Meet Me at the Edge of the World: the 2025 Nowhere Else Festival keynote address Here is a revised, expanded version of the keynote address I delivered at the 2025 Nowhere Else Festival in Martinsville, Ohio on Labor Day Weekend.
Journal Looking Back: Overstreet online in 2000–2001 Looking closer at how it began, after 25 years of writing about adventures in the arts, I revisit the sights and sounds that have been most memorable and meaningful. Here’s Part 1 of many.
Surprise Packages By My Lights: a January 25 surprise package These are days for playing "Gimme Some Truth." Also: The Criterion Closet, The Tuskegee Airmen, Mel Gibson, Nickel Boys, Hard Truths, and an invitation to write with me.
Looking Elsewhere Mad Max, Slow West, Sam Phillips, and lawsuit antics Looking Closer Intern Joe Allen here. And it's time to catch you up on Overstreet's recommended links for this week. (If you're following Jeffrey on Facebook or Twitter, you may have already seen some of these.) CINEMA: On Overstreet's short list of
Interviews Flashback: My conversation with Sam Phillips This weekend, Sam Phillips joined Joe Henry onstage for what was reportedly a knockout, 2 1/2-hour concert. Oh, if only I could have teleported down to L.A. to at the Coronet. I've been in a bit of a funk, knowing that I was missing one of
Music Reviews What Do Rhiannon Giddens, Sam Phillips, and the Movie "Amélie" Have in Common? When a music critic declares an album “perfect,” it tends to say more about that listener’s enthusiasm—and, perhaps, hubris—than it does about the record. So I’m holding myself back from that kind of overreach here. Suffice it to say that I’d have a hard time
On Songs & Albums What Breakup Record Cuts Your Heart Open? Readers Respond! I posted a question on Facebook and elsewhere: What breakup songs or breakup records mean the most to you? What music do you find entangled in your own hurtful experiences of separation? The floodgates burst open.
Creativity Looking Elsewhere: November 11, 2013 This week, Looking Closer sends a Hi 5 to the Face out to Fast Company, NPR, Todd Fadel, Ridley Scott, Christianity Today, Sam Phillips, Matt Zoller Seitz, James Rocchi, Mike D'Angelo, John Sayles, and more!
The Lucy Variations Looking Elsewhere: September 5, 2013 A Hi 5 to the Face to... Legendary rock-and-roll recording artist Sam Phillips: For sending this fantastic, one-of-a-kind, handmade LP cover of her wildly inventive, high-spirited new album Push Any Button. You can order your own copy here, including these very limited edition covers made by Sam's own
Inside Llewyn Davis A Coen Brothers Concert and a Line-Up of Must-Play New Releases: Are You Listening? If I ask "What's on your iPod?", what comes to mind? I doubt that you'll say "The Coen Brothers." But that might be the case, come December. You do have the music from O Brother, Where Art Thou? on your iPod, don&
Sam Phillips I Love Luci... and Levertov This year, IMAGE presented the tenth annual Denise Levertov award to someone who is more than an inspiration to me.
Film Lists Overstreet's Favorite Albums: 2001 (10 years later) Listening to music is, for me, a treasure hunt. The whole journey is worthwhile, with highs and lows, unforgettable discoveries and a whole lot of unremarkable scenery. What I love most is an album that just keeps opening up, like a house full of secret doors, so that ten years
Sam Phillips 2012 Will Bring a Pretty Time Bomb A nostalgic sort of dream of being a pop star in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. It’s a sweet kind of album and I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know what compelled me to make it. It’s probably a bad idea, but everytime
Sam Phillips A Good Week for Sam Phillips Sam Phillips'ss Long Play experiment was one of the most rewarding experiences of 2010 for me. Phillips provided so much creative, inspiring music that I hardly had time to learn the lyrics of one album before another one arrived. The music she recorded in 2010 is still surprising
Sam Phillips My Conversation with Sam Phillips: An IMAGE Interview For a limited time, my interview with Sam Phillips from IMAGE's 20th Anniversary Issue is available online. That should whet your appetite for Phillips's upcoming visit to Seattle to accept the Denise Levertov award, where she will perform a short set of songs, and then answer
Sam Phillips Two new albums by Sufjan Stevens, and one by Sam Phillips Sam Phillips just tweeted this news for subscribers to her Long Play music club: Long Play EP #5, "Days of the One Night Stands", will be released tomorrow, August 27th exclusively to Long Play... http://fb.me/GpGPjaLF I love that title. It'll be a good
Sam Phillips Magic for Everybody! When I discovered the character called Auralia - that mischievous, compulsively creative young girl who weaves together all of the colors she can find in the dark forest - I was reminded of many friends and inspirations who live lives of constant imaginative endeavor. One of those artists was Sam
Sam Phillips Joe Henry, Sam Phillips, and The Long Play: LookingCloser.org's Video Blog #2 I'm still a beginner when it comes to iMovie. But I'm learning a little every time I work with it. This episode, in which I learn that ten minutes is too long for this sort of thing, covers some of my favorite recent music. And it
On Movies & Media Sam Phillips's Huge News Sam Phillips fans... are you sitting down? I found the news at David Kennedy's site. I did the dance of joy. I went on to read Bruce Greenberg's detailed description. I turned a cartwheel for the first time in my life. And now I think I
Sam Phillips Browser: Another New Sam Phillips Song. A Surprising Top Ten List. Favorite Albums of 2009 So Far. Calvin & Hobbes. The Browser: News & links to raise your eyebrows & furrow your brow. New headlines may be added as the day goes on. Stay tuned. Hi ho, Jeffrey the Blogger here. Last night was fraught with technical difficulties. I don't know whether to blame Microsoft Word for Mac,
Sam Phillips Was It All In Her Head? Sam Phillips is currently without a label, an intolerable circumstance. So she's releasing new songs for free on her website. There's a new track up today, available here. Okay, it's not exactly new. It was recorded in 2004, and produced by T-Bone Burnett (which
Jim Jarmusch Browser: Sam Phillips, David Bazan, Robert Shiller, economic bubbles, Bono on Easter, and Jim Jarmusch I'm so busy editing the next strand of The Auralia Thread, Raven's Ladder, and composing new articles for Image and Christianity Today that I'm flat out of time to blog anything substantial. So here's a rundown of links that caught my attention
Sam Phillips Browser: Never Let Them Spoil "Never Let Me Go"; Sam Phillips; Andy Warhol's Faith Another of my favorite novels is coming to the big screen. Keira Knightley will star in Mark Romanek's adaptation of Never Let Me Go, an extraordinary science fiction novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, author or The Remains of the Day. But there's a problem here. The book
Sam Phillips A 20th Anniversary event... and you're invited to read every word. All in one issue. * Gregory Wolfe on Tarkovsky's Stalker * Franz Wright * Makoto Fujimura * Tim Rollins * Robert Cording * Ron Hansen * Stanley Hauerwas * Christian Wiman * Ted & Cathy Prescott * Scott Cairns * Harold Fickett and... * Sam Phillips (interviewed by yours truly) You'll get this 20th Anniversary Issue of Image
U2 Browser - "Snowpocalypse" edition: Over the Rhine, U2, WALL-E, Sam Phillips Merry Christmas, everybody! I've just returned from Cincinnati, where I joined about 2,500 friends to celebrate Over the Rhine's 20th anniversary. We enjoyed three days of concerts, the reunion of Over the Rhine's original lineup, and music spanning their whole career. I'
