Longreads Best of 2020: Music Writing By Krista Stevens Feature Music has been a salve this year, helping us cope with the myriad challenges that 2020 brought. Here are some favorite pieces of music writing we picked in 2020.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Electric Guitar Pioneer By Krista Stevens Highlight “She wielded her guitar like a weapon and distorted the sound: a guitar technique that was completely original at the time and would be copied by legions of rock guitarists in the decades after.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Rukmini Callimachi, Annie Waldman and Joshua Kaplan, Jesmyn Ward, Hillery Stone, and Alice Driver.
Death as a Work of Art By Krista Stevens Highlight “He tried to explain that the tomb was his final creative act, one that he would make with love, as he had made ceramics daily for the past forty-four years.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Seema Jilani, Katy Kelleher, Carina del Valle Schorske, Martin Padgett, and Ben Lindbergh.
RIP Little Richard, the ‘Self-Proclaimed King and Queen of Rock & Roll’ By Krista Stevens Highlight There are miracles everywhere if you know where to look. And know how to listen: A wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a-lop-bam-boom!
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Amanda Hess, Robert Draper, Emily Gogolak, Mark O’Connell, and Gabrielle Bellot.
Making Something Out of Nothing With a Scratch and a Hope: The Ballad of Shovels and Rope By Krista Stevens Highlight “We had nothing to lose,” Cary Ann said. “Fuck it. Band. Family. Let’s give it a shot. . . . Handshake, spit on it. If it gets too nasty we’ll cut and run.”
Obsession and Release: 10 Years to Write a Longread By Longreads Commentary A Longreads Podcast interview with journalists James K. Williamson and Tim Requarth on writing about family.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Lakeidra Chavis, Jodi S. Cohen, Jennifer Smith Richards, Heidi Blake, Zandria F. Robinson, Michael Hall, and Eve Peyser.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Brett Forrest, Lizzie Presser, Ahmet Altan, Lisa Miller, and James K. Williamson.
Truly Seeing the River: An Interview with Writer Boyce Upholt By Aaron Gilbreath Feature Writing about the culture and beauty of the Mississippi Delta requires seeing the mighty river as more than a line of water.
On a Wild Patch of Mississippi Soil By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Camping a wooded island along the lower Mississippi River introduces one writer to a land of legend and wildness.
Those Limits Were Not Hindrances: An Interview with Megan Pugh By Aaron Gilbreath Feature How a writer worked hard to understand one of American music’s most mysterious performers while protecting his past, and art.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Sarah Weinman, Stephen Rodrick, Bianca Giaever, James Ross Gardner, and Megan Pugh.
Where Have All the Music Magazines Gone? By Aaron Gilbreath Feature Inside music journalism post-2008 recession, and how media consumption in the 21st century offers a road map for the continuation of the once-robust medium.
Link Wray’s Rustic Masterpieces By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Link Wray is best known for his rock instrumentals, but in the early 1970s, he and his brothers recorded three albums in a chicken shack that sound like nothing else in his massive oeuvre.
Beyond “Rumble”: Talking with John O’Connor About the Other Link Wray By Aaron Gilbreath Feature Journalist John O’Connor talks about writing his epic Oxford American magazine feature on musician Link Wray.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Sheera Frenkel, Nicholas Confessore, Cecilia Kang, Matthew Rosenberg, and Jack Nicas; Phil Klay, Harley Rustad, Michael Graff, and Alan Siegel.
“I know I believe in the power of lining up little hopes” By Krista Stevens Highlight At Oxford American, Michael Graff remembers his dad, Carl.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Peter DeMarco, Tiffany Kary and Christopher Cannon, Rebecca Solnit, Will Bostwick, and Rosecrans Baldwin.
Working to Preserve Traditional Gospel Music By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight With approximately 75 percent of golden age gospel music lost, the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project is trying to save what’s left.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Brittany Packnett, Rahima Nasa, Jordan Smith, Scott Korb, and Chris Heath.
Florida, White Privilege, and Racism By Krista Stevens Highlight My origin story—as a son, and later a father and a husband; as a citizen, a racist— has always begun in a crumpled car at the side of the highway. May 30, 1982.
On the Contentious Borders of the American South By Danielle Jackson Highlight Zandria F. Robinson narrates her coming of age Memphis while examining contemporary southernness.
For the Love of Sturgill Simpson, Country Rocker Ignored by Country Music By Mike Dang Highlight A love letter to the musician with a clear country voice.
When Life Imitates Country Music By Michelle Weber Highlight “The trills in his notes sputter and lift. He sounds like an animal in trouble. Like a lounge singer who’s lost his mind.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from David Dobbs, Rachel Aviv, Max Read, Holly George-Warren, and Bianca Bosker.
Building a New Society for Black Americans, First in Mississippi By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight A movement in Jackson, Mississippi is working to remake the way the city governs, feeds, and runs itself in order to serve the black community.
Following John McPhee’s Path to ‘Oranges’ By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Fifty years after he published Oranges, one writer traces McPhee’s story to Florida to assess the state of American citrus.
