• Hailing from Appalachian North Carolina, the Red Fox Chasers were made up of four neighbors. A.P. “Fonzie” Thompson and Bob Cranford grew up making music together in the early 1900’s, and learned the basics of harmony from shape note singing, also known as Fa So La or Sacred Harp. Guy Brooks grew up in a nearby county with Paul Miles, who learned to play the banjo at the age of 5 on a homemade instrument crafted from a meal sifter and a groundhog hide. “I’m Going Down to North Carolina – The Complete Recordings of the Red Fox Chasers [1928 - 1931]” will be released on August 18, by Tompkins Square Records. You can get a preview of it here.

• The Mississippi Museum of Art’s new exhibition entitled “Name Change: One Artist – Twelve Personas – Thirty-Five Years” displays the work of Hattiesburg-born artist Ed McGowin.  McGowin notably believed that his work did not fit neatly into the orderly pages of art history, which demand that an artist produce a coherent and linear body of work. To demonstrate his point, McGowin has legally changed his name twelve different times over the past thirty-five years, and has produced varying bodies of work under each name, before changing his name back to the one he was born with – William Edward McGowin.

Paul Elie at Commonweal sheds some light on Flannery  O’Connor’s tumultuous personal intersection of intellectualism, Southernism, and Catholicism and just how difficult it is to keep all 3 balls in the air without letting at least one drop.

• Christopher Benfrey reviews Brad Gooch’s new Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor. Typical TNR — lengthy but well worth it.

• Well into June, Florence, AL designer Billy Reid gives us a suit for the season. This is the best kind of attire — the sort best paired with a whiskey, a rocking chair, and a well dressed woman.  Speaking of which…

• The Old Fashioned, the aptly named cocktail all but extinct in contemporary watering holes, is making a comeback. Well, it’s not — but it deserves to. The Cocktail Spirit shows us how to drink like a gentleman.