Hank Williams, Jr. needs no introduction. As the son of the late great Hank Williams, he was surrounded by great music at an early age. First taking the stage at the age of 8 to perform his father’s songs, his early career was guided by his mother Audry Williams who is also said to been a driving force in the success of his father’s career. Since then he has become a legend in country music blending southern rock and blues elements in unmistakable fashion. Not only a gifted singer/songwriter he can also play a host of instruments including guitar, bass, steel guitar, banjo, dobro, piano, harmonica, fiddle, and drums. It was a pleasure to have the chance to bring our readers a little glimpse of the man behind the music.

You were only 3 when your father passed. What is the fondest memory of  him you have?

Well, I didn’t know Daddy, so I really don’t have any memories. I know what people have told me about him taking me to the Grand Ole Opry and leaving me in his guitar case on the side of the stage. The best thing we ever did was record the duet for There’s A Tear In My Beer and we even won a Grammy for it.

You were exposed to great music at an early age. What was it like having such amazing artists stopping by the family home? Which of them stick out most in your mind?

Well, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Fats Domino were at the house a lot and that’s where I learned to boogie woogie on that piano. Earl Scruggs would come over, as would Johnny and June Carter Cash. By the way, June Carter Cash was my godmother.

What was it like to perform at the age of 8? What was running through your mind the first time you took the stage?

Momma put me on the stage at 8 years old and the people were expecting me to be just like daddy. So I went out and performed daddy’s songs and the crowds loved it.

Do you get time to go to Paris, TN often? Why do you think small towns are so appealing?

I actually live in Paris, Tennessee. I love West Tennessee and Kentucky Lake. My family sometimes wants to live in a big city, but they also love the country life. I have places in Montana, Florida, and Alabama, so we are always on the move.

What is the most important thing you have learned in all your years so far?

Be true to who you are. Don’t change because you think it’s cool to change.

Do you think with the passing of so many iconic country legends that the genre will suffer?

I think country music evolves. We have lost so many great artists over the last few years and it is sad, but we have some great new acts that are out there making music. Country music will be around forever!

 Anything you’d like to say in closing?

I have not been to Maine in a long time, I think 20 years or so, so it will be good to be back, who knows I might stick around and go bear hunting.

Icarus 21^st Century, I Saw It Happen

Ancient wings burnt by sun

bird shape sizzle

landed in the landscape

somewhere

terror as everything

falls simple every day statues

stones cry   weep shudder

evil and non evil

perspectives

points of view

eyes seen so much now

seen it all:

black and white

no grey

life and death and

balancing

somewhere

in between

can be hard as

hell

Namasté.

I’m Tyler Knott Gregson.

I am a photographer
Poet.
Author.
Artist.
Exploitable Genius.
Word Alchemist.
Thought Translator.
Boy With Faraway Eyes.
Buddhist.

http://tylerknott.com/

Laurie Lee Brom is perhaps best known as the wife of Gerald Brom. An artist in her own right she produces stunning images of fantasy. She has an upcoming show at Roq La Rue Gallery in October 2013.

http://www.laurieleebrom.com/

What was it like growing up in Charleston? How do you think coming from there has influenced you most to be as you are today?

I think we’re all deeply influenced by our early years. When I was growing up in Charleston I have to say, I felt like a space alien most of the time. It was a deeply provincial place then. I couldn’t wait to leave and find what was out there. I hated the heat, and it lead to me staying inside a lot,drawing and making up my own little worlds. From a really young age, like 5 or 6, I was obsessed with pop culture – music, fashion, tv, movies -basically anything new and less conventional. And now, of course, I long for Charleston! I miss the history and beauty, the moss and smell of pluffmud. I have such a love of history from growing up there. As an adult I’m now always drawn to things with a past rather than new stuff. And my earliest memories of art came from the fabulous Gibbs art museum there. They have this one room full of miniature portraits from the 18th and 19th centuries that I’d stare at for ages making up stories about who the subjects were and create my own when I’d come home from there. Charleston  is the kind of place that makes you sure ghosts are real and are probably just around the corner. It seemed like everyone had a ghost story to tell. Even my super level-headed father had stories from his work (in Atlantic Coast life insurance) located at the time inside the Wentworth Mansion.

