Song · Story
The Tune You Weren’t Supposed to Play
Fiddling, competition, superstition, and the recurring figure of the supernatural musician in Ozark tradition.
The field journal
Field Journal
Reported and archival writing on Ozark music, folklore, belief, landscape, and traditional practice.
The journal is the broad editorial home of The Crooked Tune. New Markdown entries tagged journal appear here automatically and can also be surfaced on the homepage.
Place
The Roads That End at Cemeteries
What family burial grounds reveal about settlement, kinship, and memory.
Story
Why Treasure Legends Need a Death
Buried money, murdered witnesses, and the rules of supernatural wealth.
Song
Three Ways to Remember “Pretty Polly”
A ballad changes because singers are not archives; they are participants.