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 • Southern Music Issue Vol. 26

The Sound of You

Oxford American

Points South • Southern Music Issue Vol. 26

Flickin’ on the Dreamstate

Searching for DJ Spanish Fly • A walk through the archives with the Memphis hip-hop pioneer

Making Good Citizens • A. C. “Moohah” Williams and his Teen Town Singers

Last Call • Returning to Jazze Pha and Cee-Lo’s lost Happy Hour

The Eminence Gris of Beale Street • What could Mae Glover see?

An Absolute Freestyle Offering • The sound of music in Hawkins Bolden’s sculptures

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE NOISE • How jukeboxes made Memphis music

GLORIA, HALLELUJAH • A new prophet for an enduring blues

ELVIS’S GREATEST SHIT? • Revisiting “the very best of the very worst” bootleg

JOOKIN’ EVERYWHERE I GO • From gangsta walkin’ at the Palace to buck jumpin’ on the web

WHERE GOSPEL CAUGHT THE HOLY GHOST • Chicago gave it form; Detroit gave it choirs; Philly gave it showmanship—but Memphis gave it Soul

ROCK & ROLL KID • THE LIFE, DEATH, AND MEMPHIS BLUES OF JAY REATARD

Slow Train • How “The Letter” put Al Green and Alex Chilton on track to fame

Makin’ a Dolla Out a Dime • Talibah Safiya delivers a slower, sparser, and more luxurious version of her “Delicious”

Big in Japan • Ebonee Webb brings Memphis funk overseas

Swimming in a Dreamworld • Notes on composing “wake up…”

Crying Time Again • Jerry Phillips on the r&b oddity “Frank, This Is It”

Bettye’s Bin • Digging into the archive of a Stax songwriter

Rude Angel • We’re all in the backseat of Lorette Velvette’s V8 Ford

Presence and Connection • Julien Baker’s “Mental Math” defies calculation