What were you like as a child?

I was a classic weird, awkward artistic kid! I’m sure I’d be labeled ADD now. I’d daydream when I should have been listening in class and would have no idea what my homework was because I was off in space. Then I’d hyper focus on art and music. I became vegetarian at 12, which went over really well in SC in the 70’s!(laughs)

I grew up on James Island, overlooking Charleston harbor. From my backyard you could see where the first shots of the civil war were fired. I had a deep love of animals that I still have, and enjoyed all the wildlife that came with the marsh.

I can’t remember not drawing or making things or playing with my lite brite or spirograph. My older brother and I used to draw monsters and witches and such when I was really little and my Mom is a terrific portrait painter.

When did you first meet Gerald? When did you know he was the one?

We met in a program in Atlanta for high school art students. I had a wonderful art teacher in high school who encouraged me to go to it. Brom and I clicked immediately. We all called him Brom even then. Growing up on bases as he did it wasn’t uncommon to be known by your last name. When my parents came to pick me up he told them he was going to marry me. We wrote letters to each other for years. Mine from New York and Charleston and his from Germany where his parents were stationed. I knew we were soul mates even when we were still just friends.

What is it like being married to an artist?

I can’t imagine being married to someone who isn’t at least in a creative field. It’s pretty all consuming for both of us, and I think it really helps to have someone who understands that.

Do you think his being an artist influenced you to be more creative?

In some ways. We visit lots of museums together and certainly going to all the art conventions has exposed me to some great artists. But before I really got going in painting it was quite intimidating creatively living with someone who has such success and endless creativity. I really had to separate my approach from his and just acknowledge that I’m not him. It was very important to me to get his valuable opinion but to find my own way of painting.

When did you first start creating your own works?

Before having kids I painted in watercolors mostly strictly observing and learning to draw. I painted people and cats (largely because they were willing living subjects) for the most part. I had a long break from art while raising the kids. For many years that creative voice in my head was just gone. But once our youngest got in middle school I slowly got back into art. I knew I would eventually try to make a go of it and feel super lucky to have come along now as opposed to thirty years ago when there was no real interest in this kind of art. I think one benefit to starting this late is that I know exactly who I am and what my point of view is. I certainly didn’t have that in my art when I was much younger.

Is there any one subject you like to cover most?

I’ve always painted people. That’s what has always interested me. I’ve always been drawn to spooky or dramatic storytelling or a sense of mystery, wanting to know the back story. There are tons of themes I want to explore. I feel like I’ve just started this career and I’m really excited to explore those directions, but there will almost certainly be living, organic elements in my work.

Who do you consider to be some of the best living artists of our time?

Oh I’d be hard pressed to name names. There’s such a great resurgence in art and illustration right now I couldn’t pick just a few. It’s a really exciting time in art between the talent in the illustration field and the gallery scene and the merging of the two I couldn’t pick.

Your works tends to deal with fantastical themed imagery. Why do you think you are drawn to such things?

It probably stems from an over-active imagination as a kid. I’ve always loved the idea of spirits and magic as well as themes in the natural world. Though I think it’s super important to learn to draw and paint from life models and still lifes, I just love illustrating characters and scenarios.

Do you enjoy offering up a bit of escapism through the images you create?

Absolutely. I hope people get that from my work.

Why do you think art has been so important throughout the ages?

I think overall it’s because art is sort of a mirror of human existence. All of our emotions, dreams and experiences are reflected in art through the ages. Without necessarily thinking in these terms while creating it, the art we create is a record of our lives.

Do you ever get nervous showing your work at galleries?

Well this is my first solo show and I feel like I’m jumping off a cliff! You never know if what you’re working on appeals to anyone but you.

Was it difficult balancing art and family when you were raising your family?

It was absolutely impossible for me. That little voice in my head that used to have its own thoughts and ideas grew completely quiet and was replaced with “Mom” thoughts- constantly trying to make sure the kids were where they needed to be, getting all the homework done, friends over, food bought, laundry done, meals cooked, volunteering as art docent in both kids’ classes. I just couldn’t make the switch to trying to get creative for little bits of time in between. However, I wouldn’t trade being a mother for anything in the world. It was the best, most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. We have two fantastically creative sons, and I feel so incredibly lucky to have my family and to now to be able to have a career in art.

