"'The Log Train’ : Hank Williams’ Last Song" by David Anderson and Patrick Huber, "Steve Renfroe, Rube Burrow and Railroad Bill: Alabama’s Outlaw/Heroes" by Alan Brown, " ‘Even the Houses Die!" The Poisoning and Demise of Sweet Valley, Alabama" by Suzanne Marshall, " "‘My Great-Grandmother Was A Cherokee Princess:’ The Unknown Indians of the South" by Fred Fussell, and "Because We Care: Competence in Performance by African-American Women in Wiregrass Alabama" by Jerrilyn McGregory, plus book and record reviews and obituaries. 

"Southern Graveshelters and English Lych-Gates" by Gregory Jeane, "The Skylines Farms Band Plays for President and Mrs. Roosevelt" by David Campbell, "The Piney Woods Regional Folklife Project" by Carolyn Ware, and " 'That Dirt Was Good': Geophagy in Alabama's Black Belt" by Patrick McIntyre, plus book and record reviews.

"'I'm Not Handy, I Had Mine Made': Christmas Curb Lights as Expression of
Individual and Community Aesthetics" by Ann K. Ferrell; "'As Long as Time Lasts': Ritual, Alliance, and Cultural Survival in Creek Indian Origin/Migration Narratives" by Larry Ellis; "Hearts of Steel: The Story of John Catchings, Joe Gelders, and a Ballad" by Joyce Cauthen, plus reviews of the film "Sweet Is the Day: A Sacred Harp Family Portrait" and Alan Browns' book, Shadows and Cypress--Southern Ghost Stories.

This special thematic issue focuses on Alabama’s contribution to the blues genre:
"The Life and Death of Pioneer Bluesman Butler ‘String Beans’ May by Doug Seroff and Lynn Abbott; "Butler County Blues," by Kevin Nutt; "Tracking Down a Legend: The ‘Jaybird’ Coleman Story" by James Patrick Cather; "A Life of the Blues" by Willie King, with photo essay by Axel Kustner; "Livingston, Alabama, Blues: The significance of Vera Ward Hall" by Jerrilyn McGregory;" and "Chasing John Henry in Alabama and Mississippi" by John Garst plus reviews of two CDs, The Traditional Musics of Alabama, Vol. I and Alabama: From Lullabies to Blues.

Alabama's First Folklife Celebration: The Brief, Mostly Happy Life of FolkCenter South" by Jim Brown, with photo essay by Mark Gooch; "'You Got Family Here': Family Reunions in Lower Alabama" by Stephen and Samantha Criswell; "Tracking Down Alabama Indian Trails: Our Elders and the History of the Land" by Lamar Marshall; "Mozell Benson" by Anne Kimzey and Joyce Cauthen, plus reviews of Kay Norton's new book on the history of "Mercer's Cluster," Volume 2 of the CD series "The Traditional Musics of Alabama," and two books, a CD, and a video associated with the exhibition "Quilts of Gee's Bend.

"Roots Running Deep: Picking Mayhaws" by Lori A. Sawyer
"Confronting the Big House and Other Stereotypes in the Short Stories of Ruby Pickens" Tartt by Tina Naremore Jones "Going to the Boomalatta: Narrating Black Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama" by Kern Jackson
"In Memoriam: Bicky McLain, 1905-2004" by John Bealle

ARTICLES IN VOLUME VIII
“A Perpetual Stew: The Roots of Mobile’s Culinary Heritage” by Susan Thomas
“Bringing Alabama Home: An Ethnographer’s Sense of Self” by Dana Borrelli
“Red Hot and Blue: Spotlight on Five Alabama Blues Women” by Kathy Bailey and Debbie Bond
“Maintaining Mexican Identity in Birmingham” by Charles Kelley

 
ARTICLES IN VOLUME IX
 
River Redhorse and the Seasonal Snaring Thereof in Alabama
Jim Brown
Heritage Gardening
Jason Powell
Southern Pineywoods Cattle
Charles M. Simon
Yakni-The Binding Force: Nature and Culture Among the MOWA Choctaw of Alabama
Loretta A. Cormier, Jacqueline A. Matte, Reva Lee Reed, and Cedric Sunray
Remembering George Stritikus
Carole King
 

 _{This special edition of Tributaries focuses on the way we speak in Alabama.  Guest Editor Thomas E. Nunnally of Auburn University assembled a team of 12 linguists who contributed lively essays written in terms a non-linguiest can understand and enjoy.}

Exploring Alabama's Language Tributaries by Thomas E. Nunnally

Multilingual Alabama by Michael D. Picone

Southern American English in Alabama  by Catherine Evans Davies

Just what I the Southern Drawl?  by Crawford Feagin

South in Your Mouth? Vowels and Identity in Huntsville, Alabama by Rachael Allbritten

The Monophthongization of [ai] in Elba and the Environs: A community Study by Anna Head Oggs

To [a:] or Not To [a:] on the Gulf Coast of Alabama by Jocelyn Doxsey

"They Sound better Than We Do": Language Attitudes in Alabama by J. Daniel Hasty

Code-switching Between African-American and Standard English: The Rules, the Roles, and the Rub by Kimberly Johnson with Thomas E. Nunnally

College Writers as Alabama Storytellers by Charlotte Brammer

Tsalagi Language Revitalization and the Echota Cherokee by Robin Sabino

Appendices by Thomas E.  Nunnally
  A: The Sounds of English and southern English
  B: a Glossary of Select Linguistic Term
  C: Web Sources for Further Study

Contents: "A Mighty Man...A Great Man": Preserving the Legend of John Henry in Leeds, Alabama (by Susan Thomas); Communal Living the the Heart of Dixie (by Thomas Michael Kersen); "For the Amusement of the Boys": John Mealing, Railroad Caller (by Jim Brown); In Memorium: Art Deason, Nora Ezell, Willie King, and Al Thomas. Book Reviews: Little Zion: A Church Baptized by Fire by Shelly O'Foran (Jim Carnes); Mobile Ghosts II: The Waterline by Elizabeth Parker (Alan Brown); A Sacred Feast: Reflections on Sacred Harp Singing and Dinner on the Ground by Kathryn Eastburn (Joyce Cauthen); Ragged But Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz by Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff (Steve Grauberger);