R.I.P. Peter Cooper — I had three surprises waiting for me during the Annual Grammy Awards ceremony last night. There were some pleasures like Brandi Carlile winning major awards and being introduced by her wife and kids. And seeing Stevie Wonder play “Higher Ground” with Chris Stapleton and that full band. Man. But the…

Following Your Arrow despite it all — Sometimes forces align. As I was contemplating this story, I read another one by Charlie Cole: Notes In Lavender The oft-ignored or forgotten queer pioneers of musicmedium.com I won’t summarize Charlie’s work except to say that if you haven’t heard or listened to Lavender Country yet, get with it! …

When a writing class reveals certain truths — The four of us — my wife, me, my best friend and his husband — share Japanese deviled eggs, smoky bourbons, curry, and ramen. I don’t remember the street or the name of this place, though it’s on Manhattan’s upper east side. …

The bar, not the lunatic fringe group — Last night as I was still processing yet another mass shooting at a public venue, my wife and I spoke about fear. “It’s all this fear of things we don’t understand,” she said. And while I agreed with her essentially, I nevertheless wondered why it’s so fucking complicated to understand…

Until it doesn’t — This isn’t the site to rant, so Paul Combs, please add me to that ranting venue you’ve made your own. I’m thinking long and hard about Nashville, for two reasons. First, the DARK: It’s another morning in America where we have to realize that the people in power care more…

After all, Thrift Stores need to be supported — With my daughter Pari and granddaughter Pippa in tow, last week I made some incredible discoveries in the teeming crates of records just sitting around waiting for lonesome pickers to find them. …

A tour from Birmingham, headed West — Sights along the way: AG Gaston Motel: bombed one night, May 1963, Dr. King having left his room. The fairgrounds, featuring KiddieLand Amusement Park, segregated, boycotted, and then closed by city officials, 1963. Central Park Theatre, home to Asa Carter’s Ku Klux Klan of the Confederacy, 1956–7, near the Chicken-in-The-Rough…

Reviewing Black Country Music — DePaul Professor of English Francesca T. Royster enjoys Country Music. In her latest book, Black Country Music: Listening For Revolutions (Univ. of Texas Press 2022), she invites us to travel with her, exploring how old country becomes new; new country invokes and beckons the old; and how we can choose…

Seeing Rhiannon Giddens Live — Listen to this: I know that you don’t have to be a native son or daughter of the Birmingham area to get this song, to understand the history it tracks, laments. I know you don’t have to have lived in 1963 to feel the horror, pain, and suffering of…