Josh Roberts and Pulling the Hinges Off Rock and Roll

“[The term] ‘Southern rock’ is a bit redundant; it’s like saying ‘rock rock.’” – Duane Allman Halfway through our winding conversation, singer/songwriter/guitarist Josh Roberts unconsciously paraphrases the legendary slide guitarist Duane Allman in concluding that “all rock is Southern.” We are sitting in a (temporarily) sweltering thrift shop in Lexington that’s owned and run by his wife and bandmate, Leslie Branham. It’s... Read More

Jay Matheson and the Jam Room

By Kyle Petersen The situation in which you first see Jay Matheson will invariably color how you think about him. Maybe the first time you met him was long ago when he was that thin, quiet, bespectacled punk rocker mixing the sound at a local show. Or maybe you saw him play bass in Bachelors of Art, one of the great Columbia bands of the late 1980s, which mixed metal, progressive rock, and pop hooks in a way that still seems surprising. Maybe you... Read More

The Eclectic Path of Danielle Howle

By Kyle Petersen There’s a song that Danielle Howle has taken to playing live over the last few years – a song by another musician from Columbia, Chris Connor, who died a while back, called “Being Poor.” It’s a tough, blues-based number with the refrain lamenting “what a bitch it is to be poor.” In June of 2011, members of the Jasper staff watched Howle play the song to less than two dozen people in the now-defunct listening room The... Read More

Editorial- Issue 1

Dear Friends,  Building a local arts magazine from the ground up must be something akin to building a guest house. You know what you want it to look like, and you hold dear the message you want to convey to your friends – you are welcome here, the door is always open, we want you to feel as if this is a place where you can come to be nurtured, to enjoy yourself, to reflect and grow.  But it would take a fool to try to undertake either endeavor... Read More

Chris Bickel: Columbia’s Dark Lord?

By Kyle Petersen He’s made stage entrances royally hoisted on a platform carried by his able-bodied underlings. And that trash littering the stage? It’s gay porn. He encourages his audiences to smash stuff and scream at the top of their lungs. Dressed as a preacher, he’s brazenly doled out open-mouth kisses from a booth at an area fund-raiser. He’s hosted a private party to see how many naked humans he could stuff into a phone booth. And he... Read More