The magazine and limited-edition vinyl will honor the Bluff City’s endless and ongoing influence on American sound. 

The Oxford American is delighted to announce that its 26th annual Southern Music Issue will center the artists and sounds of Memphis, Tennessee. This is our first Music Issue dedicated to a Southern city! And, in the spirit of Memphis’s rich musical legacy, we’re pressing a limited-edition vinyl LP to accompany the issue as an optional add-on.

An exceptional lineup of contributors will celebrate the Bluff City as the unofficial capital of the Delta, where American sounds and stories flow between the riverbanks of time. Forgotten Memphis melodies will resurface, beloved icons will mingle with lesser-known trailblazers, and distinctly Memphian spaces will come to life through reported essays, profiles, personal narratives, visual art, experimental fiction, and more.    

In addition to a specially curated Spotify playlists, the Memphis Music Issue will be paired with a limited-edition vinyl record featuring a hand-picked collection of songs that trace the city’s incomparable legacy and innovative spirit—on a format that honors the Memphis studio textures song-makers chase to this day. While the 2024 Music Issue will not feature a CD, all issues will come with liner notes and a digital download card so that you, our readers, can listen along however and wherever you choose—the limited-edition vinyl LP is optional for a small shipping and handling charge.

Pre-orders of the 26th annual Southern Music Issue will ship mid-November, and the issue will become available on newsstands in December. Vinyl records will ship separately.