The Soul Stirrer: The Legacy of Sam Cooke by Norman Kelley If Ray Charles caused consternation in then-Negro America by using gospel sounds as a foundation for the “devil’s music,” what some blacks pejoratively called R&B, Sam Cooke made some people damn right apoplectic. Charles’ career had always been outré, outside the taste of good church-going folk, honed on the well-established chitlin’ circuit of clubs and dives. But Sam Cooke was, so to speak, a prince of the black church, the reigning voice of a mighty and influential gospel act, the Soul Stirrers. When he left the gospel music world to pursue a pop career many saw it as a statement of apostasy, and his tragic but tawdry ending in a L.A motel room only confirmed it. Neblung Price Third by Dann Baker There is nothing as strange as that which is absolutely ordinary. Yep. It’s a lesson I learned long ago from Eraserhead, Grant Wood’s American Gothic, and the motel portraits of Ed Ruscha. I think it’s a good question to ask of anything creative: Does it put the familiar in a new light? Does it shake up our sense of the normal? For me that’s as good a definition of art as anything. (Which is to say: It sucks. But does it functionally suck?) At any rate, it enables me to explain to myself why Spielberg, Bela Fleck, and The Lord of the Rings fall outside the category of art. That’s something. “A Limited Edition of One” In Conversation, sort of, with David Berman by Justin Taylor Critical validation and cultural cachet, as it turns out, don’t pay all that well. Touring to promote his records might have, but for David Berman, an intensely private individual, tours (and advertising) have always been out of the question. Berman releases his art into the world to succeed or fail on its own merits—an almost unthinkable position for an artist to take in today’s media-saturated culture with its demands for presence. But the contrarianism is authentic, just a part of the Berman package, which he’ll be first to point out you can take or leave. Come Hell or High Water The New Orleans Jazz Fest Soldiers On by Todd Simmons After sustaining what has been called “heavy damage” at the Fairgrounds Racetrack in New Orleans (such as having the roof of the grandstands torn off by 100-mph-plus winds), the organizers of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, more commonly known as Jazz Fest, have announced that they intend to hold the event as usual in 2006. They admit that they will more than likely be forced to move the festival to another location (“preferably in Louisiana and as close as possible to New Orleans”), but as of this writing they declare that the show will go on.