Episode 38: Music, Mystery, and Mountains: The Appalachian Influence in Emily Alice Katz’s Rockin’ Short Story “A Wayfarer at Devil’s Elbow”
Step into the mystical and melodic world of the Appalachian Mountains as we embark on an exploration of North Carolina author Emily Alice Katz’s short story “A Wayfarer at Devil’s Elbow,” which unravels the enigma of a reclusive 1970s rock musician who has vanished into the rugged terrain of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Episode 14: Michael Amos Cody with Frye Gaillard and Peter Cooper
In this episode of Rock is Lit we’re venturing inside the complicated world of the Nashville music biz. Michael Amos Cody joins me to talk about his novel ‘Gabriel’s Songbook’, which follows starry-eyed Gabriel Tanner on his quest to strike it big as a singer-songwriter in the Music City in the 1980s.
In the final segment, Frye Gaillard and Peter Cooper drop by to talk about the real Nashville music scene in the 1980s. Frye is an historian and author of such books as ‘A Hard Rain: America in the 1960s’, ‘The Southernization of America’, which he co-wrote with Pulitzer Prize-winner Cynthia Tucker, and ‘Watermelon Wine: The Spirit of Country Music’. Peter is the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s senior director, producer, and writer.
Episode 12: Michael Gaspeny with Ray Koob
Michael Gaspeny talks about his new novel, ‘A Postcard From the Delta’, about a white small-town Arkansas high school football star, whose obsession with the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and Robert Johnson takes him on a wild road trip to Clarksdale, Mississippi, to visit the home of the Delta Blues. Later, Ray Koob, co-host of Imbalanced HIstory of Rock and Roll podcast, does a deep dive into Delta Blues to add real-world context to Michael’s novel.
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’.