Garden & Gun

EDITOR’S LETTER Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @davedibenedetto I’ve known G&G’s music columnist, Matt Hendrickson, since 1995. Back then he was part of the team launching something called a website for Rolling Stone, a concept then well ahead of its time. Not long after that, he became a staff writer for the iconic music magazine, where he covered everyone from David Bowie to Phish. And while his credentials were impressive, the perks of his friendship were even better, e.g., tickets to just about any show you wanted to catch. But most important, he always kept us plugged in to what we should be listening to. Not surprisingly, when I landed at G&G in 2008, Hendrickson was one of my first calls. Ever since, he’s been bringing his ear and…

“People’s experiences can show on their faces. Especially musicians”—Joe Ciardiello, who illustrated music legends for “The South’s Hottest Guitar Heroes” (p. 109) Joe Ciardiello ILLUSTRATOR When Joe Ciardiello looks at someone, he’s seeing more than his or her features. “People’s experiences can show on their faces,” says the New Jersey–based illustrator, who has spent his career creating portraits from those observations for the likes of the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Rolling Stone. “Especially musicians: When they’re performing, they have so many expressions.” Ciardiello—who has himself played the drums in blues, roots, rock, and jazz bands since he was a teenager—illustrated a few of his own role models for “The South’s Hottest Guitar Heroes” (p. 109). Among his favorite guitarists: Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks. “I loved getting…

TEXAS TALK I had no idea Charley Crockett ever called Dallas home, but he will always be welcome here and we are proud of him (Music, October/November 2022). As for the observation that Dallas has done a poor job of promoting Deep Ellum as one of America’s most important music scenes, I agree and am committed to changing that. Of course, I would welcome Mr. Crockett’s help. Eric Johnson, mayor Dallas, Texas Bao Ong wrote eloquently and frankly about Houston (“Houston’s Wide Welcome,” February/March 2023). The weather and traffic are as described. He says he moved there for the food. I believe him. Gates Whiteley San Antonio, Texas S. C. Gwynne’s finding Texans to be friendly (“The Heart of Texas,” February/March 2023) mirrored my lifelong observation about North Carolinians. I…

Formula One racing has long been hugely popular in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. In the past few years, though, the U.S. fan base has swelled by millions, largely lured to the glitzy, globe-trotting sport by Netflix’s hit behind-the-scenes series Formula 1: Drive to Survive. The only thing that’s been missing for these new American converts is an American driver to cheer. Until the current season, that is, when Williams Racing chose Logan Sargeant to occupy one of F1’s twenty seats, thereby granting him admission into one of the most exclusive groups of professional athletes on the planet. Raised in Florida, the twenty-two-year-old has been racing since he was six, and relocated to Europe before his teens to advance his ambitions. But even while careening around tracks…

Surrounded by ink-soaked sponges spilling from a tower of tin pails, scraps of paper smudged with color tests, and scribbled notes tacked to the walls, John Costin runs his thumb over a thin sheet of copper. Measuring thirty-one and a half by forty-six inches, the sheet serves as the key plate for Verdant Landscape, an etching of sandhill cranes he’s worked on for more than six months here in his Tampa studio, formerly an early-1900s dry goods store. “This is a plate that I generally do first, and it has all the detail on it,” Costin explains. “I’ve etched these plates I don’t know how many times, and I still haven’t finished. I dream about this bird.” Costin, who is sixty-six, became “fascinated with birds” as a teenager when he…

One afternoon in the late nineties, about a year after Laura Vinroot Poole had opened Capitol, her trailblazing boutique in Charlotte, “the sunniest, most charming, and most radiant girl walked in and asked if I was hiring,” Vinroot Poole recalls. She was not, in fact. The shop was just getting off the ground and Vinroot Poole—owner, founder, and sole employee—could barely pay herself. But something about the woman, with her savvy fashion sense and effervescent British lilt, made her say yes. In turn, that staffer, Wiggy Hindmarch—a British national born in Singapore who had recently graduated from performing arts school, rebuffed a gig as a backup dancer for Prince, and moved to Charlotte from her family’s home in Newport, Rhode Island—soaked up everything Vinroot Poole had to impart. “She taught…