The Southern Agenda GOINGS-ON IN THE SOUTH & BEYOND

OPENING

A Southern Rock Revival

MACON, GEORGIA

Strike a tuning fork against the floor of Capricorn Sound Studios, and you can still hear reverberations of the “Macon sound.” In 1969, local impresario Phil Walden heard Duane Allman bend guitar notes that defied physics, and built a studio around him. Soon enough, ax slingers trailing long corn-silk hair made the pilgrimage to the geographical navel of Georgia with hopes of cutting a hit track—Wet Willie, the Dixie Dregs, the Marshall Tucker Band. “We longhairs stuck together,” says producer and keyboardist Paul Hornsby. “I take pride that we created a whole new genre of music: Southern rock.” The downtown studio also became known as an oasis of interracial cooperation in an otherwise divisive era. “It was this color-blind place,” says Jerry Williams, a black vocalist and producer known as Swamp Dogg who recorded there. Capricorn closed in the late 1970s, and the building fell into disrepair and stayed shuttered for decades. Now, Mercer University in Macon has restored it to its vintage glory, rolling out fresh shag carpeting and rehanging psychedelic art in the greenroom. Recording equipment includes both state-of-the-art digital and old-school analog modeled on the original. Young and seasoned bands alike can reach for that ’70s vibe, or book the studio to pioneer something new. The renovated building will also function as a “music incubator” for the university, with thirteen rehearsal rooms and an exhibition space featuring a digital catalogue of songs recorded during the heyday. The grand reopening is December 3, a day of live music and free tours. That night, an all-star lineup of Capricorn alumni including Jimmy Hall, Randall Bramblett, Chuck Leavell, and John Bell take the stage at Macon City Auditorium, fifty years after Capricorn first rocked Georgia, and the nation. capricorn.mercer.edu

OUTDOORS

Alabama

THE BIRDS OF WINTER

“A crane marsh,” wrote the conservationist and