On the cover… Year of Music The music that springs from Alabama roots is rich and varied By John Brightman Brock M.B. Smith, a 20-something soldier fighting in Tennessee’s Battle of Shiloh in 1862, couldn›t believe what had just happened. Hellish cannon blasts roared overhead, blowing apart Confederate and Union armies. In two days, more than 23,000 men  …read more
Red Tape OVERLOAD By Perry Stambaugh The cost of electricity hinges on several things: among them availability, prices for power plant fuels and materials and the amount of power consumers demand. Now volatile federal rulemaking has hit power producers. …read more	Alabama Music Hall of Fame By David Haynes I’d passed by the unassuming rectangular blue and white building many times on various trips along U.S. Highway 72 through Tuscumbia. And with 2011 being celebrated as the …read more
Alabama Gardens Cold Frames By Katie Jackson For several years now my sister has successfully grown lettuces and other cool-season veggies in containers on her front porch. Because the plants are relatively protected from hard frosts, she has been able to supply bowls of fresh salads for our winter family gatherings, …read more	Wild Hogs By Alan White Feral hogs are becoming a more serious threat to Alabama’s woodlands and farm crops each year. These once-domestic pigs, released years ago, are breeding fast …read more
Agriculture’s New Day By Katie Jackson Food security, renewable energy and environmental sustainability are issues that affect everyone. They also are issues that relate directly to agriculture, and they are definitely issues that Bill Batchelor, the new dean of Auburn University’s …read more	Main Street Alabama By Atticus Rominger If you look past the SUVs and tune out the cell phone noise, if you focus solely on the white-walled tires and mirror-finished chrome of cars and trucks from a half-century past, you can almost …read more