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Magazine


Issue 95, Winter 2016

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.






Visions of the Blues

Notes on the songs, including
Banning Eyre on Bassekou Kouyaté 
Greil Marcus on John Lee Hooker 
Ann Powers on Alabama Shakes


Points South

Play Me Down Home, by Rashod Ollison

Gayle Wald digs the living blues of Rhiannon Giddens 

Jay Jennings searches for Robert Palmer

Picking Up the Piedmont Blues, by Benjamin Hedin

Elijah Wald remembers Bob Dylan’s forgotten album

Sip Slow, a story by Regina N. Bradley

That Winsome Moan, by Ian S. Port 

Cynthia Shearer listens to Big Mama

Unearthly Laments, by Christopher C. King 

Sarah Bryan on the eccentric songster of Elm City

How Prince freed Crystal Wilkinson

David Ramsey bears witness to CeDell Davis

That Look in His Eyes at 4:05, by Nathan Salsburg


Features

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


Poetry

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

There are three different covers for this year’s Southern Music issue:
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)

Collect them all here.