After Faulkner, Welty, Morris, Hannah, O'Connor, Wright, and many more, Southern Literature had obtained a favored place on the literary map. In the span of about fifty years, a new story surfaced. Like Faulkner, this next generation was invested in a clash of cultures: the Old South and the New South. Their conflict could be felt in the stories waiting to be told.
Padgett Powell was a product of this generational shift. Growing up in Florida and moving to South Carolina, Powell was in search of something to give him direction. He graduated with a degree in Chemistry. Worked in fishing. Worked as a bagboy even. Anything to just keep going from place to place soaking in some new subculture. When he finally discovered writing at the College of Charleston and the University of Houston, the words seem to just flow from mind to pen to page.
After seeing the transition of his very pregnant English professor on a Monday to a new mother with a baby on her hip by Friday, Powell had an idea. As the instructor taught the class about the intricacies of Chaucer's ribald "The Miller's Tale" from "Canterbury Tales," Powell dreamed about what all this was like to the two-day-old child.
Like Walker Percy's "The Moviegoer" and Salinger's "The Catcher In The Rye," Powell's debut novel 1983's "Edisto" is all about crossing the rubicon from childhood to the bottom rung of adulthood. Simons Everson Manigault (one S as noted, and a name that Powell knows carries familial history for all of us born here) is a 12-year-old boy who is dealing with his parents splitting by literally leaping from culture to culture in search of either the existence of truth or not.
His mother referred to as The Doctor and The Duchess is distant and engaged in her own search. His father, The Progenitor, wants what is best for Simons but only because it comes with some manner of forced conformity (also timely with the burgeoning "Preppie" movement of the Eighties). Either way, Simons is written a lot like a Southern-fried Holden Caulfield.
Simons is too often mixing mischief with what he thinks is being smart. When his mother's help quits and moves out, the soft-spoken African-American Taurus moves in. Taurus' presence lets Simons into an entirely different world. Edisto was once a port for the horrible delivery of slaves. By the 1960s, Edisto has been a major site of growth for the African-American community since the turn of the century. So Taurus takes him to Marvin's R.O. Sweet Shop and Baby Grand. Life in the Baby Grand is wildly different for the only white boy in there. His loneliness is strangely cured as the bar gives him the one aspect of the life he is missing: attention.
His parents can only think about securing his future. The Doctor wants him to be a writer, so she surrounds him with books (which he credits many times as a suitable escape). The Progenitor's quest for normalcy will hopefully lead to him playing baseball. When the emergency door of the bus opens as it is traveling, Simons tumbles out and rolls right into the heavy, raised roots of a mighty oak tree. In Padgett's hands, this is the chance for a modern, Southern take on Stephen Dedalus from James Joyce's "The Portrait of The Artist as A Young Man."
it is you who gets sucked out into a fancy bit of tumbling on the macadam, spidering and rolling up the gentle massive cradling roots of an oak tree that has probably stopped more cars with less compassion. My tree just said whoa. You must see the miraculous thing it is to have avoided death by a perfect execution of cartwheels, rolling over a two-lane highway and partway up a tree, to clump down then with only two cracked ribs and no medicine than Empirin.
In the course of this stream-of-consciousness passage, Padgett achieves the velocity of the accident, its dreamlike written chapter in Simons' brief history, and characterizes himself as a precocious genius. At the University of Houston, Padgett was instructed by Frederick Barthelme. The sense that storytelling should never seem like storytelling was just coming to fruition. Padgett was looking for a "non-pedantic" method of accomplishing this.
"Edisto" is among the first modern Southern novels to meet that goal. Like "Catcher" it is a bildungsroman - a "coming of age" novel. Without spoiling it, it is inevitable that Simons growing up will include being shipped to a new school and becoming a writer (his voice is telling the story). More importantly, as Simons intersects with African-American culture, Padgett is also telling the tale of integration taking hold in the South. While the language stays in the vernacular, there is a definite line of secondary action as the vanishing of the dreaded old ways.
Yet again, a lot is locked into Padgett's language which borders on poetic in its coded way of addressing the present and past.
Because when your Southern barony is reduced as ours is to a tract of clay roads in a feathery herbaceous jungle of deerfly for stock and scrub oak for crop, and the great house is a model beach house resembling a pagoda, and the planter's wife is abandoned by the planter.
"Edisto" paves the way for all the other modern writers. Hailed by Walker Percy and published in part in The New Yorker, Padgett was nominated for the American Book Award and began teaching at the University of Florida in Gainesville. His birthplace. Guess you can go home again.
Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
New This Week
MUSE - Will of the People [LP/CD](Helium3/Warner)
As their last two albums have indicated, Muse finally has grown tired of being seen as the off-season Radiohead. "Will of The People" is another stadium-ready Rock record that treats every track like it deserves to be shouted from the rooftops. "Kill Or Be Killed" maximizes their metal crank v. squelch guitar work and consistent ability to write at least one Prog RAWKer on par with "Knights of Cydonia." "Will of The People" is a Queen (or Marilyn Manson-esque) stomper, "Compliance" is their defiant SynthRAWKer, and "Won't Stand Down" fills in the blanks from the last pair of albums ("Drones" most notably). The entire album is united by a dystopian central theme which actually makes Muse's superhero stance more palatable. While it does not try as hard to be as futuristic as "Simulation Theory,' "Will Of The People" delivers a new Muse.
