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Category Archives: liner notes

Best of Storyboard: the essence of story, in a short, haunting song (+ fried chicken)

The haunted “third of June” cannot pass without calling out Tommy Tomlinson‘s classic piece on the essence of story, via Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe.” Tomlinson, a onetime Pulitzer finalist who now writes for Sports on Earth, explores the lyrics for detail, dialogue, suspense, and more. The piece was one of Storyboard’s Top 10 [...]

by Paige Williams | Jun 3, 2013 | also posted in tips | tags: , , , , , , , | comments (0)

Liner notes: Storytelling with Gordon Lightfoot (yep, that’s right)

by Tommy Tomlinson | April 12, 2013

Sometimes short nonfiction pays. Today we’re going to talk about a (mostly) nonfiction narrative of 457 words that made it to No. 2 on the pop charts. In 1975, a freighter named the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a brutal storm on Lake Superior. All 29 crew members died. It was a major news story, especially [...]

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Liner Notes: The Venn diagram of hip-hop, country & narrative

by Tommy Tomlinson | January 31, 2013

Songs speak not just to us but also to one another, crossing years and miles and even genres. One of last year’s best hip-hop singles, written by a rapper from Compton, Calif., has an echo in a 14-year-old alt-country track written by a woman from New Orleans. Both are masterful short stories about the power [...]

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The essence of story, in a 358-word song

by Tommy Tomlinson | February 14, 2012

When I was little, my mama worked the early shift at the seafood plant. She’d drop me off at my Aunt Janice’s house before dawn and they’d lay me down on a pallet in the living room. Country music played low on the stereo. I knew Charley Pride and Loretta Lynn before I knew words. [...]

also posted in words | tags: , , | comments (12)