Discourse Dispatch Archives
Music Maker Relief Foundation & Dust-To-Digital
Music Maker Relief Foundation & Dust-To-Digital Preserve The Oldest Traditions 5/2/08 The North Carolina-based
Emmylou Harris Inducted Into Country Music Hall of Fame
Emmylou Inducted Into The Country Music Hall of Fame 4/29/08 Last Sunday, April 27,
The Midnight Hour
A Backward Glance During The Midnight Hour 4/27/08 At this midnight hour preparations are being made for upcoming Mystery read more...
Outward Bound
“The eye and mind would be functioning as a camera. The writing would be selective and necessarily interpretive—but once the image was written the words would be final.” --Hunter read more...
Alabama: Places to Be and People to See
The Alabama Book Festival held in Montgomery, Alabama, is only in its third season and already it offers a unique opportunity for participants to meet and listen to over seventy authors, among them read more...
Dickinson's Eats & Dylan's Prize
Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer Prize & Jim Dickinson's Best On The Road Eating 4/7/08 Evening Folks, I hope all is well on this read more...
Football Film "Leatherheads" Brings Hollywood to Carolina
There’s been quite a lot of anticipation here in Greenville, SC over the past few months. I mean, everywhere you go you run into someone who was either an extra in Leatherheads, or helped with something or another on the set. And then there are
Time To Panic
A Journey To The Classic City For A Meeting With Seasoned Professionals 3/29/08
Alabama Beat: Words and Music in the Deep South
The three poems currently appearing in the Poetry section of Swampland are by Mississippi born Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey (published by permission of the author). Trethewey won read more...
Brother To Jackals & the Jukebox Chronicles
A Few Notes From The Underground 3/18/08 "Art is the perpetual motion of illusion. The highest purpose of art is to inspire. What read more...
Black History Month: Look Back, but Move Forward
“Look back but move forward” was the credo of civil rights activist Johnnie Carr who died Friday at the age of 97.
Latest Releases From James McMurtry & Otis Redding
Latest Releases From James McMurtry and Otis Redding 2/27/08
Water, Water, Everywhere, Nor Any Drop To Drink
Today the New York Times ran an article entitled “Georgia Claims a Sliver of the Tennessee River.” The quarrel is not just about boundaries. It is about water, read more...
Another Call To Harry Crews & Beyond
...An Ongoing Pursuit & Recording of the Mystery And Manners Saga...Widespread Panic...Jim Dickinson...Harry Crews and beyond... 2/19/08 “In the time I was with read more...
It's Not Easy Being Indie
I always thought that in my next incarnation I wanted to come back as an independent documentary filmmaker. I held on to that dream until I sat in an darkened room in a warehouse in Huntsville, Alabama, on Friday afternoon and listened to independent filmmaker
Widespread Soul
“When after all, it was read more...
Adventures In The (Pig) Skin Trade On Super Bowl Sunday
Roving Notes On Super Bowl Sunday 2/3/08 "There is some kind of back-door connection in my head between Super Bowls and The Allman read more...
Lest We Forget: Four Spirits
January 30, 2008, marked the 60th anniversary of the assassination of India’s political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi. It was Gandhi whose name was most invoked
The Best of All Possible Worlds or Is There Balm in Gilead?
I live in the boonies, the hinterlands of Northern Alabama. For years, I made do with erratic reception from local television stations, and then one day satellite TV and DSL changed my life. This week, thanks to a relatively new channel called
Luther Dickinson: Night Before theTour...
Luther Dickinson Talks Present, Past & Future 1/16/08 Things have been quite busy as of late. I've just about completed my interview read more...
Six Degrees of Separation
In the south we not only claim kin we also claim friends. I have learned that behind every new acquaintance there lies the possibility of finding an old friend—not to mention discovering a new one. Such was the case this week when I was working on a feature about read more...
...A Rising Tide of Georgia Rock And Roll...
A Rising Tide of Georgia Rock And Roll: David Barbe, The Drive By Truckers, Bloodkin & The Black Crowes 1/10/08 "Every read more...
2008 Year of The Crowe
...Atlanta's Black Crowes Prepare for the Warpath... 1/7/08 Today the Black read more...
Criteria Studios: 50 Years Later
Legendary Miami Studio 50 Years Later 12/30/07 Jazz fanatic Mack Emerman started the Miami, Florida, Criteria Studio 50 years ago. The read more...
Dr. John Voices Frustration At Friday New Orleans Show
Dr. John Expresses Frustration With Katrina Fallout 12/29/07 Dr. John informed the audience--at his first of two shows in his hometown last read more...
