For the second time in a row, the Oxford American is reimagining its annual music issue to zero in on the sounds of a specific Southern city. Last year, the Conway-based magazine featured Memphis; this year, it’s Austin’s turn.
On newsstands today, the latest edition of the OA — volume 27 of the music issue and volume 131 overall — takes a particular interest in Austin’s storied live music scene.
“For obvious reasons, my colleagues and I thought a lot about spaces where music is performed. The issue collects work about jazz clubs and juke joints, dance halls and honky-tonks and dilapidated punk venues,” Patrick D. McDermott, the OA’s multimedia editor, writes in the issue’s introduction. “The issue’s companion LP [available on vinyl if you’re not satisfied with the free digital download] exclusively features live tracks. This allowed us to engage with not only the electricity of performance but also the physical rooms where noise was captured, to contemplate how setting can add textures both sonic and narrative.”
Another major focus of the issue: Austin resident, songwriting legend and cover star Willie Nelson, who is the subject of no fewer than eight short essays penned by fans, friends and family, including Willie’s youngest son, Micah Nelson.
As is often the case, the OA’s latest has some Arkansas Times connections as well. In “Ain’t It A Cold, Cold World,” Arkansas Times contributor David Ramsey offers a fractured feature story about Malvern native and country singer-songwriter Blaze Foley. Additionally, Little Rock writer Frederick McKindra, an associate editor at the OA whose words often appear in the Arkansas Times, explores the “psychedelic and cinematic” stylings of Black Pumas guitarist and solo artist Adrian Quesada in “An Unquiet Approach.”