News + Opinion
One Night at the Gaston
Forty years ago, black and white came together as one for a rock-and-roll movie in a Mount Holly theater. The author, now a rock-and-roller himself, was there, and he remembers the night with hope
American Dream?
Ghenet pulls some shirts away from a wall, exposing an area scarred by the shotgun blast that killed her husband. She’s run the store since her husband’s death, but she doesn’t like it. “Every person who walks in that door…
Policy of Containment
It was 2003, and we had tried a number of methods for removing the persistent bamboo infestation in our Myers Park yard, but despite escalating strengths of Roundup—from weed killer to brush-killer concentrate—nothing worked. During the previous summer we discovered…
You Are Here
Ana managed to get away. She found a factory nearby where she was hired without having to produce a work visa, and she made just enough there to regain some control of her life. She left the people who’d invited…
These Voices Carry
From a piece titled “Alamo,” his lyrics are full of military metaphor (more on that later). His voice rises and falls as his arms punctuate the air. I’m not tired of being tired. I’m tired of having this tired skin.…
Age-Old Dilemma (Where Are All the Men?)
When I actually go out on a date, it’s either a blind date or someone I’ve met when I go out to bars with my girlfriends on the weekends. I met one guy at the Y. Even the ones that…
Anthony Hamilton: Based on a True Story
Charlotte native Anthony Hamilton’s debut album went platinum, but he hasn’t changed much since he was a singing barber
This Guy Plays Rock and Roll
David Childers sweats. Now here’s where a writer could get melodramatic or metaphorical or hyperbolic and write that he sweats the sweat of rock and roll or some other crap like that because, really, isn’t most writing about music like…
Before Elvis Was King
On a tour of the Southeast with Mother Maybelle Carter and folks from the Grand Ole Opry, Presley played four shows at the Carolina, beginning at 2:30 p.m. Tickets were eighty-five cents for adults and fifty cents for kids. The…
Band of Brothers
A lot of ink and a few too many thesauri have been used trying to describe the music made by the Avett Brothers. Some of the attempts are interesting, some are close to accurate, and some are downright ridiculous. Of…
Catawba River Rising
"HEY!" "THE RIVER IS NOT A TRASH CAN!" Catawba Riverkeeper Donna Lisenby's voice booms, echoing off the underside of Lake Wylie's Buster Boyd Bridge. She's yet to see the culprit, the person responsible for dirt and debris sprinkling into the…
How 'Big Cat' Made the Team
Johnny Unitas had given Baltimore the title, and nothing could be bigger than the NFL championship. But what about the follow-up season in 1959? The city of Baltimore was intoxicated by a yearlong celebration, but could Unitas and the Colts…
Not Just Barbecue
Bill Spoon is selling more than chopped pork at his restaurant—he’s selling a recipe for Southern romanticism that’s increasingly hard to find
