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It's along and slow surrender retreating from the past. It's important to remember to fly the flag half-mast, and look away. I was taught by elders wiser, love your neighbor, love your god. Never saw a cross on fire, never saw an angry mob. I saw sweet magnolia blossoms. I chased lightning bugs at night. Never dreaming others saw our way of life in black and white. Part of me hears voices crying, part of me can feel their weight. Part of me believes that mansion stood for something more than hate.
The moment was positively transcendent, and the audience became one family in the telling, all sons and daughters of the south.
Carpenter, Holley, Herring and Campbell bravely shouldered this heavy sentiment in their songwriting and storytelling about the southland--each using compassion as a moral compass--each using the inspiration of Eudora Welty as a guidepost.
Image: Caroline Herring
A beloved Canton native, Caroline Herring is quite simply a treasure waiting to be discovered by mainstream America. Ten years ago, Herring established a strong following in the Austin music scene. Herring, like Campbell, does not shy away from the responsibility to tell the story of the south and shine the light of truth into the darker corners of southern history.
With wit and grace that elicited laughter and warm applause from the audience, Herring also paid tribute to Welty.
I do feel that Eudora Welty, like God, is looking down on me and saying, 'Why have you not read everything that I have written?' One thing I am struck with is the fact that she gives her characters such dignity through her honest portrayals of southern life in the twentieth century. Well, we are blessed to have had her in our midst.
Image: Claire Holley
Claire Holley is a Jackson native, but now resides in Los Angeles where her music is often featured in television. Holley and Campbell conducted a songwriting workshop the morning after the concert. Holley's advice? Read Welty's One Writer's Beginnings. "A lot of your best songs feel like gifts."
Music, friendship, and inspiration were front and center during the Welty Centennial Concert.
"The chemistry was really there," Kate Campbell said after the performance.
The audience was with us and everyone was there to honor Eudora. This was one of the best ways to give tribute to Eudora-- to have women singer/songwriters share their music and inspiration. Through music and storytelling, we can have a conversation, a dialogue. As performers it inspired us to be up there with three other women who shared the same passion.
Carpenter agrees.
