PLATE 1. Southern Gospel group buses line the back parking lot of Louisville’s Kentucky Fair and Expo Center. End of an Era: Louisville’s National Quartet Convention 2013 by Joshua Heston LOUISVILLE, KY —The National Quartet Convention, known simply as “NQC,” is the iconic event of the year for Southern Gospel music. For the last 20…
PLATE 1. A seemingly bemused Sir Walter Raleigh — complete with banjo — presides over IBMA’s 2013 World of Bluegrass (September 24-28) in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. PLATE 2. A multi-story banner announces the World of Bluegrass to Raleigh. Many attendees were gratified to see IBMA signage all over town. Bluegrass Town by Joshua Heston…
Leofstan’s Last Voyage by Edwin Woolsey Mirroring his mood, the gorgeous blue sky faded to sullen gray as Leofstan trekked eastward toward Bristol. What he failed to notice… the other seamen quickly saw. The air filled the sail with a doleful omen from the sea, uncharacteristic of bright spring weather. The misty, murky gloom pursued…
Autumn Requiem BY JOSHUA HESTON Early morning cast the Ozarks in shades of blue. A perfect sky dawning, billows of fog in the White River Valley. Lake Taneycomo’s vaporous effluence drew a shroud across Branson, obscuring condos, telephone poles and roadways. The coldwater lake regularly exceeds its banks, not with water but with fog, creating…
Yet I remember by Lindel Gore 06:00 hours, 24, 7, Phoenix, Arizona: coffee, and toast. This is the smell that floods my mind from the time I spent with grandma (My father’s mother). I was thirteen to seventeen years old then. After bloody noses, black eyes and bruised ribs, the smell of grandmas’ toast and…
Homegrown Ozarks Diversity: SOTO Fest ’18 HOLLISTER, MO — “You’re not dressed like David Bowie,” challenged the timid teenage girl standing before the big man swathed in black, bloody fur and green-and-white face paint. She then weathered the full brunt of this Ozarkian goblin king’s mock anger. “David Bowie! He’s not the Goblin King. I…
Story by Chris Whitley. Artwork by Shelly Maledy-Martin (pictured above) The Treehouse Chris Whitley This is a story about a tree house, a scar, and the loyalty of brothers. Growing up, I was fortunate to have three big brothers looking after me. Seven, nine, and ten years older than me, to this day they often…
Archery Decisions by Joshua Ong The sun had made its way up and was casting an orange hue over what would soon become a competition zone. Here, in only a handful of moments, arrows will fly toward all kinds of “animals.” This is an Archery Shooters Association (ASA) Tri-State Qualifier hosted by the White River Bowmen…
Red Riding Hood by Sarah Crouch The wolf had arrived, as he set in motion his devious plan, he changed into Lettie’s form. He knocked on the door. “Who is it?” a scratchy voice called within. “ It is I, Grandmother, Lettie, come to deliver a basket of goods,” the false child said. The older…
Original artwork by Curtis Copeland. Impending War by Clint Lacy Cotton was not king in the Ozarks but hard work was. The soil was not suited for farming. If it had been the planters would have bought it up and brought their slaves with them. Planting was done in small clearings. It was no easy…