Oxford American Southern State Annual Series

Oxford American: The Southern Magazine of Good Writing is published by the Oxford American Literary Project, inc. and The University of Central Arkansas in Conway. It is a quarterly publication  that owes its name to its original place of publication, Ole Miss (The University of Mississippi) in Oxford. For twelve years it has included a CD of Southern music every first quarter, which covers a number of decades and a wide variety of music. In 2010 it began its Southern State Annual Series with 27 songs from Arkansas.

This album contains the following:

1. Bobby Brown & the Curios - 'I Viborate' (c. 1959)

2. Maxine Brown - 'Take It out in Trade' (1969)

3. Frank Frost - 'Now What You gonna Do' (1962)

4. The Esquires - 'Sadie's Way (1965)

5. Kenni Huskey - 'Wild Man Tamer (c. 1966)

6. Sister Ernestine Washington - 'Holding On' (Part Two) (1954)

7. Larry Donn - 'I'll Never Forget You' (1963)

8. Johnny & Dolores - 'Sockin' Soul' (1968)

9. Wayne Raney - 'You Better Treat Your Man Right' (1951)

10. Little Beaver - 'Everybody Has Some Dues to Pay' (c. 1970)

11. Carolina Cotton - 'Three Miles South of Cash (in Arkansas)' (1946)

12. Sleepy LaBeef - 'Treat Me Like a Dog' (1996)

13. True Gospel Wymics - 'Oh Yes That's Right' (c. 1987)

14. Wayne Jackson - 'It Happened in Tennessee' (Part Two) (1973)

15. Linda Brannon - 'I'm Leavin'' (1958)

16. American Princes - 'Auditorium' (2008)

17. Andy Starr - 'Round and Round' (1956)

18. William Grant Still - 'Suite for Violin and Piano' (Third Movement) (1943)

19. Suga City - 'Savoir Faire' (2009)

20. Claudia Whitten - 'Bring Me All the Love You Got' (c. 1972)

21. Billy Lee Riley & the Little Green Men - 'Baby Please Don't Go' (1958)

22. The Gunbunnies - 'Water Tower' (1990)

23. Larry Davis - 'Down Home Funk' (Part One) ( c. 1974)

24. Oliver Lake Organ Trio - 'Gano' (2008)

25. Jim Mize - 'Release It to the Sky' (2007)

26. Amina Claudine Myers - 'Dirty No-Gooder's Blues' (1980)

27. Chris Denny - 'Vacation' (2007)

This year's CD is music from Alabama. Certainly to me the most interesting singer on it is the larger-than-life cartoonish Rev Fred Lane and his avant-garde band the Raudelunas from the 1970s and 80s, who were influenced by Dada, the Theatre of the Absurd, Surrealism and Alfred Jarry's 'pataphysics, and musically by the likes of John Cage, Stockhausen, and John Coltrane. They were a reaction against the dullness of Tuscaloosa and the failed hippy movement of the previous decade. The article in Oxford American - by Lee M. Shook, Jr - describes Lane as 'irreverent as Frank Zappa, as subversive as Captain Beefheart, and as playful as the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band'. Three albums with such titles as From the One That Cut You and Car Radio Jerome scarcely had any impact, with the record label owner that released them even stating that he'd not be at all surprised if the material had come out of a 1940s' insane asylum.

Addendum: A number of Fred Lane's songs are on YouTube! Some titles: 'I Talk to My Haircut', 'The Man with the Foldback Ears', 'Fun in the Fundus', 'The French Toast Man'.

Oh, the tracks:

1. Charlie Louvin* - Introduction

2. Ralph 'Soul' Jackson - 'Match Box' (1971)

3. Curley Money & His Ramblers - 'Stop Your Knockin'' (1957)

4. The K-Pers - 'The Red Invasion' (1968)

5. The Maddox Brothers & Rose - 'New Mule Skinner Blues ' (c. 1948)

6. Mary Gresham - 'Get on Back on the Right Track' (c. 1972)

7. Phosphorescent - 'It's Hard to Be Humble (When You're From Alabama)' (2010)

8. Odetta - 'The Times They Are A-Changin'' (1965)

9. Black Haze Express - 'Pretty Soon' (1971)

10. Hardrock Gunter & the Pebbles - 'Gonna Dance All Night' (1950)

11. Jim Bob & the Leisure Suits - 'Gangland Wars' (1982)

12. Dan Pickett - '99 ½ Won't Do' (1949)

13. Sammy Salvo - 'A Mushroom Cloud' (1961)

14. Judy Henske & Jerry Yester - 'Snowblind' (1969)

15. Lil Greenwood - 'I'm Crying' (1953)

16. Sam Dees - 'The World Don't Owe You Nothing' (1973)

17. The Gosdin Brothers - 'There Must Be a Someone (I Can Turn To)' (1968)

18. G-Side featuring Sound of Silence - 'Huntsville International' (2009)

19. Eddie Cole & His Gang - 'Abalabip' (1950)

20. Crazy Teens - 'Crazy Date' (1959)

21. Rev Fred Lane and Ron 'Pate's Debonairs - 'Rubber Room' (1983)

22. Baker Knight - 'My Memories of You' (1963)

23. Dinah Washington - 'Cold, Cold Heart' (1951)

24. Robert Brown & the Sons of the South - 'Nobody Knows' (1981)

25. Sex Clark Five - 'Red Shift' (1985)

26. King Britt featuring Sister Gertrude Morgan  - 'Precious Lord Lead Me On' (2005)

27. Various - 'Berlin Wall' (1965)

Wondrous stuff!

*Charlie Louvin, most famous for his part in the Louvin Brothers until 1963, in which he played with his wild brother Ira, died on 23 January this year at the age of 83.