Country's Top 100 Heartbreaks
A List of Country Music's Greatest Hurtin' Songs 12/28/07 Here's an interesting
Full Moon Fever With Stanley Booth
Full Moon Fever With Stanley Booth 12/24/07 Full moon on the Little Satilla River...I return to my homesoil for the holidays, and it ain't the read more...
John Sayles Interview
Mystery & Manners John Sayles Interview 12/8/07 On Thursday I interviewed John Sayles. Sayles' new movie Honeydripper was filmed in Alabama. Honeydripper read more...
Gibson's Robot Guitar
Gibson's Robot Guitar On Sale 12/6/07 This Monday, Gibson's
No Country For Old Men Voted Best Film
Joel & Ethan Cohen's Film Earns High Praise 12/06/07 Southern writer
...Into The Deep...
Mystery & Manners Dispatch 12/05/07 Today marks the birthday of southern writer
Willie Nelson: Dogs Best Friend
Dogs Best Friend: Willie Nelson 11/24/07 Willie read more...
Swampland Salutes Great Southern Writer Paul Hemphill
Mystery & Manners Highlights Writer Paul Hemphill 11/21/07 I'd like to take this opportunity to direct everyone's attention to the read more...
Coen Brothers Adapt Cormac McCarthy's Book No Country For Old Men Into Film
Coen Brothers Adapt Cormac McCarthy's Book No Country For Old Men Into Film 11/11/07 A new Coen Brothers movie, based read more...
A Day In The Life of A Great American Guitarist (Marc Ford) PART THREE
A Day In the Life of A Great American Guitar Player: PART THREE Marc Ford In San Francisco 11/05/07 "Featherweight read more...
Mystery & Manners Dispatch From San Francisco
Dispatch From San Francisco 11/3/07 Notes written on a back porch facing Mt. Tamalpais, known to locals as "Mt. Tam". I arrived read more...
Mystery & Manners' Honorary Southern Artist(s) PART THREE--Tom Waits
Mystery & Manners' Honorary Southern Artist(s) PART THREE 10/31/07 "The quill from a buzzard The blood writes the word
Mystery & Manners' Honorary Southern Artist(s) PART TWO--Jerry Garcia
Mystery & Manners Honorary Southern Artist(s) Part Two 10/30/07 "I love the Dead. As far as Jerry Garcia, Jerry Garcia could walk read more...
Halloween Movie Reviews from GRITZ
Film Reviews by Michael Buffalo Smith SAW IV You really can’t keep a bad man down. At the opening of the film, read more...
October 27 & 28 Bridge School Benefit
21st Bridge School Benefit Hosts Various Musicians 10/27/07 In light of a
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Wednesday night’s opening game of the 2007 World Series at Fenway Park was a heartbreaker for Colorado Rockies fans. I have always read more...
SWAMPLAND Goin' Out West...Frisco Bound...
Mystery & Manners Goin' Out West To San Francisco 10/25/07
It is Raining on the River!
I guess I rattled my rain stick enough this weekend to wake up the clouds. We In North Alabama are reveling in what the Navajos call a gentle “female” rain, and I pray it continues all week. I especially hope it rains profusely on Atlanta, Georgia, where they are having read more...
Weirdness Way Down South
Weirdness Down South 10/22/07 People do crazy things, and every now and then I'd like to highlight their singular accomplishments. Recently, read more...
Mystery & Manners' Honorary Southern Artist(s) PART ONE--Bob Dylan
...Mystery & Manners' Honorary Southern Artist(s)...PART ONE... 10/11/07 "Beat a path of retreat
Marc Ford Burns Through Atlanta
A Day In The Life of a Great American Guitarist: Marc Ford Burns Through Atlanta 10/7/07
William Eggleston: The Father of Color Photography
The Photography of William Eggleston 10/4/07 Born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1939,
Ray McKinnon Randy and the Mob Blog
Ray McKinnon's Recent Blogs About His Latest Film, Randy and the Mob 10/3/07 As posted
The Paintings of Woodie Long
The Paintings of Woodie Long 10/2/07 Today I'd like to bring the reader's attention to the work of Woodie Long. Born in 1942, Long read more...
Otis Redding Film Premier October 8
Dreams To Remember Premier October 8 10/1/07 The new Otis Redding documentary, Dreams To Remember: The Legacy of Otis read more...
