Features

"Waltz Across Memphis" by Mark Rozzo. From the 2003 Music Issue.

Big Star: It Isn't Even a Record, from the 2006 Music issue.

I was looking for a sign, a direction, a clue. I'd been a religious skeptic since the age of seven when I was admonished by my Sunday-school teacher for saying, "You've got to be kidding me," when she told us the resurrection story. So, needless to say, I wasn't looking upward for my nudge.

THE OXFORD AMERICAN at the 2010 Arkansas Literary Festival.

In search of a state's cuisine.

What if a mysterious force could help us understand everything?

2010 Southern Food Poll

As a preview to our Southern Food Issue 2010—available in early March—we present Todd Kliman’s evocative tale of food, passion, and pursuit. Todd Kliman critiques restaurants for a living, but this one chef, Peter Chang, this perfect chef, has definitely pierced his professional composure.

Stop me if you’ve heard this story before. Educated young woman—smart, pretty, curious, musically gifted, a little shy—graduates from college and goes to a big city (Chicago), meets a guy (a musician), meets his friends, a creative group of likeminded fellows also passionate about music. She’s accepted into the group—and why not? She’s got the creds. She’s played the piano by ear since she was four years old—in churches, schools, and nightclubs—and her repertoire includes gospel, blues, r&b, classical, jazz.

Even in the latter days of rock, few things can bring you back to a moment like music.

When I called up Lee Anthony, one of the names on an old soul 45 I had just found, he laughed at the mention of “Sockin’ Soul” the way someone laughs at a recently uncovered yearbook photo. The song had been the B-side of the first single released by True Soul, the independent Little Rock label Anthony had started back in 1968.

Blessed with a helplessly big voice, Kenni Huskey began performing at age seven on the Memphis program COUNTRY SHINDIG in 1962, singing with local country and rockabilly stalwart Eddie Bond. For her first taping, she was too tiny to reach the microphone, and Eddie stacked two wooden Coca-Cola crates so her little face could reach it.

Overseas, Larry Donn is big. In Europe, they rank him in the elite rockabilly class with Sonny Burgess and Billy Lee Riley. Since 1989, Donn has toured six times there. Everywhere he goes in England, Germany, Holland, Sweden, or Finland, they give him the keys to their cities, and their hearts, they name their children after him (the she-babes they call Donna), damsels rush him (he, happily married, demurs), the crowds jump when he jumps, they quiver when he sings. Not for a moment do they doubt his greatness.

We quizzed each of our Music Issue contributors on their most embarrassing concert moments, the first songs they fell in love with, their rock-star run-ins, and more.

Coming DECEMBER FIRST, 2009: Our Eleventh Annual Southern Music Issue, with two CDs.