarters and retail store for internationally known clothing designer read more...
The "Widespread Panic Archives" Guide
Rick Bragg Receives Harper Lee Award
By Penne J. Laubenthal At the 12th Annual Alabama Writers Symposium held earlier this month in
Ordinary Heroes: A Series---Nell Smith Lutz and the World War II Honor Flights
by Penne J. Laubenthal This feature is the first in a series about ordinary heroes—those persons who live next door or just across town, people we see every day who have, in their own quiet and special way, made the world a better place to live in. Last month read more...
Six Degrees of Swampland: Widespread Panic
It Came from Old Memphis
The Death of Community Activist/Blues Musician Willie King 1943-2009 by Andy Moore In early 2002, I worked a stint at a small, family owned record distributor in Nashville. Nothing too exciting, we had our only sales success with some locally read more...
George Washington Harris' Cemetery Party by Special Guest Dr. Sheila Byrd
As I stood on the hillside of this compact, well-kept cemetery in a place I had known for a few short months, I was struck by the beauty of the spring day: the blooming dogwoods, the bright green grass, the fresh air, and brilliant sunshine. It was as if he had ordered it read more...
Southern Literature: Roots and Branches
---by Penne J. Laubenthal What is Southern literature and when did it begin? We know that literature was being written in the not yet self-consciously read more...
Power Rankings: College Football Tradition By State
by Patrick Snow With the football season fast approaching, we thought it was time to take a State-by-State look at the schools and traditions that make up the religion that is college football in our Swampland footprint. Gold read more...
The Gonzo Tapes: The Life And Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Rooting Out Kudzu the Spartanburg Way
by Dianne Smith Fergusson “Far Eastern vines. . . . prospered until rooted out.” James Dickey –
Space Opera - LOST IN SPACE (Chapter 2)
The Epic Saga of Fort Worth's Space Opera CHAPTER TWO: HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PARTY (and later, a problem)... "I'm at the club one evening and three guys show up, and we're talking gawky, zit-faced teenagers... they wanted me to come to Fort read more...
Suicide and the South
by Penne J. Laubenthal When he was only 31 years old, the brilliant and talented John Kennedy Toole killed himself by using a garden hose to asphyxiate himself with exhaust fumes from his car. His read more...
Space Opera - LOST IN SPACE
The Epic Saga of Fort Worth's Space Opera by Frank Gutch A FOREWORD, OF SORTS... I have to laugh when I think of how many people, including those in the music industry, considered Space Opera one of Canada's best rock exports. read more...
Guest Blog by Dick Cooper: Remembering Jerry Wexler
by Dick Cooper This has been a hard time for me. Jerry Wexler was more than a mentor; he altered the forces of nature and changed the world for me. I was never sure why he read more...
What It Is--Is Swamp Music--Is What It Is
What It Is—Swamp Music—Is What It Is
Mystery And Manners' Honorary Southern Artists: Volume One
Mystery And Manners' Honorary Southern Artists Overview: Volume One By James Calemine
Resurrection: Kayaking Through the Mid-Life Crisis
by Penne J. Laubenthal Birthdays are often opportunities for self-examination and reflection. Some birthdays provoke more introspection than others. A couple of years ago I decided it was time for me to "live deliberately," in the words of Thoreau: read more...
Bob Dylan's Renaldo & Clara: Asleep In The Tomb
Bob Dylan’s Lost Classic Renaldo & Clara: Asleep In the Tomb By James Calemine "I've been read more...
Eddie Hinton Does Porretta--Again!
by Penne J. Laubenthal Eighteen years ago in April of 1991 an Italian named Graziano Uliani, founder of the
Jim Dickinson's All-Star Music & Film
In Jim Dickinson’s first contribution to Swampland/Mystery And Manners, he wrote an indelible piece on Memphis barbecue. For his second installment Dickinson cites his favorite pianists, films and a desert island music stash. The High Priest of Memphis read more...
New York City Southern Style: Alabama Studio Weekend in the Shoals
by Penne J. Laubenthal Imagine starting off your Saturday morning with the perfect Bloody Mary, garnished in typical southern fashion with pickled okra, and served to you by one of the country’s foremost clothing designers,
Billy Bob Thornton : Six Degrees of Swampland
YOUR GUIDE TO ALL THINGS BILLY BOB AT SWAMPLAND.COM
Widespread Panic: On The Beach
Widespread Panic: On The Beach
Th' Legendary Shack Shakers: "Treulogizing the Gothic South"
A review of “The Tentshow Trilogy”, consisting of “Believe”, “Pandelirium” and “Swampblood” (All on Yep Roc Records) by Frank Gutch
Jim Dickinson's Best Memphis Barbecue & Favorite Meals On The Road
When I interviewed the High Priest of Memphis Mojo—Jim Dickinson—I asked him if he’d be interested in submitting his inimitable insight on barbecue, music and movies. Mr. read more...