Buffalo's Book Club: "Dixie Lullaby"
Welcome to the first installment of Buffalo's Book Club. I figured, if Oprah can have one, so can I. The only thing is, I don't believe "O" and I will be recommending the same books. But then again, who knows? Our first book is called Dixie read more...
Arrivederci Roma, Ciao Athens (Alabama)
I have just returned from ten days in Italy (Venice, Florence/Tuscany, and Rome) and am way behind on my blog, so please bear with me. I am somewhat jet-lagged, and I am preparing to leave for Jackson, MS, on Wednesday to participate in the
People Take Warning! Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs 1913-1938
Tompkins Square Releases Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs This Week 9/29/07 This week Tompkins Square released this
Blues Great Memphis Minnie Honored
Blues Great Memphis Minnie Honored 9/28/07 In Walls, Mississippi, the female guitarist and songwriter Memphis Minnie was honored with a read more...
Nuke Fallout Shelter For Alabama
Alabama City Reopening Nuke Fallout Shelter 9/27/07 In Huntsville, Alabama, they are planning to build a state of the art nuclear fallout read more...
Goin' Home: A Tribute To Fats Domino
GOIN' HOME: A TRIBUTE TO FATS DOMINO 9/26/07 Yesterday Vanguard released
Excerpt from Paul Hemphill's The Good Old Boys
Excerpt from Paul Hemphill's The Good Old Boys 9/24/07 In preparation for my upcoming article on
Ray McKinnon's Randy and the Mob
Ray McKinnon's New Film Randy and the Mob 9/22/07 From Capricorn Pictures...Here's the trailer for Adel, Georgia, native Ray McKinnon's new comedy Randy and the Mob. The Drive By Truckers' Patterson Hood contributed a song to the soundtrack. read more...
Dylan Plays The Ryman
BOB DYLAN PLAYS THE RYMAN AUDITORIUM IN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 9/21/07 Thursday Bob read more...
CD and DVD releases for week of September 18, 2007
New Releases Doyle Bramhall Is It News (Yep Roc) Jim Dickinson
The Shadow And the Truth
9/19/07 ...THE SHADOW AND THE TRUTH... It's important to realize how blurred the fine line between reality and illusion co-exist. At read more...
Emmylou Harris Retrospective "Songbird" Hits Streets Today
Songbird: Rare Tracks & Forgotten Gems Out Today 9/18/07 A new Emmylou Harris, 4 CD-1 DVD, retrospective was released today. read more...
Luther Dickinson Flies With The Black Crowes
Luther Dickinson Flies With The Black Crowes 9/17/07 The North Mississippi All-Stars guitarist
More Alabama Authors: Eric Smith
Eric Smith is assistant professor of English at the University of Alabama-Huntsville where his speciality is Post Colonial Literature. Over ten years ago, Eric was a student in my classes at Athens State University. After completing his B.S. at ASU, Eric attended read more...
SPF Friday Fishwrap-up: LeBatard vs. Galloway
Another great southern tradition is writing. We have a whole section called Discourse that is dedicated to this pursuit. Newpapers (aka fishwraps) around the Footprint have great sportswriters that deserve to be read, and sometimes needled.
Patterson Hood Song In New Ray McKinnon Film
Patterson Hood Song In New Ray McKinnon Film 9/12/07 Patterson Hood read more...
CD and DVD releases for week of September 11, 2007
New Releases Billy Joe Shaver Storyteller: Live At The Bluebird (Sugar Hill) Kane read more...
Runnin' Down A Dream: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Perform at the New York Film Festival
9/10/07 ...Runnin' Down A Dream: A new Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Film Showing at New York Film Festival ... Tom Petty read more...
Southeast Adventure Outfitters
read more...
Blind Willie McTell Named Stateboro's Second Legend In the Arts
9/9/07 Blind Willie McTell Named Statesboro's Second Legend In the Arts On September 7, 2007, the blues great Blind Willie McTell was read more...
Sounds of the South
9/8/07 Sounds of the South "Jack of diamonds told Queen of spades Gwine with me, Be on yo creepin way."
CD and DVD releases for week of September 4, 2007
New Releases Collective Soul Afterwords (Handleman) Sterling Harrison
Spotlighting Alabama Authors
During the next few weeks I will be featuring the poetry of several Alabama writers whose poems were published in the recent anthology: Whatever Remembers Us. These poems read more...
Dog Days End?
8/28/07 Dog Days End? ...A Few Scattered Notes... "The wicked read more...
Stanley Booth arrives! (Fiction & Southern Pro Football too!)
