{"id":15700,"date":"2018-12-16T05:30:03","date_gmt":"2018-12-16T10:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=15700"},"modified":"2018-11-15T17:11:59","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T22:11:59","slug":"oxford-american-celebrates-n-c-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/16\/oxford-american-celebrates-n-c-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxford American Celebrates N.C. Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"North Carolina has a rich musical history and a thriving current-day music scene. Both are being recognized in the Winter 2018 issue of Oxford American<\/i>. The esteemed literary and arts magazine devotes the entirety the issue to the state\u2019s music and poetry. And in conjunction with the issue, Oxford American<\/i> hosted a series of events in four cities. That series of celebrations culminated with two events: one at Isis Music Hall on Nov. 30, and separate event a Malaprop\u2019s the afternoon of Dec. 1.<\/p>\n

Events celebrating the issue were scheduled in Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte and Asheville. The Malaprop\u2019s event featured authors reading selected stories from the magazine, with brief interstitial sets from Raleigh-born singer-songwriter Tift Merritt. Merritt \u2013 whose essay on folk-blues musician Elizabeth Cotten is in the Winter 2018 issue \u2013 is the artist who tied all seven events together. Though she lived in New York City for nearly a decade and has toured extensively, she still acknowledges deep roots to her home state.<\/p>\n

\u201cNorth Carolina has always informed the way that I tell stories,\u201d Merritt says. \u201cI grew up at a time where regional identity was really a strong and special thing.\u201d After years during which she felt she needed to explore the world, Merritt says she realized, \u201cI just want to be in this place where people know me, my child and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to performing at all of the celebration events, Merritt was the talent organizer. While the OA<\/i> staff initially floated the idea of a touring \u201chouse band,\u201d Merritt had another idea. She asked herself, \u201cHow can we put together something that is seamless and simple, but also encourages interesting collaborations and cooperation?\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer came in the form of a \u201csinging circle\u201d featuring multiple artists. Merritt explains the concept. \u201cI\u2019ll sort of invite someone to sing with me and then set it off spinning,\u201d she says. \u201cFrom both a spiritual place and a production standpoint, it seems like a way to thread the needle somewhat elegantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isis Music Hall was the setting for the Asheville circle, featuring Amanda Anne Platt, Tyler Ramsey, Shannon Whitworth and several others including Pat \u201cMother Blues\u201d Cohen. Born in North Carolina, the blues singer had a thriving career in New Orleans. But amid the post-Katrina devastation, she came home.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cYou\u2019re going to have ups and downs wherever you go,\u201d Cohen says. \u201cBut if you have downs here, it\u2019s a lot easier to live. People are basically pretty nice.\u201d She brought her optimistic attitude with her. \u201cI said \u2018I\u2019m going to build myself back up again; the more I work, the better I get. I\u2019m going to get better and better every time I go someplace,\u201d she says, \u201cuntil everybody will know who I am.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

An image of Tryon, N.C.-born singer and musician Nina Simone graces the cover of OA<\/i>\u2019s 20th<\/sup> annual Southern Music Issue. Tiana Clark\u2019s essay \u201cNina is Everywhere I Go\u201d examines Simone\u2019s role as poetic influence. But that cover story is only one of nearly 20 N.C.-focused features, delving into the life and work of artists as diverse as jazz giant John Coltrane, hip-hop producer\/rapper 9th<\/sup> Wonder, James Taylor, alternarock legends the dB\u2019s, John Cage, George Clinton and Etta Baker.<\/p>\n

Other features in the 160-page issue explore the beach music scene, Latin music in Charlotte, and the role of Kinston, N.C. in the history of funk. The issue goes beyond music, including poetry from Asheville-based Nickole Brown and four other North Carolina writers: Tyree Daye, Benjamin Naka-Hasebe Kingsley, Zachary Lunn and C.L. White. The magazine\u2019s opening spread displays an evocative photo (by Asheville photographer Sandlin Gaither) of Platt outside her West Asheville home.<\/p>\n

Since 2012, Charlotte native and OA<\/i> Deputy Editor Max George has been on the staff of the magazine published in partnership with the University of Central Arkansas. \u201cEven as a North Carolina native, I knew going into the production of this issue that it would be a deep well,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019ve been floored with the depth of the stories and the unexpected subjects that came about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue digs deep, chronicling stories that might otherwise go untold. Writer and Winston-Salem native John Kirby is a record scout for reissue record label Numero Group and, says George, \u201ca deep North Carolina music head.\u201d His profile of Winston-Salem musician Wesley Johnson of the Teentones is one of many standout features. \u201cWe want to be as sensitive as we can to covering as many different genres, eras and artists as we can,\u201d George says.<\/p>\n

Max George concedes that the magazine simply can\u2019t be comprehensive with its state-themed issues, but the Winter 2018 issue remains an impressive sampler of North Carolina\u2019s musical-cultural landscape. \u201cWe really try to present a snapshot of the scene from the state in the time and the place that we\u2019re coming at it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Carolina has a rich musical history and a thriving current-day music scene. Both are being recognized in the Winter 2018 issue of Oxford American. The esteemed literary and arts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,44,71],"tags":[237,3644,3645,2211],"class_list":["post-15700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-live-shows","category-spoken-word","tag-asheville","tag-oxford-american","tag-pat-mother-blues-cohen","tag-tift-merritt","cat-41-id","cat-44-id","cat-71-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15703,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15700\/revisions\/15703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}