November 1, 2011 Brad Paisley is often regarded by critics and tastemakers as a bridge between old-style country music and new. His songs—he writes or co-writes many of them himself—offer sharp, catchy melodies that are also well-crafted, accessible lyrics that are also artful. And when you listen to any of his cuts, the guitar parts always stand out. Today Chapter 16 talks with Paisley about his new memoir, Diary of a Player, the story behind the songwriter.
November 1, 2011 I am standing on a stage. In front of me is a sea of people, all very close together, and most of them are staring somewhat hopefully in my general direction. Some are wearing T-shirts and jeans, miniskirts, and tank tops, ball caps, cowboy hats, and camouflage. And other than the people facing the wrong way wearing the yellow vests labeled SECURITY and a few facing the wrong way who are too drunk to know better, this mob is expecting something from me.
October 20, 2011 Rebecca Bain’s voice was with us in intimate spaces: inside our cars, around our kitchen tables, coming from the clock radio beside the bed in the morning. Hers was the cheerfully cajoling voice that led the radio pledge drive, that shared the morning news, and that delighted in announcing a new literary discovery.
October 14, 2011 We’re coming to the Southern Festival of Books to spend time with people who create for us worlds only they can imagine, or who make us see in a more brilliant light the world we are forced to occupy. We’ll be there because we choose to inhabit their worlds, ethereal worlds that hang somewhere between language and love. We want to see these writers face to face, to learn the color of their eyes, check out their mannerisms and idiosyncrasies, confirm our suspicions, shake their hands, and have them read to us. The 2011 Southern Festival of Books will be held this weekend, October 14-16, at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.
October 6, 2011 With a new show called Fragments: Poets and Artists of the South and Southwest, Memphis’s Harrington Brown Gallery hosts an innovative exploration of the ancient tradition of ekphrasis—a literary description or consideration of a work of art. The show opens on October 7 at 6 p.m. and runs through November 1.
September 29, 2011 Handmade & Bound, a new book-arts festival in Nashville, will give visitors a chance to read between the lines. The festival features demonstrations and workshops that explore the world of carved wooden books, book restoration, indie-publishing resources, DIY pop-up books, zine-making, and more. “It really is an all-ages thing,” explains Annie Herlocker of Watkins College, a co-sponsor of the event. “This is something that spans all generations.”
