About the Contributors
Rent from DeepDyve- About the Contributors
Rick Bass is the author of 24 books of fiction and nonfiction, including New York Times and Los Angeles Times Notable Books of the Year. He worked as a biologist in Arkansas and a geologist in Mississippi and Alabama before moving to Montana in 1987, where he lives with his wife and daughters. He is a board member of the Yaak Valley Forest Council ( www.yaakvalley.org ), a grassroots organization working to help protect the last roadless wilderness in the Yaak Valley of northwestern Montana.
Cathy Smith Bowers was born and reared in the small mill town of Lancaster, South Carolina. Her poems have appeared in such publications as The Atlantic Monthly, The Georgia Review, Poetry, The Southern Review, and The Kenyon Review. She is the author of four collections of poetry: The Love That Ended Yesterday in Texas, Traveling in Time of Danger, A Book of Minutes, and The Candle I Hold Up To See You, and is the current Poet Laureate of the state of North Carolina.
Bartow J. Elmore is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia and the 2010–2011 Sarah Shallenberger Brown Fellow in Environmental Writing at Brown Residential College. He is currently completing a dissertation entitled “Turning Water into Pemberton’s Wine of Coca: An Environmental History of Coca-Cola.”
William R. Ferris is the Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History, Senior Associate Director of the Center for the Study of the American South, and Adjunct Professor of Folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, he has made numerous documentary films and has authored over 100 publications in the fields of folklore, history, literature, and photography. His book of interviews of Delta blues greats, Give My Poor Heart Ease, is now available from UNC Press.
David W. Johnson is an independent scholar who writes about traditional American music. His article on the Carter Family was selected for Da Capo Best Music Writing 2004. Since 2001, he has been working on a biography of old-time country musicians Carter and Ralph Stanley. He lives in Stratham, New Hampshire.
Vincent Joos is a French national who has been living in Mississippi since 2004. He holds degrees in philosophy from Lille 3 University, France (B.A. and M.A.). He writes for the French blues magazine ABS and co-edits the French cinema journal Tausend Augen. He is married to Mariana Talpau and is currently studying and working in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Charles Joyner is a past president of the Southern Historical Association and is currently writing a book titled A Region in Harmony: Southern Music and the Sound Track of Freedom.
Jocelyn R. Neal is Associate Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Legacy in Country Music, as well as numerous articles on early hillbilly recordings, country music and dance, and the contemporary music industry. Her current research projects include copyright and music publishing, and identity within fan culture. She has served on the editorial boards of both Music Theory Spectrum and Southern Cultures, where she now serves as co-editor.
Michael C. Taylor is a folklorist and field recordist who has collaborated on many projects throughout the state of North Carolina, including work with Alamance County’s lowrider community, Music Maker Relief Foundation in Warren County; and quartet-style gospel singers in Pender County. His work has been published in Anthem, the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, and the North Carolina Folklore Journal. Taylor lives in Pittsboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Abigail, and son, Elijah.
Terrence S. Tickle holds degrees in history from Elon University (B.A.) and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (M.A.). He has taught at the North Carolina School of the Arts and Bennett College. Since 1990 he has led his own band, the Swing City Big Band ( www.terryticklebigband.com ). This essay is drawn from a book manuscript, tentatively titled “Swinging Down Tobacco Road: Hal Kemp, UNC, and the Big Band Era.”
Dick Waterman has been...