Do you have a dream project?

This is as far as I’ve plotted! I feel so fortunate that this early in my career I get to show at my favorite gallery, Roq la Rue here in Seattle. I haven’t even thought beyond it to what I want to do next month. I guess start on the next series and explore some new themes.

Cave Dwellers

Give it all to me:
white light, intense fear of whatever slumbers in the dark
Give me the wet cavern of your flooded mouth
opening always to places much bigger, darker, wetter, and less tame

We are inhabited by unseen
forms of life that squeal and squirm and leave
trails of slime behind them as they move
Here, hidden deep within the bowels of earth

Moan for me, your satisfaction
lifting like bats to fly — startled,
majestic, blind — deep into the soul
of a hollow, abandoned poet

Cum my love, chalky minerals drip
from tips of stalactite syllables
Crystallizing here, in the echo
and footprints and tufts of fur — our hibernation

Plunging me into the near future
I am waking up; give it to me
Give it all to me: hunger, claws, teeth
Meeting me here will be the only truth you will ever need

Not every lost has a found

Lytton Bell has published five books: A Path before Winter (1998), The Book of Chaps (2002), Nectar (2011) Poetica Erotica, Volume One (2012) and Body Image (2013), won seven poetry contests and has been the featured reader at many California literary venues.  Her work has appeared in over three dozen publications. She is a founding member of the poetry performance troupe Poetica Erotica. As a teenager, Lytton won a scholarship to the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts, where she studied with Deb Burnham of the American Poetry Review and the late Len Roberts, author of The Silent Singer.  Lytton graduated magna cum laude from Bryn Mawr College. She is a civil servant by day.

After the Gazebo

She felt it in her toes that morning, dread that she would shove into ivory heels and dance on beneath heavy clouds. He felt a surge of adrenaline that he thought must accompany every man on his wedding day.

Everything had been set in motion four months ago, when they adopted a pug that had been abandoned in a nearby apartment complex. They were unsure if they’d have the proper amount of time to devote to the puppy, but the pug’s bunched face and little square body seemed perfect. It would be a responsibility test, a sort of trial run before they had children.

The pug had dermatitis between his folds, which cost money to correct, as did his shots and medications. It was enough to tear a small hole in their new car fund, so they had to reevaluate which year and model they’d go for. The lesser car they picked still had good reviews, and the salesman even said—when he realized they weren’t the best negotiators and had told him exactly what their real budget was—that it was probably more durable than a lot of the newer ones. The couple’s fate was sealed when she drove the car off the lot, when he inserted the CD he’d brought along, just in case. “Ocean Breathes Salty” began the soundtrack. They drove all day, speeding along the peripheral of the city, and stopped for Jamaican jerk chicken at a restaurant they decided they must return to regularly.

A month passed and they were still not sure about a name. He enjoyed eating and watching *Animal Planet*, so they babied and indulged him until he was overweight. They learned everything they could about the breed and how best to care for him, and finally put him on a diet. They decided on a name after reading that the strange little forehead wrinkle that pugs share is referred to as a prince mark because it resembles the Chinese symbol for prince.

They enjoyed taking Prince on lazy walks after work. They often ate out and met up with friends on weekends. She got a corporate job that replaced her occasional gigs as a yoga instructor. She hated the work but made a lot of friends, fast, and thought it an okay trade for the time being. He too had a corporate job, but he rather enjoyed it.

She gained five pounds. He gained ten. They joined a gym a few months before the wedding. They made resolutions often. They both wanted to be somewhere else, but were unsure exactly where. They lived near his family but far from hers, so they often spoke of moving somewhere in the middle. Her sister would call late at night, upset about her husband being out late. She wanted to be closer, to be able to go over and watch bad movies and make orange cinnamon rolls with her sister, tell her she deserved better.

The day of the wedding, they awoke five hours and twenty minutes before they had to be at the meeting center by the gazebo. Their wedding would be outside, in a park where they first met. Both had been joggers.

