Oxford American

The Oxford American is a national magazine dedicated to featuring the very best in Southern writing while documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South. Billed as "The Southern Magazine of Good Writing," it has won two National Magazine Awards and other high honors since it began publication in 1992.

Contributors

Cigarette Smoke and Magic

Oxford American

Anita Baker Introduced Us and Patrice Rushen Did the Rest

Gracias a la Vida

Some Ballad Folks

Inside Voice

Orphan Girl

Hearing Aids

The Feel of the Flames

The Final Gift • A New Traditional

The Middle Eight • A BALLADS SONGBOOK

Radical Light • The cosmic collision of Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway

Ballads by Request • Sid Hemphill and “The Strayhorn Mob”

Lost in Love • How “I Can’t Make You Love Me” became a modern standard

Smile with the Sad • The hopeful melancholy of Project Pat’s “Life We Live”

The Only Exception • On Paramore and forgiving past selves

Horse Girls • Death, ponies, and the Local Honeys

Never Walk Alone • Aretha Franklin’s gospel as heartache’s balm

Getting On • Madvillain’s “Accordion” and the double-bind of making it

Never Alone In The Night • The queer alchemy of Melvin Lindsey's Quiet Storm

More than What You Made of Me • How Beyoncé's “Listen” became the Philippines' unofficial national anthem

Was It Cooler Back Then? • A search for the memory of R.E.M. in Athens, Georgia

How To Take It Slow • Following the rhythm of Shirley Horn

Blood Harmony • The far-flung tale of a murder song

MUSIC CREDITS