An issue of Oxford American magazine without music coverage is unlikely, but subscribers of the magazine eagerly anticipate each year’s thematic music issue. In past years, the publication has featured the music of individual Southern states, moving back to broader themes in recent years. The 2021 “Up South” issue focused on the Great Migration from the South to all corners of the nation. Patrick D. McDermott’s first day as multimedia editor in the winter of 2022 coincided with the newsstand date for the “Country Roots” issue.
While McDermott’s role is all encompassing, he served as project manager for the music issue, released in Winter 2022, working with editor Danielle Amir Jackson, who held that post before moving into her current role. His background in music writing put him in a good position to handle the project, which takes up a big portion of his year.
The “Ballads” focus of the Winter 2023 issue of OA was influenced in part by a reader poll early that year. McDermott said this was a great first issue to work on because of the open-ended nature of the theme. “There were so many different avenues we could go down,” he said. “I wasn’t limited to one state or genre—because ballads aren’t a genre, but a form.”
A large majority of the essays and articles in the issues came as a response to the publication’s call for submissions, but McDermott said they also reached out to writers they knew well. Other stories evolved over time. The result, he noted, was a combination of wish list and serendipity. They went after some stories, he said. Jackson especially wanted to do a story about Melvin Lindsey’s Quiet Storm, the radio format, now a kind of genre, that originated at Howard University in D.C., and she knew she wanted Craig Seymour to write the piece, “Never Alone in the Night.” McDermott said he had a hand in editing the piece, one they are particularly proud of. He had read up on Lindsey before but was still able to learn new things about him.
“I hadn’t read anything else about how his identity as a queer man informed his song selections and the vibe of the show, which became associated with heterosexuality because of ‘baby-making music’ and there was so much else going on.”
On the other end of the spectrum is a piece about R.E.M.’s time in Athens, Georgia. “We didn’t necessarily go out thinking we needed another R.E.M. story,” McDermott noted. A story on R.E.M. republished in the 2020 “Greatest Hits” issue had originally appeared in the magazine’s third issue in 1993. They had debuted a song from their Up album sessions on the magazine’s second music issue CD, and a different song from that album appears on this year’s CD. He found it exciting to figure out how to cover old artists in new ways.
Another favorite, McDermott noted, is “More Than What You Made of Me,” Gaby Wilson’s piece about the Beyonce power balled “Listen.” He said, “When I first heard the pitch, I thought, ‘I don’t even know if I know this song.’ I’m not exactly a huge Beyonce scholar. Even that felt like a deep cut to me. Reading the piece and helping edit it revealed to me so much about how it was a ubiquitous touchstone of Filipinos and Filipino Americans. I loved her reporting and her blending of first person and on-the-ground reporting, pulling in literature from pamphlets passed out during American colonization in the Philippines.”
The blending of first-person perspective and reportorial journalism is another balance Oxford American pulls off deftly. McDermott pointed out that the editorial staff is excited about publishing more traditional, objective reportage, but he noted, “There’s always a narrative and literary element. This issue, maybe more than some others, has a heavy memoiristic element. That’s something the magazine has always done and will always continue to do, but I do think we’re good at narrative nonfiction and journalistic stories as well with first person woven in.
Part of the challenge of this and any other thematic issue is achieving balance. After all, the ballad form dates back to at least the Middle Ages, some finding their way to the United States with only minor variations—“Barbara Allen,” “Wind and Rain,” and “Little Matty (or Mathey or Massy) Groves.” Justin Taylor’s piece “Some Ballad Folks” focused on a 1978 book by that title by Thomas G. Burton, documenting five female ballad singers from Beech Mountain, North Carolina. Taylor’s discovery of a 2-volume LP of their music recorded in 1964 and now available on Spotify is bound to send readers down one of many rabbit trails while reading this music issue. Melanie McGee Bianchi’s piece “Orphan Girl” provides evidence that the ballad form is being kept alive by singers in Marshall, North Carolina, a small Marshall County town located on the French Broad River. She features Donna Ray Norton, an eighth-generation ballad singer, and NEA National Heritage Fellow Sheila Kay Adams, who has made her life’s work collecting ballads and passing them down to younger singers, keeping alive the oral tradition through which she learned the songs.
The issue also includes pieces on Bonnie Raitt, Paramore, Rosanne Cash, and Tom Petty. The single work of fiction “Hearing Aids” by Clyde Edgerton is one McDermott said came early.
“It’s not directly tied to ballads in any way, but [I love] the lyricism of his writing. [It will make sense as the one fictional piece to] anyone who knows him and his musical abilities and thinking,” McDermott said.
Along with the challenge of text selection are the final cuts for the companion CD that has been included with all music issues but one (resulting in reader demand for its return). McDermott served as project manager for the CD, including the all-important sequencing. For licensing and production, he partnered with Andrew Rossiter of ORG Music, who has worked with the magazine in years past. Toward the end, they spoke every day, with Jackson and the rest of the team weighing in.
The process of licensing all the songs for the CD and paying contributors has an impact on the final product. McDermott admits his dream list might have been quite different, but he is pleased with the tracks they were able to include. “Be Real Black for Me” by Donny Hathaway and Robert Flack was particularly important, he said, since Flack appears on the cover of the issue, a reference to the cover story “Radical Light” by Ashawnta Jackson. He felt Otis Redding’s song “Cigarettes and Coffee” was also important, even though the issue doesn’t include a story about Redding. Don Flemon’s original ballad “The Final Gift,” commissioned by OA, was printed in poetic form in the magazine and appears as the last song on the album as well.
Readers are likely to interrupt their reading of the issue, looking up the music referenced in the magazine. The issue serves as a reminder to traditional standards and old favorites, while introducing new music and deeper cuts by well-known singers. Just as the individual state issues at times only grazed the surface of regional music, the ballads issue, though comprehensive, serves as a sampler to whet the appetite. McDermott said that he is proud of the issue and happy with the lineup but realizes there is more on his wish list of future coverage. Fortunately, many of those stories don’t have to be particular to a music issue.
Oxford American has consistently produced issues more collectible than disposable, unlike much print journalism. As multimedia editor, though, McDermott is also quick to remind readers that the website continues to add content. The magazine publishes a handful of online-only ballad stories found under a tab on the website. For example, he said, “Danielle [Jackson] spoke to Andrew Chan about Mariah Carey, another person who could have easily been featured in the issue. We have a piece by Indigo De Souza, a young NC singer-songwriter, also from the mountains, talking about her favorite Lucinda Williams song.” The website tab also includes ballad playlists, in addition to the one in the print issue.
As Oxford American gears up for the art issue, to be released in spring 2024, McDermott looks forward to working with Jackson, art editor Alyssa Coppelman, and the rest of the editorial team. He points out that each issue of Oxford American is a blend of music, art, film, and the strong writing on which the magazine has built its reputation. Calling it “a literary magazine with a musical heartbeat,” he believes the magazine lives up to its goal of presenting “the many Souths.”
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