It would be a small ceremony. She would wear her mother’s ivory dress, still a touch tight around the hips. He would wear his OSU pin on his slant-striped gray tie. She would pick up her mother and sister from the hotel they insisted on staying at because the couple’s apartment was still quite small. Just fewer than forty people would surround them as they took their vows at Abaline Park at 2PM. It was the perfect wedding size, they agreed.

Prince had a habit of jumping up and down before treat time, after walk time, and this always made her giggle; her giggling always made him want her. It was wedding day morning. She laughed at his pitched pants and serious stare when she walked out of the kitchen. He didn’t laugh. Instead, with only hours remaining, he rushed her, moved his fingers along her belly beneath her shirt, lifted her sideways and took her to their bedroom where they would forget the world for almost an hour. Last time as a single man, he said. She pushed him off and flipped over. When they remembered the world, they freaked out and ran around the apartment frantically.

They kissed goodbye. She took the car and thought about how lucky she was. She had heard horror stories about friends’ weddings, but she knew hers would be perfect. There wasn’t a fake or a placeholder in the bunch. She was genuinely close to everyone who would be there.

Her mother, an artist, presented her with a black and white painting of Prince when she arrived at the hotel. She laughed and loved it. Her sister worked hard to laugh with them and then explained her husband couldn’t attend due to work. It had been last minute. The sisters embraced.

Prince refused to wear the doggie tux; she understood this. She clipped a bowtie to his collar. She hoped he would remember to pack the treats and the collapsible water dish. His father was picking him up. His mother was in a wheel chair after having reconstructive foot surgery a few weeks back. They lived close by, and she would come right before the ceremony. She was a loud, beautiful woman. Her three grown children, husband-to-be included, had blinged out her chair while she was in surgery, so that she now called it her throne.

The gazebo was perfect. His cousin, who had taken on the role of wedding planner, had done everything right. Nothing was overdone. The couple didn’t see each other until the vows. The sky was overcast but with no threat of rain. The clouds framed them in pictures. The couple kissed. Prince jumped up and down at the dance after. His mother danced in her chair. Her mother sketched the children’s faces. Her father smoked cigars with his father as they talked about drone strikes and then football and then the quality of their cigars.

The recall notice hadn’t reached them because they’d forgotten to write the apartment number down on the paperwork and his email had filtered the e-copy to junk. This would strike the parents as ridiculous after, seeing as how all the bills had reached them just fine. The recall notice concerned hyper acceleration and asked that all owners of the make and model and year bring the car in for a free check. The parents would become angry and file a lawsuit. It would be a large suit, and they would become quite rich and they would become angrier that they had to become rich in this way.

His mother’s foot would heal perfectly, and she would walk with only a slight limp to the two graves that sat alongside the back of the yard by an old, abandoned house that the city was unsure what to do with. The family would gather here on the anniversary of the couple’s wedding, and they would sob and laugh and smoke cigars.

They would talk about the circumstance of death and fate, what must line up in order for it to have happened like this on their wedding day. The family would eventually come to know that it was not the dealer’s or manufacturer’s fault alone. The car had surged when he hit the brakes after seeing that the driver of the SUV didn’t see them and was taking over the lane.

The family was rich, so incredibly rich, but it didn’t matter. The money did not reconcile the odd chain of events—how the SUV eventually did see them but their momentum had caused the tail end hit, that slight hit, that sent their small car spinning into the median strip. It was instantaneous for him. It was drawn out for her. She had that brief window, a chance to say goodbye. She’d told her sister that she knew, somehow, that she had thought it was just cold feet.

The family was smaller now. The sister had divorced. Her mother had fallen ill and no longer painted. The nieces and nephews were now teenagers, rendering themselves and the cousins mostly unreachable. The sister would become pregnant soon after a fling.

Prince would live with the sister and would rest his wrinkly head on her belly as he listened to her daydream about finding a love like her sister had found. He would comfort her when she came home with child and would spend hours staring at the floor, unable to sleep. He would mind the child and growl at men the sister would bring home. Until his final years, Prince would continue to comfort the sister, but he would never jump up and down for her. Instead, he would conserve his energy to his last day, spending his every night at the door, waiting, unable to believe in fate.