Natasha Trethewey: Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
by Penne J. Laubenthal Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey is a poet who gives voice to the voiceless, names to the nameless, and who creates read more...
"Inhale! Inhale! Rock N Roll" by Chris Robinson
INHALE! INHALE! ROCK N ROLL By Chris Robinson Originally Published in New Musical Express July 17, 1993 You pick up the block of read more...
Sena Jeter Naslund and Growing Up in the Segregated South
Four Spirits, a novel by Birmingham native Sena Jeter Naslund based on the aftermath of the1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four little girls, made its world premiere read more...
Fifth Annual Oxford Film Festival
The Fifth Annual Oxford Film Festival (OFF) will open Wednesday evening, read more...
The Appalachian Sounds of Fonotone Records
The Appalachian Sounds of Fonotone Records By James Calemine “I went out in the open field/Black snake bit me on the read more...
Billy C Farlow is Having Too Much Fun
by Penne J. Laubenthal Billy C Farlow, blues musician, song writer, and harmonica player who skyrocketed to fame in the early ‘70s with Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, is a force to be reckoned with read more...
Goodbye, Babylon: A Patchwork Quilt of American Music
GOODBYE, BABYLON A Patchwork Quilt of American Music By James Calemine
Cosmic Art Show in Georgia: A Photographic Retrospective
Buena Vista, Georgia's St. EOM is a Mecca for Cosmic Art Pasaquan's second annual Arts for Pasaquan Day on November 3rd, 2007 featured some of America's best visionary artists including Miz Thang, Robert Seven, Chris (Chubb) Hubbard's Heaven & read more...
A Celebration of The Life & Work of Paul Hemphill
A Celebration of The Life & Work of Paul Hemphill By James Calemine "I was ridin' number nine Headin' south from Caroline
Confessions of an Auburn Fan or It's Not Easy Being Orange (and Blue)
by Penne Jones Laubenthal The state of Alabama is a red state. It has been slowly turning red politically since 1960. In the past twenty-seven years, Alabama voters read more...
St. Simons Island: Seaside Reckoning
read more...
W.C. Handy Music Festival, Florence, Alabama, July 22-29
“If Beale Street could talk Married men would have to take up their beds and walk…” Beale Street Blues W. C. Handy wrote those words when he was read more...
The Divine Spark of Sly & The Family Stone
By James Calemine
The Challenge of Pro Sports in the Southeastern United States
It seems like a simple equation. Growing markets equals new growth opportunities for outside businesses seeking new markets. New economic engines in the South (new factories, new banking and financial concerns, growing tech base, growing populations, and increased buying power) have read more...
Clifton Taulbert at the 6th Annual Writers Conference
Ah, April in Alabama---blistering sun one day, pouring rain the next. A certainty regarding the South is that one just has to wait long enough and the weather will change. Outside the conference building at Calhoun Community College in Decatur, Alabama, a precious rain is falling, read more...
Reflections on Willie Nelson: The Complete Atlantic Sessions
WILLIE NELSON: THE COMPLETE ATLANTIC SESSIONS …A JOURNEY TO THE RESERVOIR OF AMERICAN COUNTRY & SOUL… by James Calemine “If America had one voice, it would be Willie’s…” - Emmylou read more...
Reflections on Gram Parsons: The Complete Reprise Sessions
GRAM PARSONS - THE COMPLETE REPRISE SESSIONS by James Calemine “In my hour of darkness, in my hour of need Oh Lord grant me vision oh Lord grant me speed.” (from Return of the Grievous read more...
Phil Walden Memorial
Phil Was a Capricorn By Michael Buffalo Smith May 2006 Phil Walden, 66, the Capricorn Records founder who launched the careers of Otis Redding and the Allman Brothers Band, died on Sunday, April 23, 2006 after a long read more...
The Georgia Sea Island Singers - Preserving Coastal Music Traditions
The Georgia Sea Island Singers Preserving Coastal Music Traditions By James Calemine Spring 2006 After four decades, Frankie and Doug Quimby continue to travel the world as the Georgia Sea Island Singers, read more...
