Macon, Georgia, native Tina McElroy Ansa published her second novel, Ugly Ways, in 1993. Ansa ranks as an influential novelist, teacher, filmmaker and journalist who lives in my hometown on the Georgia coast. Ugly Ways tells the story of three sisters–Betty, Emily and...
By James Calemine This 2007 Coen Brothers film was adapted from the Pulitzer-Prize winning author Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 book, No Country For Old Men. For the most part, Joel & Ethan Coen adhere to the book’s dialogue, characters and plot. When an interviewer...
Released in 1971, Straight From The Heart counts as Ann Peebles' third album. Produced by Hi Records legend Willie Mitchell Straight From The Heart generated four hits. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Peebles began singing in the church with her family when she was...
The genius of More Dirty Laundry: the Soul of Black Country resides in defying musical prejudices.
By James Calemine Born during 1947, in West Memphis, Arkansas, Shirley Brown’s first single–“Woman to Woman”–sold a million copies in eight weeks. Brown sang in the church as a child. At 14, her luminous voice caught the attention of bluesman Albert King. The Concord...
“I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most interminable and, to the citizen, most dismal swamp. I enter a swamp as a sacred place,–a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength, the marrow, of nature.” –Henry David Thoreau In Janisse Ray’s Drifting into Darien: A...
By James Calemine Albert King never tolerated nonsense. His guitar-playing captured the essence of his personality. He played a right-handed guitar upside down, but he was left-handed. King carried a loaded .45 pistol with him in the studio. He stands as one of...
By James Calemine Alabama born author Zora Neale Hurston wrote Tell My Horse: Voodoo And Life In Haiti And Jamaica in 1938. The vivid stories reveal how voodoo is interwoven within the cultures. It’s a strange tale. Tell My Horse exists as a first hand...
"Well how long has that evening train been gone?" --Leroy Carr Chuck Leavell stands as one of the finest piano players in the world. The Alabama-born, Georgia tree farmer's musical resume includes working with artists such as Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry, The Rolling...
“I read every word he ever wrote.” -Bob Dylan