Robert Olmstead’s ninth book is the novel, Savage Country (Algonquin). Set against a backdrop of the devastating buffalo hunts of the 1870s, the narrative has an unlikely protagonist at its center: an indefatigable woman, Elizabeth Coughlin. She is a widow bankrupted by her late husband. In an epic mission reminiscent of the cattle drive in “Lonesome Dove,” she embarks on a dangerous buffalo hunt with her estranged and mysterious brother-in-law in hopes of saving her farm.
Oxford’s own Tom Franklin says, “Robert Olmstead gets better with every book. If you know all of his previous books, you know how startling this fact is, and how startlingly good this writer is.” Olmstead’s previous novel, Far Bright Star, is in development as movie with Joaquin Phoenix. Olmstead is a professor at Ohio Wesleyan University.
Bob Mehr is the author of Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements (Da Capo Press) an epic biography about the notorious, hard-living band. Based on a decade of research and reporting–as well as access to the Replacements’ key principals, Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson–Mehr has fashioned something far more compelling than a conventional band bio. Trouble Boys is a deeply intimate portrait.
Bob Mehr is a music critic for the USA Today Network, The Commercial Appeal and a longtime contributor to MOJO magazine. He lives in Memphis with his wife.
Dylan LeBlanc’s latest release is an EP of covers, Pastimes. The six songs include tunes by some of LeBlanc’s favorite songwriters including J.J. Cale (“Sensitive Kind”), Neil Young (“Expecting to Fly”) and John Hartford who penned the first single, “Gentle on My Mind.”
LeBlanc’s previous albums include, Renegade and Cautionary Tale (Single Lock Records).
The singer/songwriter grew up in Shreveport and Muscle Shoals but his sound is more Neil Young than southern soul. Though not exactly “country music,” LeBlanc has been named one of “Ten Country Artists To Watch” by Rolling Stone.
FunkAtomic is a funk/jazz band led by veteran north Mississippi- New Orleans saxophonist, Casey Ray Lipe. The quartet includes “Star” Woodruff on keyboards, Michael Vaughn on bass and drummer Jonny Lott.