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.

BECOME A MEMBER Shop Login

Magazine


Issue 54, Fall 2006

Southern Music Issue Vol. VIII

“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.







 

Columns & Departments

 

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)

 


 

Features

 

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

 


 

CD Liner Notes

 

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