Thanks to the Mississippi Historical Society and producer Larry Morrisey for the thoughtful interview about Meridian Rising for the Mississippi Arts Hour.
Go here to listen and enjoy all of the Mississippi artists in the archive.
Meridian Rising has been nominated by Forward Reviews as the 2025 Book of the Year in the Literary Category. Congratulations to all of the nominees.
CRY LOVE
PB & WPA Ballclub's new album Cry Love was produced with GRAMMY winners Dennis Crouch (Blind Boys of Alabama, Ringo Starr) and Fats Kaplin (Mitski, John Prine), both founding members of the redoubtable WPA Ballclub ensemble celebrating its 30 year anniversary in 2026. Cry Love also features renown guitarist/producer Richard Bennett and longtime WPA contributors Jen Gunderman and George Bradfute.
Read the feature in the Nashville Scene and a song-by-song overview in Magnet.
Cry Love was inspired by the WPAs pop-up residencies in small clubs around their home in Nashville where they perform without a setlist welcoming guests like Kevin Gordon, William Tyler and Eddie Angel.
Order the Ltd. Ed. LP CRY LOVE out now. (USA sales only)
Check out the live debut of ‘One If By Land’ at the Rockin’ Race festival in Málaga Spain with guitar ace Eddie Angel (Los Straightjackets, Nick Lowe) and Smokestack Lightnin’ along with “Long Distance Call” from Blue Notes and “Cry For A Shadow,” a cover of The Beatles’ debut recorded in Hamburg in 1961.
Visit the CRY LOVE page to read all about it.
Meridian Rising
Indies Finalist Foreword Reviews 2026 Literary Book of the Year
OUT NOW!
‘What if all the stories about Jimmie Rodgers were true—and someone could make you believe them? The result—is a book of wonders.’ --Greil Marcus,
author of Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music
Meridian Rising (University of Georgia Press) chronicles the life and travels of music legend Jimmie Rodgers, whose meteoric career in the 1930s inspired artists from Howling Wolf and Robert Johnson to Dolly Parton and Bob Dylan. Famed music critic Greil Marcus (Mystery Train) hails the novel as “a book of wonders” and Southern raconteur Roy Blount Jr. calls it “a tour de force of musical imagination.” Buy yours here.
Meridian Rising is informed and inspired by new and previously unpublished research and will take readers deep into Jimmie's world and his friends Louis Armstrong, Charley Patton, the Mississippi Sheiks, talent scout H.C. Speir, Snoozer Quinn, and a young Chester Burnett, the future Howling Wolf.
Watch and listen to a conversations with Peabody winning NPR journalist Melissa Block at the Hill Center in Washington D.C. and national treasure Peter Guralnick at Brookline Books.
Discover the album that inspired the novel featuring Billy Bragg, Tim O'Brien, Richard Bennett, Garry Tallent of the E Street Band, Jon Langford, ace trombonist Roy Agee (Prince), and the WPA Ballclub.
If you're enjoyed the novel Meridian Rising check out the listener's guide on Spotify featuring Rodgers' friends, contemporary artists, and colleagues.
The Blue Yodeler's brief but incredible recording career from 1927-1933, saw American popular music blossoming on record nation wide in every style from George Gershwin in New York City, Louis Armstrong in Chicago, Duke Ellington in Washington D.C. the Delmore Brothers in Alabama, Charley Patton from Mississippi, Georgia's Blind Willie McTell, and the Carter Family from Clinch Mountain, Virginia.
And be sure to add these titles to your reading list: The Blue Yodeler by Norman Porterfield, Peter Guralnick's Looking to Get Lost and Lost Highway, and Meeting Jimmie Rodgers by Barry Mazor.