THEE SACRED SOULS [LP/CD](Penrose/Daptone/Redeye)
There are a lot of new classic Soul records out there. Its best artists draw a thin line between revivalist and revisionist tendencies and then walk it as steadfast as Johnny Cash. San Diego's Thee Sacred Souls join Aaron Frazer, Delvon Lamarr, and Holy Hive on the cutting edge. Surprisingly, the San Diego trio's best feature is their ability to capture the same post-Doo-Wop feel of both Motown ballads and the "lowrider" Soul of the West Coast that too often receives short shrift. "Lady Love" carries its Detroit dreamy sway thanks to the patented Daptone production process an outstanding groove. "Overflowing" is the true Lover's Leap style ballad. With its carefully strummed triplets and gentle wash wisely gives its true peak moment to Josh Lane's masterful falsetto. "Easier Said Than Done" continues their less-is-more aesthetic as Thee Sacred Souls clearly know a hook (look at their use on TikTok for proof) and how to keep from sounding too retro while always maintaining that familiar warmth.
Lucky for you, T-BONES is having a TwiNight Doubleheader record release listening party for both of these new albums Friday afternoon and evening.
EZRA FURMAN - All of Us Flames [LP/Cd](ANTI/Epitaph/AMPED)
Since bursting wide open thanks to the music of Netflix's "Sex Education," Ezra Furman continues a heroic run of deep, meaningful songs that never come out and announce themselves as such. "All of Us Flames" is fiercely original. "Point Me To The Real" alludes to classic Lou Reed as it tells its sad tale accented by warm Stax-ian horns. However, it is the epic "Forever In Sunset" that blazes new trails of emotional writing ("the wrong and binding road"). and confession in a literate way. In addition, its Arcade Fire-esque sweep and build bodes well for commercial prospects. Furman dating back to 2018's "Transangelic Exodus" has again created music that richly deserves to be heard by everyone.
JULIA JACKLIN - Pre Pleasure [LP/CD](Polyvinyl/Secretly/AMPED)
While the whole bittersweet classic Fleetwood Mac strum has been done to death, it does fit well with the sad, sweet high warble of Julia Jacklin. "Love, Try Not To Let Go" tries too hard to sound like 1977, but Jacklin's tacet singing with the piano melody and her surprising St. Vincent-esque peak make it worthwhile. The addition of swirling electric guitar (and double-tracking her vocals) gives "I Was Neon" a Soccer Mommy-esque glow. However, it's the threadbare electric drum pulse of "Lydia Wears A Cross" that really shows her growth as both a singer and a songwriter. "I'd be a believer if it was all just song and dance" is a surprising way to corner the market on those who do and do not. In the end, while "Pre Pleasure" does not quite live up to her promise - but it will be found by those who believe.
MACHINE HEAD - ØF KINGDØM AND CRØWN
[LP/CD](Nuclear Blast/AMPED)
Machine Head has been easing closer to Prog-ish Metal for a few years now. Their latest seems to be their first attempt at a concept album and therefore putting all the pieces together. "Choke On The Ashes of Your Hate" is a galloping Technical Metal-ish rager complete with Gojira-esque squeals and furious drumming. However, the track really gets its boost from an Industrial-style break with Killing Joke-esque bass and a driving near Nu-Metal bridge. Now before you leave thinking this is all you get, Machine Head returns with a harder-edged searing guitar solo that neatly speeds through some very Eastern scale work. "Unhallowed" sounds like the shot of adrenaline Commercial Metal radio needs. Its slash-and-burn riffage opening and double vocal verse are custom-made for that dying format - even if it spends its last half rampaging through lightning Metal.
MARCUS KING - Young Blood [LP/CD](American Recordings)
At just 25, Marcus King is already a veteran (having left his own band to take a more bluesy solo trek) and Grammy nominee (for 2021's "El Dorado"). "Young Blood" follows in the footsteps of "El Dorado" with a more reserved tone from producer Dan Auerbach than expected. "Blues Worse Than I Ever Had" is Allman-esque with a Beatles-style rideout. "Blood On The Tracks" hearkens back to classic CCR with a mellotron added. "Lie Lie Lie" goes from ZZTop-esque Funk rave-up to Hendrixian chorus. "Young Blood" proves that King is more versatile than his previous albums and a good bet for encompassing both Classic Rock and Blues fans with singles.
REISSUE OF THE WEEK
BLONDIE - Against The Odds 1974-1982
[3CD/8CD/6LP](Numero Group/Universal)
Debbie Harry and Blondie are often more revered for their contribution as late Seventies/early Eighties hit makers. However, the path of least resistance they took getting there is actually far more revealing about a band that purposefully bent trends to their will. For the first time ever, the band has approved a collection of singles, demos, outtakes, and album cuts to tell their story. This one is a treasure trove of their greatest songs beginning with the mock Girl Group-esque years ("Detroit 442," "X Offender") and zooming right into their success (versions of "Once I Had a Love" a/k/a "Heart of Glass" dating back to 1975). You get to hear the best songs in different shapes ("Sunday Girl" en Francais, Jack Lee's "Hanging On The Telephone" excitedly covered, and the underrated "Union City Blue" as an instrumental). If the small package is not enough, the large ones with the 164-page book are a must.
