Episode 11: Michael Parker with Jeff Place

This episode of Rock is Lit features my fellow North Carolina-native author and music lover Michael Parker’s new novel, ‘I Am the Light of This World’, a gripping story that follows protagonist, Earl, who serves over 40 years in a Texas prison for a heinous crime he didn’t commit, then, upon his release, has to navigate a world that he can barely comprehend. If you love radio favorites of the 1970s and the music and lore of Lead Belly, you’re going to love ‘I Am the Light of This World’ and this episode.

In the last segment of the show, Jeff Place, Grammy-award winning Archivist and Curator at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, joins the podcast to talk about Lead Belly to add real-world context to the music legend’s role in ‘I Am the Light of This World’.

Episode 11 Promo

Michael Parker

Photo by Matt Valentine

Michael Parker is the author of eight novels – ‘Hello Down There’, ‘Towns Without Rivers’, ‘Virginia Lovers’, ‘If You Want Me To Stay’, ‘The Watery Part of the World’, ‘All I Have In This World’, ‘Prairie Fever’, and ‘I Am the Light of This World’—and three collections of stories, ‘The Geographical Cure’, ‘Don’t Make Me Stop Now’ and ‘Everything, Then and Since’. His short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous publications, including ‘Five Points’, the ‘Georgia Review’, ‘The Southwest Review’, the ‘Washington Post’, the ‘New York Times’, ‘Oxford American’, ‘New England Review’, ‘Trail Runner’, ‘Runner’s World’, and ‘Men's Journal’. He has received fellowships in fiction from the North Carolina Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Hobson Award for Arts and Letters, the North Carolina Award for Literature and the 2020 Thomas Wolfe Prize. His work has been anthologized in the Pushcart and New Stories from the South anthologies, and he is a three-time winner of the O.Henry Award for short fiction. For nearly thirty years, he taught in the MFA Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Since 2009 he has been on the faculty of the Warren Wilson Program for Writers.  He lives in Austin, Texas.

Jeff Place

Jeff has been at the Smithsonian Music Center’s Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections since 1988. He holds an MLS from the University of Maryland and specializes in sound archives. He oversees the cataloging of the Center's collections and has been involved in the compilation of over sixty CDs of American music for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings including the Lead Belly Legacy Series, ‘Lead Belly Sings for Children’; the Pete Seeger ‘American Favorite Ballads’ series; and Woody Guthrie’s ‘The Asch Recordings’. Jeff has been nominated for 8 GRAMMY Awards and twelve Indie Awards, winning 3 GRAMMYs and 6 Indies. He was one of the producers and writers of the acclaimed 1997 edition of the ‘Anthology of American Folk Music’ and ‘The Best of Broadside, 1962-1988’ (2000). He has served on the curatorial team for a number of exhibitions including the traveling Woody Guthrie exhibition ‘This Land is Your Land’. In 2003, he co-curated the Smithsonian Folklife Festival program on Appalachian culture. In 2012, he produced and co-authored the publication and CD-box set ‘Woody at 100’ and the ‘Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Collection’ in 2014, followed by the ‘Pete Seeger: The Smithsonian Collection and Jazz Fest’ in 2019.

About This Episode

HIGHLIGHTS:

 Michael and I talk about

• the genius of Mick Taylor and Taylor’s short stint with the Rolling Stones

• North Carolina barbecue vs. Texas barbecue

• the image Michael saw one day while swimming that inspired his novel ‘I Am the Light of This World’

• why the early 1970s was such an interesting time culturally and why Michael chose it as the backdrop for a big part of the story

• the significance of the title of the novel

• the North Carolina Piedmont Blues scene of the 1930s, the Folk Music revival of the 1960s, and Rev. Gary Davis and the artists he influenced

• Michael’s relationship with music, on a personal level and as a writer

• how the songs Michael references in certain scenes complement those scenes perfectly, like “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones, “The Crystal Ship” by The Doors, “The Same Situation” by Joni Mitchell, “Walk Away” by The James Gang, ‘The Zombies’ Greatest Hits’, “No Quarter” by Led Zeppelin

• Michael’s use of song lyrics in the novel

• the significance of Lead Belly—the mythological figure and music of—to the protagonist, Earl, and to the author, Michael

• the role Hank Williams’ music plays in the story

• the “happy accidents of making art”

Jeff and I talk about Lead Belly’s

• history

• prison record

• music catalogue

• artists he influenced

• Lead Belly’s death and his legacy 

MUSIC AND MEDIA IN THE EPISODE IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:

“Time Waits for No One” by the Rolling Stones

“Can’t Hardly Wait” by The Replacements

“I Am the Light of This World” by Rev. Gary Davis

“She Loves You” by The Beatles

“Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones

“The Same Situation” by Joni Mitchell

“Walk Away” by The James Gang

“Good Mornin’ Blues” by Lead Belly

“Love in Vain” by Robert Johnson

“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” by Hank Williams

“The Gallows Pole” by Lead Belly

“Goodnight Irene” by Lead Belly

“Black Girl (In the Pines)” by Lead Belly

“Midnight Special” by Lead Belly

LINKS:

Michael Parker’s website, https://www.michaelfparker.com/

Michael Parker, Instagram, @texheel22

Jeff Place/Smithsonian Folkways website, https://folkways.si.edu/

Photo of Robert Johnson’s grave by Michael Parker