David Nelson recently received a "Legendary Honoree" award in recognition of his work as editor of Living Blues magazine since 1992. The award was presented at the Soul Blues Summit Conference in Atlanta, shortly before Nelson announced that he would be leaving the magazine to pursue new writing projects. Started by blues fans in Chicago in 1970 and published by the Center since 1983, the magazine will thus soon undergo a changing of the guard.

Nelson came to Oxford in the fall of 1988 to enter the Southern Studies graduate program. Though not a musician himself, Nelson began listening to blues in high school and became a fast fan. He heard live blues in his native Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he also attended college, graduating with a B.A. in American Studies and creative writing. Living Blues helped attract the blues lover to the Southern Studies graduate program. Oxford's prime location near many blues artists, including two of Nelson's favorite musicians, Junior Kimbrough and R. L. Burnside, also influenced Nelson's decision to move to Mississippi. Nelson's friend, Lauri Lawson, accompanied him to Oxford. She is a freelance photographer who has done dozens of covers for Living Blues as well as helped with some of the interviews for the magazine.

As a master's student, Nelson worked on the magazine as an editorial assistant. He also helped Bill Ferris, "The Blues Doctor," with his radio show, Highway 61, on Public Radio in Mississippi and wrote his own thesis on the interaction between black and white musicians in the segregated South. After graduating from the program in 1990, Nelson continued to work for Living Blues and served as associate editor for a year before becoming editor of the magazine in June 1992.

When asked about his work as editor of Living Blues, Nelson tells of the love he has for his work. "It has been an incredible experience. It has been truly rewarding and worthwhile to become a part of the blues community, especially being able to see how the magazine has been able to help musicians with their careers." As editor, Nelson has always put the blues artist first. He oriented the magazine around what would be best for the artists, making every decision with this goal in mind. One step he took was to focus on artists who deserve more recognition, to help them find more fans.

Another goal of Nelson's has been to make the magazine more about the lives of the people involved in the music. The magazine views blues as integral to African American culture. The interviews conducted in Living Blues serve as a great resource for scholars in researching not simply the music, but African American life, history, and culture as well.

Nelson has also implemented many changes in the magazine's appearance and production. By changing to glossy pages, he increased the magazine's overall revenue with color ads and increased subscriptions. As a result, he made the magazine more prestigious for its featured artists. The magazine won the "Keeping the Blues Alive Award" from the Blues Foundation for the 25th Anniversary Issue, which came out in 1995.

During his tenure as editor of Living Blues, Nelson transformed the magazine from a 72- to-96 page black-and-white publication to a 112-to-136 page four-color glossy magazine known for its excellent coverage of blues music as well as its editorial reputation and integrity. Author Cynthia Shearer, in a recent Oxford Town article, describes the impact of Nelson's editorship: "With subscribers numbering around nine thousand readers and including Jim Dickenson, B.B. King, Bobby Rush, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic, Living Blues is one of the pillars of American blues culture."

Besides editing the magazine, Nelson has helped keep blues alive through his active participation in local blues events and the blues radio show on PRM. Nelson helped with the show for five years before becoming its host for the past four years, inheriting it from "Blues Doctor" Ferris. Nelson's host name for the blues show, "The Shade Tree Mechanic," may shed some light on the kind of editor he has been. The name comes from Nelson's hobby, "keeping old cars running." After completing his B.A. degree, he spent a year taking auto mechanics classes in Chapel Hill and has owned and worked on many old cars, including an "art car" with Bob Marley painted on the door, a 1961 Ford Galaxy, a 1965 Plymouth Valiant, and plenty of Volkswagens.

When not in his cars, Nelson himself is a distance runner. The veteran of many races including a few marathons, he now runs to "keep his sanity." This seems to be a theme in the way Nelson lives his life--keeping things running. The magazine falls in line with this theme, fulfilling Nelson's passion to keep blues musicians playing and keep audiences listening.

Nelson's favorite memories of his time in Oxford have been out of the office and studio, enjoying the life of the blues. Among these memories are attending parties at Junior Kimbrough's house before he opened his juke joint outside of Holly Springs and being able to visit R. L. Burnside at his home and watch his career grow and his living conditions improve.

Nelson will continue his association with Living Blues as a contributing writer while pursuing new writing projects. These include writing fiction, completing a book on blues and race, and writing about the other roots music that he loves: reggae, country, Cajun, conjunto, and rockabilly. On his departure, the Center sends David Nelson boundless thanks for his contributions over the years and best wishes for his new endeavors.

The Center welcomes Scott Barretta, Nelson's successor, to the position of editor of Living Blues. Barretta has been the recent editor of the Swedish blues magazine, Jefferson. He is also completing his Ph.D. in sociology on a blues related topic.

Anne Evans

(above) David Nelson, Living Blues editor from 1992 to 1999, reviewing magazine proofs while taking care of business on the telephone
Photograph by Daniel Sherman