Sam Shepard Stars in "Don't Come Knocking"
The Electric Cowboy Stars In Wim Wenders' Latest Film by James Calemine December '05 Sam Shepard’s career epitomizes the rugged soul of America’s West. The award read more...
Rodney Moag
Austin's own western swingin', yodel singin', morse-codin', on the roadin', book writin', out-of sightin', college teachin', language speakin', fiddle playin', radio deejayin', pickin' singin', always grinnin', college professor
John D. Wyker's Cat Tales - Eddie Hinton
AN EDDIE HINTON CAT TALE October, 2005 In The long, hot, stinking summer of 1984 Eddie Hinton caught a Greyhound Bus back into my hardware store, Hammer Swingin' Life...This was Hinton at his worst...No Nothin'...but a mean read more...
John D. Wyker's Cat Tales - Dan Penn
A DAN PENN CAT TALE by JD Wyker April, 2005 Conway Twitty's version of "Is A Bluebird Blue" was real important to Dan Penn...or should I say Wallace Pennington..It was the first real money he made as a read more...
John D. Wyker's Cat Tales - Macon & Capricorn Records
Macon & Capricorn Records Cat Tale The year 1969 was a wild and strange and crazy time for me.When the editor of GRITZ asked me to write a Cat Tale about the time I spent in Macon,Georgia I was honored to be asked and to be able to say read more...
Breakfast With Hunter
Breakfast With Hunter: A Film By Wayne Ewing Starring Dr. Hunter S. Thompson by James Calemine Feb. 2005 “There may be flies on you and me, but there are no flies on Jesus.” read more...
Sam Peckinpah
The Furious Legacy of an American Maverick by James Calemine December read more...
Drive-By Truckers: Southern (Dis)Comfort
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS Southern (Dis)Comfort: It’s Only Rock and Roll by James Calemine I “People need trouble——a little frustration to sharpen the read more...
Capricorn Records
By Russell Hall April 2004 In a business where executives often achieve legendary status, Capricorn Records founder Phil Walden has always been something of an anomaly. Unlike say, Jerry Wexler or Ahmet read more...
The Late Great Townes Van Zandt
A deluge of Townes Van Zandt releases flood the market since his death on January 1, 1997. A bitter legal battles ensues over Van Zandt's prolific song catalogue. Various related projects recently became available such as Norah Jones' Handsome Band: Live 2004, Margaret Brown's read more...
Hurt: Remembering Johnny Cash
by Michael Buffalo Smith September 2003 During the last several years of his life Johnny Cash was in severe pain 24 hours a day. For many men it would have meant retiring from the spotlight and into read more...
Tom Dowd Memorial
TOM DOWD The Legendary Producer Dies on October 27, 2002 By Derek Halsey Last May I was invited to be backstage at the Grand Ole Opry as the guest of the excellent country and western singer, Joni Harms, whom I had interviewed read more...
Barney Barnwell, A Possum's Tale
What follows are some true-to-life tales told by a genuine mountain man, my friend Barney Barnwell of Campobello, S.C. (Camp'beller, that is.) Barney has lead The Plum Hollow Band as singer and fiddle player for over 25 years, playing a unique mix of bluegrass and rock and roll read more...
John Hartford Memorial
Where Does an Old Time River Man Go? John Hartford Remembered By Derek Halsey December 2001 In the cool autumn air the sounds of the riverboats were everywhere. There is nothing like the whistle of a ship like the Delta read more...
John Lee Hooker Memorial
John Lee Hooker (1917-2001) The Man is Gone, But The Boogie Lives On by J.C. Juanis June 21, 2001 The music community lost a great one today, when news of the death of bluesman John Lee Hooker read more...
Stanley Booth: Can I Get A Witness
Can I Get A Witness The True Adventures of Stanley Booth By James Calemine Winter 2000 Jack Kerouac was a writer. That is, he wrote. Many people who call themselves writers and have their names on books aren’t read more...
Remembering Eddie Hinton
Remembering Eddie Hinton "A Musician's Musician" by Dick Cooper Winter 2000 Eddie Hinton was a jewel. The many facets of his talent shone independently, and the whole was much greater than its parts. read more...
Janis Joplin Remembered
Recollections of Janis Seen Through the Eyes of Big Brother by Sam Andrew Summer 2000 Janis Joplin spent her childhood in Port Arthur, Texas. That town and indeed all of Texas east of Houston is bayou country, read more...