Billy Blackman

I am a Southerner!Not because of where I live but because I see, feel, taste, and understand things in a certain way. And despite what some people north of Nashville might think, it has nothing to do with bad schooling but more to do with good genes and good luck.If you’re from the South, you understand certain things. You don’t know why; you just do. Just like your mama and … [Read more...] about I Am a Southerner

We didn’t talk much on our daily trips to and from the woods to cut and load pulpwood. (For those who don’t know, a stick of pulpwood is a 5’6” long piece of pine log that’s sold to paper mills by the pound) There was no bantering over politics on these trips. Not because it was off-limits but because we didn't care. To a carload of pulpwooders, it didn’t matter what party was … [Read more...] about Holy Roll’n Dodge

The church folks across the river from my house had a fish fry and sing a few months ago. It tickled me to be invited, and I wasted no time getting there. A winding country road connects our yard to the churchyard. It’s a graveled county endeavor that sometimes meanders through a canopy of oaks, at other times through rolling pastures dotted with grazing cows. It looked like a … [Read more...] about And the Good Lord Said, “Fry Some Fish”

Standing on a rocky roadbed somewhere between Port St. Joe and River Junction, Florida, the old black man sang to us.... Up and down this road I go. Skippin’ and dodging a 44. Hey man won’t you line ‘um... huh! Hey man won’t you line ‘um... hah!" He was a Gandy Dancer. So was I. There were only a few of us “white boys” on the crew of mostly black men working on the Extra … [Read more...] about Hallelujahs, Honky-tonks, Blisters, and Blessings Volume One