There are two important threads which run through the heart of Mark Kemp’s cultural memoir Dixie Lullaby:  A Story of Music, Race, and New Beginnings in a New South.  The first thread deals with the feelings and experiences from Kemp’s own coming-of-age at a time in the rural South that saw the desegregation of public life but no immediate end to the attitudes and feelings still held by many southern whites concerning race.

To this end, there are themes of self-discovery, self-destruction, and self-loathing as a whole generation of young people in the South began to reject the traditional segregated views of their parents.  Kemp, and others like him, would set off in search of a voice that could make sense of the contradictions around them while at the same time expressing a world view more in line with their own.

The second important thread in Kemp’s book deals with where that voice was found and how that voice would be begin to give rise to a healing process across the South.  For many young, white southerners who began to hit their teenage years in the early 70’s, that voice would be found in the transformative power of rock n roll.

Beginning with the Allman Brothers Band, and continuing on through the years with a host of bands ranging from Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker Band in the 70’s, Jason and the Scorchers and R.E.M. in the 80’s, all the way up to Widespread Panic, the Black Crowes, and the Drive By Truckers in more recent years, Kemp sets out to tell the tale of his own life and struggles set against a backdrop of southern musical history.  In the end he also illustrates how that musical history is intertwined with the social history of the South itself.

Dixie Lullaby is loaded with musical snapshots and references and includes interviews and first-hand accounts from a wide range of individuals including Dr. John, Phil Walden (founder of Capricorn Records), Ed King (former Skynyrd guitarist), Richard Young (of the Kentucky Headhunters), Steve Earle, and Warren Haynes.  Also included are interviews with a number of people from Kemp’s own personal life who share their accounts about what is was like growing up in the South with “Statesboro Blues”, “Sweet Home Alabama”, and “The South’s Gonna Do it Again” as the soundtrack to their formative years.

For the fans of Southern rock, Dixie Lullaby is must have as the reader is given a front row seat to the rise of a whole new genre of American music.  But even if Southern rock is not necessarily your cup of tea (or shot of bourbon as the case may be), Dixie Lullaby also provides an interesting perspective on a number of issues which are as relevant today as they were thirty-five years ago, foremost among them being the role of, and our views concerning, race in America.  In addition, Kemp takes the perceptions, misconceptions, and hard truths of the South head on, and captures it all against the backdrop of one man’s journey to find a sense of peace with himself  and a sense of peace with his conflicted Southern roots.

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Mark Kemp, for his part, would make covering music his life’s work, beginning as a beat reporter for a couple of small newspapers in his home state of North Carolina, before going on to become a writer, and later, editor for the alternative music and culture magazine Option.  From there it was on to stints as the music editor from Rolling Stone Magazine as well as vice president of music editorial at MTV Networks.  He currently resides in Charlotte, NC as an editor and freelance writer.

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