By Boxcar Willie, a.k.a. Lecil T. Martin I recently reread Boxcar Willie: My Life Story, published in 1995 by Boxcar Willie AKA Lecil Travis Martin. He talks directly to the reader while telling his story in a series of individual paragraphs separated by blank lines. “My wife tells me I am a little bit different […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT – HOWARD BELLAMY When I called Howard Bellamy for a chat, he was enjoying the 70-degree weather and the sunshine in Florida while I was waiting for a blizzard in South Dakota. He told me we Dakotans should come to Florida. He lives on the Bellamy family ranch near Darby, just north […]
NEWS Ed Bruce (1939-2021): William Edwin Bruce Jr., known as Ed Bruce, died January 8 of natural causes in Clarksville, Tennessee. He was 81 years old. The singer, songwriter, and actor grew up in Memphis and began his music career on Sun Records at age 17. He moved to Nashville to be a songwriter, with […]
By Lydia R. Hamessley When Lydia R. Hamessley, a professor of music at Hamilton College in New York, was asked by the University of Illinois Press to write a book about Dolly Parton’s songs, she accepted the challenge. Analyzing a catalog containing over 3,000 songs, including 450 that have been recorded, was no small feat. […]