Award-winning songwriter teaming with Alabama author for ‘Watermelon Wine: The Poetry of Americana Music’

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Award-winning Nashville songwriter Anne E. DeChant will team with Alabama author Frye Gaillard for a unique program of reading and song on Friday, Feb. 26, at 6 p.m. at Pebble Hill. Their presentation, "Watermelon Wine: The Poetry of Americana Music," is free and open to the public.

In his award-winning book, "Watermelon Wine," Gaillard maintains that great songwriters like DeChant explore the depths of the human heart with all the subtlety and feeling of our finest novelists and poets. Gaillard will present brief readings from his works, setting the literary context for DeChant's all-acoustic rendition of her songs.

DeChant is a Nashville recording artist originally from Cleveland, where she was a five-time Singer-Songwriter of the Year. She has shared the stage with such well-known performers as Stevie Nicks, Nora Jones, Joan Armatrading and the Indigo Girls and has played venues ranging from the Bluebird Café to the Clinton White House. Her most recent album, "The Sun Coming In," recently reached the top 10 on Roots Music Report's national folk chart.

Frye Gaillard, writer in residence at the University of South Alabama, is author of more than 20 books about southern history, music, politics and culture. His award-winning titles include "Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America," winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award; "In the Path of the Storms," adapted as an Emmy-winning documentary film by the Alabama Center for Public Television; and "Watermelon Wine: Remembering the Golden Years of Country Music."

The event will be followed by refreshments; books will be available for purchase and signing. The Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities at Pebble Hill is located at 101 S. Debardeleben St. in Auburn.

For more information on the program, call (334) 844-4903 or visit www.auburn.edu/cah.

Auburn University is a nationally ranked land grant institution recognized for its commitment to world-class scholarship, interdisciplinary research with an elite, top-tier Carnegie R1 classification, life-changing outreach with Carnegie’s Community Engagement designation and an undergraduate education experience second to none. Auburn is home to more than 30,000 students, and its faculty and research partners collaborate to develop and deliver meaningful scholarship, science and technology-based advancements that meet pressing regional, national and global needs. Auburn’s commitment to active student engagement, professional success and public/private partnership drives a growing reputation for outreach and extension that delivers broad economic, health and societal impact.