Author: themuseumofamericana

In our continuing Q & A series, the museum of americana caught up with Christine Fadden to chat about girls’ softball, the eighties, and her future plans for her novel, Outta Here! Christine’s novel excerpt, “Throwing Signs” appeared in Issue Nine. To read more, from Christine, go to  www.christinefadden.com. What inspired you to write about … Continue reading Q & A With Issue 9 Contributor Christine Fadden

In this second in our Prose Q & A series for Issue Nine, contributor Todd Day offers insight into how his father, the novel Montana 1984, and an obituary yielded inspiration for his short story, “Coffee Creek,” which appears here. We were intrigued by the character of the rodeo clown in “Coffee Creek.”  What made … Continue reading Q & A With Issue 9 Contributor Todd Day

In the first of a series of Q & A’s with our Issue Nine prose contributors, Caitlin Palmer weighs in on memory, her writing process, and the aspects of setting in her lyric essay, “Inventory.” This is Caitlin’s first publication in a literary review, and we’re happy to report she has work forthcoming in Midwestern … Continue reading Q & A With Issue 9 Contributor Caitlin Palmer

          Poetry Janeen Rastall - "Photo from Our Only Trip to Riverside, CA" Shevaun Brannigan - "The Original Siamese Twins" Amanda Moore - "Mechanicsville, Iowa" Amorak Huey - "Ars Poetica: Poison Triptych"  John McDermott - "Crazeology" Gale Walden - "Autobiography" Fiction Denton Loving - "Hatred with Wings" John Zic - "Borderlands" … Continue reading Congratulations to Our Best of the Net Nominees

  Yellow Dog Blues William Christopher Handy is known as the father of the blues. Some who might disagree with that title would still have to admit that he’s had a great influence on American music. Though Handy is probably most famous for Saint Louis Blues, my favorite is his Yellow Dog Blues. It all started … Continue reading American Music Celebration — Robert Iulo on W.C. Handy

  Kind of Blue: Oakland, 1995 I first heard Kind of Blue, late at night, somewhere in Oakland, California. This was in 1995, and the LP was one you heard a lot in those days, at low-rent art spaces and cavernous warehouses where artists held parties to sell their work. I’m fairly certain my introduction … Continue reading American Music Celebration — Editor Lauren Alwan on Miles Davis

Unwed Fathers There are those curiosities in life that prompt us to do things we ought not to do, but do anyway, and come out on the other side often bewildered at how idiotic we were in the first place, or completely and utterly in awe of some new discovery. Of course, it’s never known … Continue reading American Music Celebration — Keith Lesmeister on Deer Tick Covering John Prine

Fred Neil, 1967 Nineteen sixty-nine, nineteen seventy, Bellingham’s south side featured one stunning aisling and three great taverns: the Kulshan, the Fairhaven, and Pluto's. The Kulshan once a bank had a great walk in vault in the back and sixteen ounce schooners for a quarter. The Fairhaven was next door north; it featured a longboard … Continue reading American Music Celebration — Kevin Miller on Fred Neil

  Poetry and the Blues No poetry class I ever took pointed out a parallel between English and American poems printed on the page and blues lyrics sung with guitar backing. I was a grad student, teaching assistant and instructor at the University of Notre Dame 1965-1970 when the great 60s blues revival was in … Continue reading American Music Celebration — Norbert Krapf on His Deeply Personal Connection to the Blues

  The Avant-Garde Hillbilly and Blues Music of Henry Flynt There are plenty of good reasons that I’d never heard (or even heard of) the strange, arresting “back porch hillbilly blues” of Henry Flynt before reading about it in David Grubbs’ recent book Records Ruin the Landscape: John Cage, the Sixties, and Sound Recording. For … Continue reading American Music Celebration — J.D. Schraffenberger on Henry Flynt