LITTLE ROCK — Among magazine fans, one of the most eagerly awaited events each year is the arrival of the Oxford American Music Issue. The same might be said for music fans anticipating the annual issue and the CD compilation that comes with it.
The quarterly magazine, now based at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, will have a listening party/CD premiere event to celebrate the ninth annual magazine/CD combination from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at The Revolution Room, 300 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock.
Admission is free.
The nearly 90-minute CD contains 26 songs by a variety of musicians.
According to Oxford American Publisher Ray Wittenberg, the music issue is a labor of love each year, especially for Editor Marc Smirnoff.
"It's very tough getting the releases for these songs," Wittenberg says. "Marc picks them out after getting input from readers and folks in the music business, experts in rhythm and blues, hillbilly, jazz and so on. Then Marc has to deal with getting the rights gratis, and going through that process is really hard.
"What comes out in the end is this great compilation of what we hope is relevant music. I don't think there's any other music magazine that makesthis kind of effort to get a song."
Wittenberg cites the care that goes into matching great songs with great writers. Kevin Brockmeier, a novelist who lives in Little Rock, is a fan of Iris DeMent and put his passion for her music into an almost five-page article.
"His memory is amazing, and how he recalls how her album moved him and changed things for him," Wittenberg says.
Arkansas artists include DeMent and Dan Hicks. Dwight Yoakam and Thelonious Monk are perhaps the biggest names in the collection. Indeed, Monk is pictured on the magazine cover, playing an upright piano which contains sheet music, with a whiskey bottle and glass on the end of the piano. A nearby table contains a pistol and several hand grenades.
Others on the CD are The Clovers, Sandy Posey, Percy Mayfield, The Roches and rapper David Banner. Cult heroes include Fred Neil, Daniel Johnston, Karen Dalton and Van Dyke Parks. Artists who have played in central Arkansas include The Hackensaw Boys and Amy LaVere.
The International Submarine Band, an early group that featured a youngGram Parsons, is featured with the song "I Must Be Somebody Else You've Known."
There are two Bettys among the 26: Betty Harris and Betty Davis - no, not the famous movie actress.
The remaining artists are Eldridge Holmes, Rev. Charlie Jackson, Zakary Thaks, Teddy Grace, Don Redman, Mayo Thompson, The Sparkletones and The Parchman Prison Band, Mississippi inmates captured - as it were - performing Mose Allison's song "Parchman Farm" on a 1972 album recorded at a Jackson studio.
Each of the artists is also featured in a story in the 168-page magazine. Someof the best-known contributing writers are Brockmeier, Warren Zanes, Bill Friskics-Warren and Holly Gleason. Roy Blount Jr. has a column, and there are two pieces of fiction.
Fans of Bob Dylan will latch onto Sean Wilentz's eight-page piece, "Mystic Nights: The making of Blonde on Blonde in Nashville, Tennessee."
Priced at $9.95, the Music Issue of the Oxford American went on sale Friday. Past issues have been award-winners, with the 1999 and 2003 music issues winning National Magazine Awards, and the 2005 issue a finalist.
For more information, call (501) 450-5376.
Style, Pages 59, 64 on 10/07/2007