Swampland is honored that esteemed Southern writer, Stanley Booth, has contributed one of his classic pieces
Breakfast With Paul, Drinks With Dan
8/19/07 Yesterday proved noteworthy. I met up with southern writer Paul Hemphill at
CD and DVD releases for week of August 14, 2007
Darren Kozelsky Let Your Mind Fly (Smith Entertainment) Dave Matthews/Tim Reynolds
DEATH WEEK
The 30 year anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death falls on August 16, 2007. Like it or not, Elvis ranks as a southern icon. Elvis changed the way people looked at music the way Ted Turner changed the way people look at TV.
CD and DVD releases for week of August 7, 2007
New Releases Bruce Hornsby/Christian McBride/Jack DeJohnette Camp Meeting (Sony read more...
CD and DVD releases for week of July 31, 2007
New Releases 10 Mile Crossing 10 Mile Crossing (Smith Entertainment) Chris Duarte read more...
...A Call To Harry Crews...
7/27/07 One of my heroes remains the Georgia writer Harry Crews. Some of Crews' books such as Feast of Snakes, Florida read more...
CD and DVD releases for week of July 24, 2007
New Releases Billy Bob Thornton Beautiful Door (New Door) Billy Ray Cyrus
CD and DVD releases for week of July 17, 2007
New Releases Raul Malo After Hours (New Door) Wille Mack
Look Homeward, Angel: In Memoriam Doug Marlette
On Tuesday, July 10, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette was killed in a car wreck on a rain soaked road in north Mississippi. Marlette and the driver of the truck, the theatre director at Oxford read more...
CD and DVD releases for week of July 10, 2007
New Releases Chris & Rich Robinson Brothers Of A Feather [Live] (Eagle)
The Last Outpost of Time
7/9/07 “All that we see is but a dream within a dream.”
CD and DVD releases for week of July 3, 2007
Reissues Asleep At The Wheel Western Standard Time/Big Wheel (Evangeline) Buddy read more...
New features added - Music, Discourse, Sports!
We at SWAMPLAND.COM just wanted to let everyone know about a couple of new weekly features we are adding to the site. First, we are going to do a weekly Dispatch about music and movie releases that are Southern in nature. This allows us to keep everyone up on what's read more...
CD and DVD releases for week of June 26, 2007
CDs New Releases Charlie Daniels Live From Iraq (Koch) James Burton read more...
Fire On The Mountain
6/25/07 read more...
The Rise And Disappearance of Sly Stone
6/20/07 Few groups ever attain the musical power and wide commercial appeal of Sly & The Family Stone. From 1967-1974, the group proved a formidable band whose music crossed all social and musical barriers.
Johnny Cash Radio & Elvis Auction Items
6/18/07 The Sun Records boys are in the news again... Bill Miller is now hosting
Fathers Day: Hot Fun In the Summertime
6/17/07 Happy Father’s Day… …A few scattered notes from a spot overlooking some hills here in north Georgia on a read more...
The True Adventures of Stanley Booth
6/10/07 THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF STANLEY BOOTH As I wrote in the intro to my Charlie Louvin
Adventures In the Book Trade
6/6/07 Down on Moreland Avenue at A Cappella’s—located in Atlanta’s Little Five Points neighborhood—this Indie outlet serves as a read more...
Hotlanta Under Red Skies & Electric Blue
5/28/07 ...No rain in sight here in Hotlanta...the smoke from the wild fires in South Georgia creeped up this way last week...lingering like some biblical haze in the southern read more...
A Long, Hot Summer?
I don’t think it has rained in the Tennessee Valley since the day Clifton Taulbert spoke at Calhoun College and that day was merely a tiny oasis in what has become a desert of drought. I have never read more...
Volunteer Jam DVD: The Holy Grail of Southern Rock
If there’s one single most defining event in the history of Southern Rock, it has to be the Volunteer Jam, especially the original Jams back in 1974 and 1975 and beyond. I’ll never forget my sheer joy upon discovering a bonus record inside the sleeve of
Kirk West's Photographic Memories
With great pride Swampland.com presents this in-depth interview with Kirk West. West plays an integral role in the Allman Brothers Band organization. West began taking photographs in his youth. In the 70s and read more...
Cormac McCarthy Wins Pulitzer Prize
4/16/07 Tennessee writer Cormac McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize today for his heart-rending novel The Road. Congratulations to this great southern scribe. James Calemine
"Grindhouse" is a True Tribute to Drive-In Movies
I can still remember the first time I went to a movie alone as a child. Actually, I was with my sister, but you know what I mean. I must have been ten years old. I had been to drive-ins many times with my parents, usually to see some Elvis flick or a Disney movie. In later years I read more...