(This piece was originally published in ARDOR. )

Jen Knox grew up in the Midwest and lives Texas. She works as a creative writing instructor at San Antonio College and an editor at a research firm. Her short fiction earned the Global Short Story Prize in 2011 and was chosen for Wigleaf’s Top 50 list in 2012. Some of her work can be found in ARDOR, Bound Off, Burrow Press Review, Istanbul Review, JMWW, Monkeybicycle, and Narrative. Her website is : http://www.jenknox.com

In the Secret of Night

in the secret of night

in a room as black as pitch

fireworks ignite

roaming head to toe

until our souls twitch

in the secret of night

bodies gasp for air

hands clutch sheets

two strangers in search of something to make them complete

no names

no games

no attachments

no hurry

no strings

no rings

no inhibitions

no worry

I savor the taste

as I bite down on the pillow

in the secret of night

when our bodies connect

I know you not

I owe you nothing

but I still let you collect

in the secret of night

we know it isn’t love

and we know we know better

than to let that stop us

but for a few moments

I feel love

from someone I’ve never met before

I live life without regret

and even the score

no strings

no rings

no inhibitions

no worry

no names

no games

no attachments

no hurry

in the secret of night

For more information on Ciruelo Cabral’s work or to purchase prints and various other merchandise please see Dac Editions.

Thirty-two

What beauty imparted was more than skin deep.

Truth hung upon her every word.

Once he described her as misunderstood, she raised the bottom line.

Truth claims this didn’t begin as nine lines, it was the mind.

He always says believe me, as if no one ever does.

Nobody’s convinced he’s dead, and from the grave, he says so be it.

Truth was usually so lost in thought,

he couldn’t recall what he came in for.

Many times, he’d have to close his eyes to remember.

From The Mind (Salmon Poetry, 2011)

John FitzGerald is the author of The Mind (Salmon Poetry, 2011), the novel in verse Spring Water (Turning Point Books prize 2005), and Telling Time by the Shadows (Turning Point Books, 2008). His fourth collection, Favorite Bedtime Stories, is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry in 2014. He has contributed to the anthologies From the Four Chambered Heart: In Tribute to Anais Nin (Sybaritic Press, 2013). Poetry: Reading it, Writing it, Publishing it (Salmon Poetry 2009) and Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology (Salmon Poetry 2011) as well as to many literary magazines. He is a dual citizen of the United States and Ireland.

From her role as Broadway’s original Rizzo in Grease to her television roles on Maude, The Twilight Zone, The Drew Carrey Show, Carnivale, Grey’s Anatomy, Revenge and countless others, to her appearances in films such as Fog, Creepshow, Swamp Thing, and Escape from New York, to lending her voice to Catwoman on Batman: The Animated Series, Adrienne Barbeau has proven herself one of the most versatile actress in the business today. She recently wrapped up filming for a role on Sons of Anarchy which will air this November. Her latest novel Love Bites is available on Amazon.com in ebook form.

What were you like as a little girl? What would you say are your fondest memories from that time?

I honestly don’t remember much of my childhood before the age of 12. Except for spending summers on my grandparents 20 acre grape farm in Selma, California. My cousins and I played a lot of Monopoly, I helped my grandmother make Armenian food, and wrote long, long letters with plays I made up with titles like The Secret Life of Kenny Turner. I have a feeling Kenny Turner was a 5th grade classmate.

 Did you always have a love of acting or did that develop later on? What first sparked your interest in it?

Someone told my mother I could sing, so she decided I should study voice. When I was 15 and working as a receptionist in a beauty salon, my boss suggested I audition for a production of The King and I being staged by the San Jose Civic Light Opera. They cast me as Tuptim and I began doing musicals.

Is it true you got your start working for the mob as a go-go dancer? What was that like? What did you learn from that whole experience?

The best answer to this question can be found in the chapter titled Matty’s Mardi Gras in my memoir There Are Worse Things I Could Do. I didn’t know it at the time, but my boss was a top guy in one of the “five families”. Or something like that. And I’ve been told that we girls who worked at Matty’s were the very first discotheque dancers in New York. What did I learn? The meaning of the word SWAG.

