Jim Crow dumped its worst on Lonnie Holley. But his globally recognized music and art prove how beautifully he survived the belly of that beast. Just don’t call him an “outsider.”

The Word of South Festival, a unique jubilee of the best in Southern writing and music, returns to Tallahassee in April. Once again, Salvation South will host a stage that embodies our cultural mission.

If you can’t be in New Orleans for Carnival, Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra’s latest has enough mighty cootie fiyo to get your own parade jumping.

The pianist James Reese Europe, born in Alabama in 1881, played “jazz” before the world even knew the word. Texas pianist Jason Moran is resurrecting his story.

Zoh Amba is a rarity — a white woman saxophonist, from Appalachia, no less — playing “free jazz” in New York and around the world. But to pigeonhole her into a “hillbilly exotica” tale would be to devalue the hard work of a woman whose music fearlessly chases the divine.

Tennessee’s Adeem the Artist sounds country — truly and deeply country — but every sharp lyric and wicked guitar twang challenges our notions of what “country” really means.

The Mississippi-born trumpeter and composer, now 81, is a musical pioneer whose work stands alongside the achievements of Southerners like Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters and Hank Williams.

Listen to more of the Mississippi master’s music.

In this special Thanksgiving feature, Indigo Girl Amy Ray talks about her new album, “If It All Goes South.” She explains how she made peace with the negativity that accompanied growing up gay in the Southern church, how her practice of gratitude is helping her transform into an “optimist Southerner,” and the ongoing importance of being earnest.

Guitarist and singer Jake Xerxes Fussell grew up steeped in folklore, thanks to his musicologist father and textile artist mother. Like his parents, the younger Fussell is always searching through the back catalogs of Southern culture — but rendering art that is always of the moment.

Released three years after his death, “Things Happen That Way” is the final album from the late, great master of New Orleans funk, Dr. John.

The traditional musician Jake Blount plumbs the depths of African American string band music and comes up with a thoroughly modern style that’s like nothing you’ve ever heard.