[contextly_auto_sidebar] CELEBRATED Yale historian C. Vann Woodward used to talk about the irony of Southern history, and the burden of Southern history, both phrases drawn in part from the novels of Faulkner. Patterson Hood, a son of Alabama who spent several decades in Athens, GA, before leaving the South like many a literary character before him, has made a fascinating songwriting career … [Read more...]
Joe Henry, Poetry, and The Blues
[contextly_auto_sidebar] LIKE a lot of listeners, I've long considered Joe Henry to be a smart and vaguely literary songwriter -- smart, more-or-less sensitive, good with words. But I was pleasantly surprised when Joe came out of the closet about his love of poetry, and since it coincided with the release of the powerful, understated record Thrum, I made sure to corner him for an interview in … [Read more...]
Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, Darker Than Ever
[contextly_auto_sidebar] LAST night, seeing Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings play their last real LP, 2011's The Harrow and the Harvest, at the Orpheum in downtown LA, I realized that this was not just a record that I liked, or one that had made me play around with a couple of its songs on guitar, but one of the finest and most timeless albums of the last decade. It's got songs like Scarlet … [Read more...]