The first time I darkened the door at Exit/In was more than four decades ago to experience the Southern-style, prog/jazz/funk-isms of the Dixie Dregs. The face-melting paroxysms of guitarist Steve Morse’s chickin’ pickin’ jazz-on-moonshine riffs were mind blowing, especially up close and personal.

Growing up in Nashville, the Fisk Jubilee Singers were, and remain, a constant presence for the developing Black singer. My own reference for Western classical singing in the Black aesthetic begins with them. In fact, when I first started formal voice study, it was in the hopes of becoming a Jubilee Singer.

Words made this town. Words in novels, history books, and poetry. Ann Patchett, Jon Meacham, and Tiana Clark are names that many readers recognize, their words bound between two covers that are devoured during many sittings.