Have you just finished a book you can’t stop talking about? Is there a CD you’ve been recommending to everyone you know? Want to share your recommendations with Birmingham magazine’s readers? Contact Carla Jean Whitley to learn how you can be included in Currents.
myshelf … what people are reading
Mike Jeffcoat
Police officer, Homewood Police Department
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
By Stephen King
“Over the last 29 years, I have read every book Stephen King has written. That includes books written under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. In his fifth collection of short stories, King includes several unpublished stories as well as numerous stories published in magazines and other periodicals. Included are mentally-tortured characters such as in ‘Dolan’s Cadillac,’ about a meticulously executed revenge murder; utterly supernatural stories such as ‘The Night Flier,’ about a serial killer (of sorts), and the improbable in ‘Umney’s Last Case,’ concerning a private investigator and a writer.”
Laura Kate Whitney
Special events consultant and publisher of magiccitymanifesto.com
The Art of Racing in the Rain< br/> By Garth Stein
“This charming story is written from a dog’s perspective and is heartbreaking, romantic, humorous, tragic and insightful. I plowed through the pages within a few days and immediately passed along to another book-loving friend (who, by the way, loved it, too!).”
TOPSHELF
Mobile native Michelle Richmond’s first novel, Dream of the Blue Room (Bantam, $15), re-releases this month, six years after it was originally published by MacAdam/Cage.
Jenny and her estranged husband Dave travel to China to scatter the ashes of Jenny’s high school best friend and former romantic interest, Amanda Ruth. As the couple travels toward their goal, Jenny flashes between her high school romance, her crumbling marriage and a man she meets in China.
With an engagement ring on her finger and a future mother-in-law peering over her shoulder, Jade Fitzgerald is sent hurtling toward her past as she prepares for her future. As Jade’s wedding nears, she’s forced to face her estranged hippie mother and the secrets she wishes she could keep.
With inspirational novel The Sweet By and By (Thomas Nelson, $19.99), country music singer and Birmingham resident Sara Evans partners with best-selling author Rachel Hauck to add to her already-impressive list of accomplishments.
After World War II, life was supposed to be good for Americans. And in many ways it was. But Americans also found themselves faced with McCarthyism, the Civil Rights movement and feminist struggles. In The Victory Album: Reflections on the Good Life after the Good War (University of Alabama Press, $29.95), University of Alabama English professor Philip D. Beidler dives into the challenges that followed combining his own memories of the time with history.
University of Alabama law student Sharon Eliza Nichols apparently isn’t the only person who hates bad grammar. The Facebook group she created, I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar, is 420,000-plus members strong, and the driving force behind the book of the same name (St. Martin’s Griffin, $9.99).
LISTEN
Allison Moorer, Crows
Alabama native Allison Moorer’s songs frequently include strong female characters, a tradition she continues with “The Broken Girl” on Crows (Ryko). But the album also represents a turn in a new direction for the ordinarily country-influenced Moorer. Each song on Crows has been injected with soul, with Moorer belting out emotional lyrics and baring her soul as though confiding in a friend.
With this, her seventh album, Moorer crosses genres and suggests there’s plenty more for fans of this songwriter to anticipate.
myTunes
Michael Krall
Program director, WBHM
“I first heard the Lovell Sisters in 2005 when they won the teen talent competition on A Prairie Home Companion, and Iwas floored. Not only did they blow the lid off the competition, but they embarked on a new career! Each sister plays a different instrument: Jessica, fiddle; Megan, dobro; and Rebecca, mandolin. Drawing on their extensive touring and constant exposure to all kinds of music, their second album, Time to Grow, shows their maturity as songwriters. They are the ultimate triple threat. Amazing musicians, they harmonize beautifully and produce killer songs. Any fan of bluegrass or acoustic music will appreciate their sound. Sadly, the Lovell Sisters just announced their farewell, but thankfully, we’ll always have their recordings, and hope for a reunion down the road.”
music makers
Editors have always focused on a driving, modern sound, but on In This Light and On This Evening (FADER), the band relies on synthesizers instead of its usual electric guitars.
The result recalls the synth-driven sounds of the ’80s while still pushing the band in new, and ever exciting, directions.
Sweden’s Shout Out Louds took a break and explored individual projects between their second and third albums. When they came together to record that third album, Work (Merge Records), the band pared down its instrumentation. But even with a simpler set up, the result is a soaring, anthemic pop record, filled with tight drumming and keyboards creating music to move the soul.
The Watson Twins step confidently into the footsteps of their many influences on Talking to You, Talking to Me (Vanguard Records), the sisters' sophomore album. The group’s 2008 debut, Fire Songs, was a collection of folk and Americana wrapped up in lush vocals. And while those folk roots are still evident, The Watson Twins create indie pop colored by classic soul on songs like “Harpeth River” and “Midnight.” Experimentation is a step toward growth for this already-successful duo.
“Blue skies are coming, but I know that it’s hard.”
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE EXTENDED INTERVIEW: The locals have it …
Brothers Michael and David Seale aren’t new to the music industry. Michael worked as a music journalist and David is a musician, and together they launched Warning Track Records in 2008. Now the brothers are taking it a step further with Southbound Radio, a daily, web-based talk show about music.
A friend approached the Seales about doing a radio show for a communications group in Memphis. The brothers were interested, but when the media group wasn’t sure when to launch the Seales decided to take Southbound Radio to the Internet instead of waiting on a traditional outlet. The Seales record 10-minute segments daily and an hour-long program for Saturdays. The program launched Jan. 1 and now airs and is archived daily at radiosouthbound.com.
Birmingham magazine: Tell me a bit more about the format of the show.
Michael Seale: There are thousands of sports talk shows, news talk shows. There are talk shows about everything. We felt like there’s really a void as far as a talk show about music. Because David is a musician and I’ve been a music journalist, we kind of had it on both sides.
Think about when people are sitting around talking about music. It’s essentially that. We have lists. We’ll go down the top five TV theme songs. We talk about overrated versus underrated. We talk about our favorite album. Because of the popularity of music and the various genres of music, there’s limitless topics we could discuss. Think about it: If you’re sitting around Bottletree one night talking about music, it’s basically that.
The advantage of it being online as opposed to being on a radio station is that people can access it when it’s convenient for them.
One of the cool things we’re also going to do with the show—and this kind of plays in to owning Warning Track records--we’re going to have a daily pick to introduce our listeners to an independent artist that isn’t on a major label. So not only are we talking about music, but we’re also promoting it.
BHAM: Give me a daily pick for today.
MS: The first show our daily picks [were] Vulture Whale from Birmingham and Drew Holcombe and the Neighbors out Nashville.
BHAM: How have you spread the word about the show?
MS: A lot of it is social networking. Obviously we have a Facebook page. One of the motivating factors in the Facebook page is we’ve generated almost 300 fans that joined almost instantly. We’ve had amazing feedback from people saying wow, this is a great idea.
One of the things we’re also going to do with Facebook, is we’re going to allow listeners to give input on what topics they would like for us to discuss. And if we know a topic we’re going to do in advance, we’re going to include some of the conversation we get on the Facebook page on our show, so it becomes much more interactive.
David Seale: It’s not a call in show, so this is our way of letting the listeners interact with us.
MS: What [social media] has done, for musicians, it has revolutionized the music business because you can stay in touch with musicians and bands you like. It’s so easy. You can promote yourself if you’re a musician. I’m a huge fan of MySpace and Facebook for musicians, definitely.
