Call for Submissions: August Reading Period Now Open!

          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

  Neil’s Dreams The first girl I ever told I loved came to me from Cherokee Beach, a lakeside recreational area near my home of Bessemer, Alabama. Her name was Jean, and we were so shy with each other at the beach that we didn’t hold hands or say more than a few words as … Continue reading American Music Celebration — Terry Barr on Neil Young

Hello, Dolly For my thirty-third birthday in 2007 I drove down to Nashville from Wisconsin to see Dolly Parton on the hallowed stage of the Grand Ole Opry.  After the curtain came up, a stream of Nudie suits, cowboy hats, and colorful boots kicked off song after song like a well-oiled fiddle & steel guitar … Continue reading American Music Celebration — Stephen Roger Powers on Dolly Parton

Issue Six contributor John Zic ("The Borderlands") was happy to learn that his short story "A Secret Mother" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by The Fabulist Words & Art. You can read the story at the Fabulist, at http://www.the-fabulist.org/2014/10/29/a-secret-mother/