From Almeda to Zilphia: Arkansas Women Who Transformed American Popular Song - Paperback

by Stephen Koch (Author), Katherine Strause (Illustrator)

WINNER:

• 2025 Award for Excellence, Best Research in Recorded Popular Music / Association for Recorded Sound Collections
• 2025 Arkansiana Award, Arkansas State Library Association

From Almeda To Zilphia: Arkansas Women Who Transformed American Popular Song profiles artists who've influenced music around the world in ways we're still discovering. Despite their collective cultural impact, these women's stories have too often been overlooked, forgotten, or never told.

Part history, part art, and part music, the book features a wide cross-section of inspirational creatives across the decades. With surprises like Maya Angelou's side career as a calypso singer and Carrie Cash, who recognized that her son, Johnny, had "the gift," From Almeda To Zilphia covers a wide variety of musical styles:

• Gospel-Rosetta Tharpe
• Opera-Marjorie Lawrence
• Blues-Sippie Wallace
• Folk Ballads-Almeda Riddle
• Dance-Pop -Beth Ditto
• Classical-Florence Price, and
• Country-K.T. Oslin

Working from often hard-to-find historic photographs, vivid portraits by renowned artist Katherine Strause of the women profiled make plain the strength and artistry of these cultural pioneers. With a thoughtful forward by professor Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch and a heart-wrenching afterword by acclaimed country music songwriter Erin Enderlin, From Almeda To Zilphia is written by musician and award-winning journalist Stephen Koch, writer and host of the syndicated public radio program Arkansongs.