Catfish Alley

I remember the first time I ever heard myself on the radio.  I was driving across the long bridge over the Ross Barnett Resevoir in Jackson, Mississippi and had the local Christian station playing.  All the sudden, sandwiched between the well-known tunes of the day, the station announced a new song, "Undo" by a band called "Rush of Fools," and I caught my breath as I realized that even though it was new to the radio, I knew the song by heart as I'd had the opportunity to play on it just a few months before.  As the second verse blared through the speakers, I had to pull over onto the shoulder of the road and savor the eight notes of my violin that didn't land on the cutting room floor. 

I felt a similar feeling last night when a dear friend's mom posted on Facebook that my album was in the "Half and Half" section of the Catfish Alley Magazine Spring 2014 issue.  It's just so exciting to have something you have worked on and dreamed about and put heart and soul into come to fruition, and to see a little article for my album in print, well, I kind of felt like a kid at Christmas. (My apologies for any social-media overload you might have endured...I was just so delighted and had to share!)  But not only was it exciting to see something about my album in print, it was extra-special to see it in a publication from the small Mississippi town where I spent most of my adolescence.  A town where I played carols at the only shopping mall with the youth orchestra every Christmas, competed in music competitions on the weekends and gave my highschool senior recital at the local college auditorium.  A town where everybody knows your name, helps raise each other's children, and is proud of where they come from.  And I'm thankful that in this small way, my town and I get to be proud of each other.  And also, in this age where most news is about crime and wars, deficits and struggles, it's encouraging to see media that celebrates Southern food, folk, music, landscapes and other worthwhile fare.

If you live in Mississippi & would like to purchase your own copy of Catfish Alley, click here to see where it's available on newsstands throughout the Golden Triangle Area, as well as Tupelo and Greenwood and Vernon and Tuscaloosa, AL.  Or, if you're an out-of-towner, you can choose one of their reasonably priced subscription options, (as I did just a few minutes ago.)


In case you can't read the tiny print in the photo, here's the review (written by Jan Swoope, a dear woman who once taught me how to ride horses English style.  Welcome to the small-town-South.)  

"Bethany Daniel Bordeaux packed her violin in 2006, moved from Columbus to Nashville, Tenn, and was soon performing with multiple artists and the Nashville Philharmonic Orchestra.  Her debut instrumental CD, "Songs from Along The Way," came out in December 2013.  Its acoustic tracks of violin, guitar and piano feature Celtic and Bluegrass flair as well as enchanting, slower pieces."