Ashley Melzer

originally published on emusic.com.

Cribbing a line from the Man in Black, Phosphorescent’s Matthew Houck sings of those that “say love is a burning thing.” Whatever that feeling was that Cash knew so well, Houck has never felt it. For him, love’s been “fading,” “fickle,” “a cage [that] calls.” These are old bruises. Houck’s laid them bare in past recordings, playing the gutted bluesman, shambling ghost and beer-soaked crooner. Never has the music played such a majestic counter-point, though. Houck may sing how sick of love he is on “Song for Zula,” but the music betrays him.

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originally written December 2007 for David Cecelski’s FOLK 690 Coastal South course at UNC - Chapel Hill. based on oral histories conducted with Johnny and Ruthie DeMaria at their home in Newport News, VA.

a note of explanation: I had the privilege of doing an oral history project with Johnny and Ruthie, my great Uncle and Aunt, a few years ago. They had lived around the world (Uncle Johnny was a decorated army veteran, now buried at Arlington), but had settled back near Ruthie’s childhood home in Newport News, VA. At the time, they were in a drawn-out fight with the city over a land grant my great grandmother had made for a free pier and water access for the community. Ultimately, Deep Creek Pier was lost, but I am richer for having family who would fight for community principles. Ruthie’s just recently passed away and it reminded me of this creative writing project I did based on that battle and the oral histories I conducted. If you can’t tell, I loved them and my Opa a whole lot.

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originally published in Indy Week (11/2012)

For six months, Ali Colleen Neff, a doctoral candidate in communications at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, had worked with advisers from the African and African-American studies programs at Duke University and the Beat Making Lab at UNC to get one woman from Senegal to America. Neff wrote proposals, secured funds, organized presentations and scheduled performances, planning out two weeks of programming for a visit from Toussa Senerap, a young Senegalese rapper. But just weeks before she was ready to leave, her visa interview canceled everything.

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originally published on eMusic.com

In 2011, Wanda Jackson had a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 29 studio albums to her credit and undoubtedly very little to prove. Even so, the dazzling first lady of rockabilly snagged a date with Jack White, teaming up with him for The Party Ain’t Over, her aptly titled release for his Third Man Records. Just over a year later, Jackson’s back with a new album, Unfinished Business, and a new man at the controls, Americana singer/songwriter Justin Townes Earle. Some people just don’t slow down.

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originally published in the The Indy Weekly (07/2012)

The last time Brendan Greaves saw Willie French Lowery, he was sitting on a couch eating ice cream out of a gallon container. The visit had been friendly: Greaves and his business partner at the time, Jason Perlmutter, were working through their record label, Paradise of Bachelors, to reissue records from Lowery’s long career of being almost famous.

The relationship was tricky at first. Bad breaks and deals had disabused Lowery of his trust in music industry types in his youth. They’d goaded him into signing away both money and control, so he’d reorganized his approach to make music on his own terms. Despite Lowery’s early suspicions, Paradise of Bachelors won him over. They would release their first reissue of his catalogue, the 1969 eponymous debut from his band Plant and See, on July 3.

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originally published on eMusic.com

Norah Jones has always had a certain cool maturity. She’s spent the ten years since her debut wooing audiences into submission with her soft, soulful vocals and gentle piano trills. So you can imagine the shock when she threatens to kill someone on “Miriam,” a track from her new record Little Broken Hearts.

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