The Oxford American Music Issue

Every year the Oxford American puts out its annual music issue. Well, except when they aren't publishing at all, which is frequently, but what can you do? This year's has been out for a while, but I finally got my hands on it. It's worth buying, if you see it, for three reasons. One and two--The CD. Every year they include a great CD of Southern music. This year's is not their best. (Last year's was amazing--Esther Phillips, you are my queen.) But every year there's something that makes you stop dead in your tracks. This year I'd say there are two moments. One is Buddy Holly's "Dearest," which has to be the sweetest little song ever. The other comes in the middle of Sammi Smith's "This Room for Rent," when Smith delivers "There's the door that he walked through when he finally found the nerve to say all the things she would have sworn he'd never say" that makes you just want to curl up and cry for that girl. (There's also an awesome version of "Piece of My Heart" by Aretha Franklin's sister, Erma, which has to be heard to be believed.) And you should get it for Tom Piazza's amazing obituary of Jimmy Martin. I'll admit right up front that I'm biased. Tom Piazza is one of my favorite people on the planet--an amazing writer and a kindhearted man with a voracious curiosity (my favorite trait in just about anyone). But biases aside, he really gets Jimmy Martin in a way I think few people do. Tom says about Martin, "He was incapable of the kinds of dissembling, duplicity, politeness, and homogenization that make for a smooth careeer in today's Gentleman's Business of country music, where every outlaw has his own hairdresser. He did everything to the hilt, whether it was telling a joke, hunting, eating, feeling sorry for himself, or playing music. Above all, playing music. He had a kind of contempt for half-measures and timid souls, and his first project would be to try to find out how steady you were on your feet." The rest of it is just as good.