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NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y R E V I E W
Fall 2023
F I N A LIST, 2 02 2 DORIS BET TS FICTIO N PRIZE
A WAYFARER AT DEVIL’S ELBOW
“Rumor has it that human ingenuity built the synthesizer, the bass, the guitar, the drum. Yet there’s nothing recognizably human about Nyssa and Virgil’s music – aside from its pumping, bloody heart.”
by Emily Alice Katz
—John Paul Durang, Next Beat Monthly, January 1974
W I T H A R T B Y J E R E MY R U S S E L L
I knew just the basic facts when I first
Virgil Ridenhauer: a session drummer among the Woodstock crowd in the late sixties. Then, briefly, in the early seventies, bandmate of out-ofnowhere Nyssa Adcock. In his apparent prime, in the 1980s, he morphed into a producer of electronica, at first abstruse and then arena-ready. Prostate cancer in the late ’90s, his wretched end. Nyssa, in contrast, burned brightly and then disappeared. Occluded herself from the music scene to amble down other roads, unseen – as far as I could tell. The magazine articles on Virgil were many and fawning, though a couple of detractors surfaced after his ugly, public breakup with his wife during
EMILY ALICE KATZ is a Pushcart-nominated writer, editor, and musician living in Durham, NC. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in the pages of Jelly Bucket, Salamander, Solstice, Flyway, Jewish Fiction, Sky Island Journal, Mud Season Review, and Kindred. She is the author of the book Bring Zion Home: Israel in American Jewish Culture, 1948-1967 (SUNY Press, 2015), and holds a PhD in Modern Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Abstract Expressionist JEREMY RUSSELL earned a BFA in painting at UNC Asheville in 2001. He is the co-owner, with Alicia Anne Armstrong, of Russell & Armstrong Gallery located in downtown Asheville. He is also represented by Blue Spiral 1 Gallery in Asheville and Light & Art Gallery in Charleston, SC. His lifelong interest in creating art was sustained throughout multiple career paths, including owning and operating a mural company for commercial applications. His work has been exhibited widely in galleries, as well as in academic and not-for-profit venues. His art is held in corporate collections, such as BCA Architects and the Mission Hospital, both in Asheville, as well as in private collections across the US and Europe.
started digging: in the wake of their studio debut in late 1973, the duo was hailed by critics as breakthrough artists, their album – the only one they were ever to make together – an instant icon of experimental rock. I read every article on Nyssa and Virgil in existence when I was given the go-ahead from the editors of Works on Paper to write my own story. I thought this was my shot at the musiccritic firmament. Me at the time, three years ago: a twenty-four-year-old with a take-notice blog and a handful of ferocious album reviews in the local free weekly. Ms. Badass Music-Critic Nobody. I’ve learned a thing or two since then.