Confessions of a TV Junkie
Okay, I’ll admit it. I sometimes spend way too much time sitting on the sofa in front of that infernal technological marvel called the television. I sometimes get sucked into a show before I even know what has happened. Oftentimes sitting here like I am right this read more...
Amoeba To Release Vintage Gram Parsons Performance(s)
3/20/07 On March 15, through invitation only, a listening party was conducted at South By Southwest to debut the Flying Burrito Brothers (with Gram Parsons) performing a classic show at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco in 1969.
The Best Radio On The Internet, The Mighty Field of Vision
Whatever happened to radio anyhow? I mean, radio today just plain sucks. Sure, you can find some interesting programming here and there on public radio, and the satellite radio is good if you are willing to buy an actual satellite radio and then pay a monthly fee. Even then, there is read more...
Swampland Gets The Blues
Ain’t nothin’ like the blues. From the distant wail of Son House, to the darkness of Robert Johnson running from the Hell Hound, the blues are pure magic. In no other style of music can a song about “shootin’ your woman down because she cheated on you” read more...
Billy Bob Thornton Shines In "The Astronaut Farmer"
Like most boys, I went through my “rockets and space” phase when I was a kid. I collected models of the space ships, and had photos and posters all over my bedroom wall of the Apollo rocket, alongside my Star Trek posters and an autographed photo I got from Neil read more...
South Carolina Radio and TV Pioneer Honored
BMI Award-winning songwriter Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith received the Honorary Life Membership Award from the South Carolina Broadcasters Association at their annual Winter Convention held recently in Columbia, S.C. BMI was on hand to present Smith with a Gold Record in read more...
...Story of Blind Lemon Jefferson On New York Stage...
2/21/07 A New York Theater Company presents a musical revue based on the life of Blind Lemon Jefferson. The show began last week in New York. This successful play appeared in Switzerland and France, while the Netherlands and Belgium come next. This presentation proves, once read more...
Folkstreams-The Land Where The Blues Began
2/20/07 Folkstreams.net encapsulates many great films based on blues in the south. Folklorist Alan Lomax traveled to the Mississippi Delta in the 1930s and 1940s to record and preserve the work of great blues read more...
Ghost Rider and Other Comic Book Movies
There has been a real surge of comic book movies over the past few year, and I must admit, I love it. I have been a comics fan my whole life, and once the Hollywood studios found out just how big the comics niche could be, the machine was set into motion.
June Carter Cash Tribute Album, Biography Coming This Summer
The life of the late country music legend June Carter Cash will be celebrated this June 19, four days before her birthday, with the simultaneous release of an all-star tribute album and a memoir/biography written by her son, John Carter Cash. "Anchored In Love: A read more...
...Recording Adventures In The Classic City...
2/9/07 Last weekend I returned to my old stomping grounds in Athens, Georgia. The purpose of the visit was to record spoken word material with Daniel Hutchens and Eric Carter of Bloodkin. I lived with Danny and Eric for read more...
Southern Writers Finalists For National Book Award...And Other Swampland Miscellany...
1/21/07 Southern writers Cormac McCarthy and Richard Ford are among finalists named for the 33rd annual National Book Award. Tennessee born Cormac McCarthy is nominated for his latest novel, The Road, a heart-rending story between a father and his young son in a read more...
"Layla" Book Tells The Story of a Great Recording
I have always had a thing for keeping lists. Lists of my all-time favorite movies, records, books. For as long as I can remember there have been two records that have battled it out for the number one position on the Buffalo list, The Allman Brothers Band’s Fillmore East read more...
"Dreamgirls" is a Winner
I just got in from one of the best movie musicals I have ever seen. Dreamgirls is a fictional story loosely based on the careers of The Supremes, James Brown and other R&B artists of the 1960s and ‘70s. They call it fiction but there are numerous stories woven into read more...
Texas Writer Terry Southern Makes Music News...Again...
12/29/06 Texas writer Terry Southern's legend lives on. On January 9, 2007, a new set of Beatles stamps become available in England. Southern is the only person on the cover of the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (positioned between Dylan Thomas read more...
Townes Van Zandt & Eddie Hinton on Film
12/11/06 The work of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt is now available on DVD. Be Here To Love Me can be found at www.townesthemovie.com. A new book about Van Zandt is due on March 7, 2007. John Kruth's book is titled read more...