 What was it like to have to appear nude in front of an audience for Stag Movie? Do you think the world is too uptight when it comes to the subject of nudity?

Stag Movie was an Off-Broadway musical I starred in after playing Tevye’s daughter Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof for two years.  I hadn’t originated the role in Fiddler, I was a replacement, and so I had yet to be reviewed as an actress in New York. And that’s what I needed as the next step in my career. So when Stag Movie came along, with the opportunity to sing and dance my way through 15 musical numbers- albeit several of them in the nude – I just saw it as my next job. Oh, Calcutta had been playing for awhile, and Hair and Let My People Come. I was more worried about how well I was singing (upside down on a raked stage at one point) than what I wasn’t wearing while I was doing it.

How did you feel when you first gained the status of a sex symbol? What are your feelings on that in general?

I never saw myself as a sex symbol and it certainly wasn’t something I was trying to achieve. I don’t mind the label, though, as long as I’m happy with the work I’m doing.

 What advice would you offer the women of tomorrow and women in general in regards to body image versus true beauty?

Several years ago, Sixty Minutes did a segment on Anouk Aimee. She must have been in her fifties at the time. Every line on her face screamed sensuality. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. That’s beauty – the self-acceptance she personified. Every time I see someone who’s mucked up their face with fillers or Botox or surgery, I cringe. Do they really think they look better than they did when they looked real?

Do you prefer stage work to filmed work or do you love both equally?

It really depends on the role. Although I’d much rather start work at 6 a.m. than 8 p.m.

 Did you ever imagine when you started your career you have appeared in over 25 musicals and so many television shows ?

I never really thought about it. Just took the career one step at a time. I love what I do; it’s never once felt like work to me. Having a job is a gift.

 How do you think the industry has changed most since you first began working in it?

Ways too numerous to mention. Tabloid journalism leading to careers based on something other than talent. Reality television. The proliferation of cable programming. Businessmen making creative decisions. Some of it good, some not so good, but major changes nonetheless.

Do you have any interesting stories from over the course of your career that you might be able to share with our readers?

Now for that, you’ll really have to read the memoir.

 Are there any characters you have portrayed that you hold most dear?

I love Ruthie in Carnivale, Stevie Wayne in The Fog, Billie in Creepshow, Maggie in Escape From New York, Golde in Fiddler on the Roof.

What was it like to give birth to twins at the age of 51? Do you think your parenting style changed much with their arrival as opposed to your first child?

I was 38 when I had my first son, so, no, my parenting style was pretty well established. I’m incredibly patient and probably a little too permissive, and I try always to understand life through my boys’ feelings.

 What do you love most about being a mother?

All of it – except having to cook dinner for 3 boys who don’t like any of the same foods the others do. We order out a lot.

 What led you try your hand at writing?

That’s also in the memoir. I believe my closest friend, who’d died from breast cancer, sent me a message that that’s what I was supposed to do. Doesn’t get any weirder than that!

What can your readers expect from Love Bites?

Love Bites is a witty (well, I think it is) detective novel about a Hollywood Scream Queen (they say write what you know) who happens to be a vampyre. In fact, she’s the head of the Vampyres of Hollywood (who are most of the A-list actors, including Orson Welles and Charlie Chaplin.) It’s sexy and fun and it gave me a chance to tell stories (about my business) out of school.

 Are there any little known things about you that your fans might be surprised to learn?

I’ve never liked the taste of alcohol, don’t care much for water, and drink at least a quart of grapefruit juice a day.

 What projects are you working on at the moment?

Just filmed an episode of Sons of Anarchy and I’m writing the third book in the Vampyres of Hollywood series.

 How do you hope to be remembered when your time comes?

A great mom, a loving friend, and someone who was good at what she does.

 Anything you’d like to say in closing?

I’m on Twitter  @abarbeau  and Facebook – the Adrienne Barbeau page where I talk about my sons’ soccer team is the one that’s really me, and my website is abarbeau.com. And I’d love it if all your readers bought the ebook version of Love Bites which is available on Amazon and really cheap!