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The Bitter Southerner's Best Stories (Bitter southerner, 2019)
Bitter Southerner. 2019. "One Incredible Year: The Bitter Southerner's Best Stories of 2019."
The Bitter Southerner consistently puts out some of the most beautiful and invigorating writing on the South. I am so, so grateful that some of my work—my essay, "Cedric Burnside: As Real as the Mississippi Hills"—was named some of their best work of the year.
From the profile:
"In the late 20th century, no musician represented the Hill Country Blues, an unorthodox style of music that originated in northwestern Mississippi, better than the late R.L. Burnside. His raucous performances and landmark albums, bearing titles like “A Ass Pocket of Whiskey” and “I Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down,” took him all over the world. Today, the mantle of the Hill Country Blues sits squarely on the shoulders of R.L.’s grandson, Cedric Burnside, who started playing drums in his Big Daddy’s band when he was in his early teens, and who now applies his masterful guitar playing to the work. Memphis writer Brian Foster repeatedly visited Burnside’s family near Holly Springs, Mississippi, to bring us this story, which might very well be the most beautiful profile of a musician The Bitter Southerner has ever published."
Take a look at some of the other featured stories here.
Read my essay here.