Susannah Felts

May 12, 2011 Progressive country music star Steve Earle’s debut novel, I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive, is a somber tale featuring no less than the ghost of the great Hank Williams Sr. (The title is borrowed from one of Hank’s hit songs.) In this tale of addiction and redemption, released concurrently with an album of the same name, Earle almost certainly draws from the depths of his own darkest days in creating the tragic figure of Doc, a physician turned morphine addict. But one of several surprises in this accomplished first novel is the fact that it is neither a thinly disguised autobiography, nor a musician’s tale.

April 29, 2011 On myriad motherhood subjects—think sanctimommies, sex after baby, the challenges of monogamy, and an endless stream of dirty socks—Kyran Pittman is an eminently quotable writer with a sharp wit, a kind of David Sedaris for modern breeders. To read her memoir-in-essays, Planting Dandelions: Field Notes from a Semi-Domesticated Life, is to want to copy and paste sentences and whole passages repeatedly into emails to your mom pals. In these essays, Pittman’s quippy, often self-deprecating humor makes for a lively read as she simply and eloquently homes in on the significance of universal domestic ups and downs. Pittman will read from Planting Dandelions at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis on May 5 at 5:30 p.m.

April 20, 2011 Part revivalist genre, part American-music-melting-pot, Americana music is “born of considerable artistic freedom—though, when a major record label is involved,” writes Nashville music journalist Jewly Hight, “the freedom may have to be fought for.” In Right By Her Roots: Americana Women and Their Songs, Hight considers eight remarkable female singer-songwriters: Lucinda Williams, Julie Miller, Victoria Williams, Michelle Shocked, Mary Gauthier, Ruthie Foster, Elizabeth Cook, and Abigail Washburn. These women have all fought that good fight, but what they share most is their unconventionality and a gutsy dedication to their own evolving visions, often at the expense of broader fame or commercial success. Hight will discuss and sign Right By Her Roots on April 23, 11 a.m., at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. During the event, she will also interview Americana musician Sarah Siskind, prior to Siskind’s own performance. The cost of this event is included with museum admission and is free to museum members.