Celebrate 30 years of the OA.
With original work from Imani Perry, Kristen Arnett, Diane Roberts, and so many others, our Spring Issue honors our past and looks into our expansive future.
With original work from Imani Perry, Kristen Arnett, Diane Roberts, and so many others, our Spring Issue honors our past and looks into our expansive future.
“I don’t really know what to say about the NuGrape Twins. I think maybe what I love most about them and all the old gone singers like them is the cosmic degree to which they give not the faintest crap what I might have to say about them.” — John Jeremiah Sullivan
Liner notes by William Gay, Amanda Petrusich, Lindsey Millar, Paul Reyes, Ron Rash, Wells Tower, Peter Guralnick, and more.
Other contributors include Jeff Sharlett, Melissa King, William Caverlee, and more.
Editor’s Box
by Marc Smirnoff
Gone Off Up North
WHAT ABOUT BOB?
by Roy Blount, Jr.
Rumors
A CONCISE HISTORY OF COUNTRY MUSIC
by William Caverlee
OA Comix
by Jeff Baker, Onsmith, Milano Chow, Patrick Dean, J.E. Pitts, Mimi Pond, Till D. Thomas, Martin Cendreda, Richard Cowdry
AN ODE TO COUNTRY MUSIC FROM A BLACK DIXIE CHICK
by Tyina L. Steptoe
Meditations
ROMANCING THE BLUES
by Melissa King
History
COUNTRY MUSIC IN BLACK AND WHITE
by Charles Wolfe
In Memoriam
CHARLES WOLFE (1943–2006)
by Beverly Keel
Essay
A TREATISE ON COVER SONGS
by Tom Bligh
Writing on Writing
REVENGE OF THE INTELLECT
by Bill Friskics Warren
Odes
BAD MOON RISING
by Jeff Sharlet
Odes
SOUTHERN HEAVY METAL
by Bret Anthony Johnston
After the Storm
HAVE SKETCHBOOK, WILL TRAVEL
by Lawrence Lanahan
Southern Scenes
Andy Griffith on a lonesome road, two miles west of Piggott, Arkansas (1956)
6 POEMS ABOUT MUSIC
by Jeff Fallis
ABOUT A GIRL
My Sister's Love Affair with Country Music
by Wendy Brenner
THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT
Sometimes you can find salvation in the late-night music of a roadhouse coverband.
a story by Ron Rash
A GLAMOROUS LIFE
The Hottest DJ in Brooklyn is a Mild-Mannered Whiteboy from Mississippi
by Trent MacNamara
Joe Liggins
by Tom Piazza
Jeannie C. Riley
by Chet Flippo
Uncle Dave Macon
by William Gay
Big Star
by Mark Rozzo
Tex Williams
by Geoffrey Himes
Junior Kimbrough
by Alan Light
Junior’s Place
by Beth Ann Fennelly
The Armstrong Twins
by Amanda Petrusich
Sharon Jones
by Lindsey Millar
The Swan Silvertones
by Charles Yu
Bob Dorough
by Paul Reyes
Muhammad Ali & Andy Griffith
by Jack Pendarvis
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
by Carol Ann Fitzgerald
Drivin’ N’ Cryin’
by Chris Bachelder
Gary Stewart
by Ron Rash
Katharine Whalen
by Wells Tower
The Nugrape Twins
by John Jeremiah Sullivan
We the People
by Jim Ruland
Eartha Kitt
by Floyd Skloot
Eartha Kitt
by Jack Hitt
Richard Hell
by Charlie Bertsch
To Hell With Love
by Cintra Wilson
Sam Cooke
by Peter Guralnick
Townes Van Zandt
by David Wojahn
Sun Ra
by Daniel Alarcón
Sun Ra
by Karen Bennett
Cover photograph of Sam Cooke by Jess Rand, courtesy of Michael Ochs Archives.com