Episode 1: "Well, we've done it, haven't we?"

Meet your magazine editors-turned-podcast hosts, and learn about how we got here

In our very first episode, we marvel at how surreal it feels to actually have started a podcast and how we got here, tease a bit of the cultural storytelling that's to come, and trace the history of Country Roads magazine from its inception forty years ago (in a deer stand) leading up to the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans.

Meet Your Co-Hosts 

James Fox-Smith is the Publisher of Country Roads magazine, and has been on the masthead since 1995 when he followed a Louisiana girl (Country Roads' Associate Publisher Ashley Fox-Smith) to her hometown of St. Francisville to take over her mother's magazine. The past two decades have made this Aussie into a true Louisianan, as passionate and knowledgable about the intricacies of this region's culture as any bayou-born Cajun. Overseeing the company for much of its forty-year history, he's worn almost every hat the magazine has to offer, from sales to editorial to marketing—and writes a monthly publisher's column, titled "Reflections" which you can peruse, here. You also might catch him hosting the Louisiana Public Broadcasting's weekly series Art Rocks!—which spotlights artists, performance, culture, literature, history and the impact of art in our world.

Jordan LaHaye Fontenot is the Managing Editor of Country Roads magazine, and has been a part of the editorial team since 2018. Born and raised in the heart of Acadiana, she came to Country Roads with a passion for Louisiana storytelling. She holds a degree in English from Louisiana State University, where she received the 2018 Sarah Sue Goldsmith Award for Nonfiction. In addition to her work at Country Roads, she has published stories in regional and international publications including inRegister, Atlas Obscura, and the Oxford American. Her first book Home of the Happy: A murder on the Cajun Prairie, will be  published by Mariner Books in 2024.  

Alexandra Kennon is the Arts & Entertainment Editor at Country Roads since 2020, and has been writing and photographing stories about Southern culture, cuisine, history, and art for the magazine since 2016. She holds degrees in Journalism and Theatre Arts from Loyola University New Orleans, where she was Managing Editor of Pacemaker-winning university newspaper The Maroon, and could typically be found flitting between the newsroom and black box theatre. She has acted in productions ranging from independent festival films to Tennessee Williams world-premiere stage productions, and previously led historical, culinary, and cultural tours of New Orleans. Her book Classic Restaurants of New Orleans, published by Arcadia/The History Press with a foreword by Walter Isaacson, is available most places one finds books.

Bloopers

Oops! In the episode, James mistakenly dated the New Orleans World's Fair to 1983 instead of 1984. Read more about that spectacular event in this story from the Times-Picayune:  "The 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans: Then and Now"

Reading List

Here, find articles that we either mentioned in the episode, or that we think might enrich and/or further the conversations we had. 

Forty Years of Country Roads: Building she-sheds and magazines, one brick at a time

by James Fox-Smith 

Speaking of things that take a long time to build, did you ever hear the one about the St. Francisville woman who, in 1983, started a magazine about things to do “from Natchez to New Orleans”? 

In Memoriam: Anna Macedo : Remembering the visionary behind the Country Roads aesthetic

by James Fox-Smith 

Back in 1983, when Dorcas first hatched the idea of starting a magazine, it was Anna to whom she turned to figure out what Country Roads—a magazine for “adventures close to home,” should look and feel like. So it was Anna who came up with  the magazine’s visual signature: the chapbook-style artwork, the logo with the trotting horse, the approachable, scrapbook-y quality of the page layout; and certainly the little flourishes of warmth and whimsy that separated early issues of Country Roads from its brethren, marking it as something quirkier, more handmade, perhaps—than your standard magazine fare.

New Orleans' Dives: Five of NOLA's most reputable disreputable bars

by Alexandra Kennon  

Alex's first story for Country Roads magazine:  A great dive bar is something like a cult film: it is not created deliberately, but in time people find themselves drawn to its unique brand of campy charm. Though New Orleans has seen a post-Katrina boom of upscale, hipster-approved craft breweries and cocktail lounges, the city still offers many perfectly simple and debaucherous dive bars that have survived the test of time and cheap drink prices. The following five New Orleans staples provide an ideal mix of unpretentiously made, and priced, drinks with the type of dimly lit, seedy charm that allows you to forget your cares until last call—if there is one.   

Confessions of a French Quarter Ghost Tour Guide

by Alexandra Kennon

As a New Orleans tour guide for several years, when it came to ghost tours, preparing for the evenings entailed a ritual of sorts. After my day job I’d take a nap, wake up around 6 pm, and transform into a different version of myself. During my daytime tours, teaching, or writing, I’d wear cheerful colors, shorts, a Saints cap. The French Quarter at night, however, was a different animal, and all of us in the tourism industry had roles to play in the chaotic, drunken “Disney World for adults” that so many out-of-towners perceive New Orleans’ oldest neighborhood to be.

Wax & Wane: Two Louisiana record shops, two pivotal eras

by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

Jordan's first story for Country Roads magazine: Coming to the end of the hour-and-a-half drive from Baton Rouge to my hometown, I pass the faded buildings of Main Street—the pizza restaurant, close to going out of business for the second time this year, the chipping murals decorating once-beautiful buildings, Donny’s Bar where underage kids flock for the sole source of weekend entertainment. I’ve made this drive hundreds of times before, and as I approach my former high school, I pass a large warehouse building, now painted over and owned by a CPA firm. I remember distinctly the brightly painted mural that not too long ago leapt from its walls: “Floyd’s Record Shop” written in red on top of a fiddle and accordion. I feel an overwhelming regret that I never went inside. 

The Flying Vet of Lafayette: How one immigrant with an airplane revolutionized veterinary medicine in Acadiana

by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

The first story Jordan and Alex worked on together: It is 1945 in the Acadiana region of South Louisiana. Stepping outside into the heavy, summer heat, you breathe the scent of wet soil and livestock in deeply. You place your hand on your forehead to guard your eyes, and tilt your head up towards the vast Louisiana sky. A 1939 model Piper Cub Coupe airplane is lazily making circle after circle above the area.

The vet is in town. 

Episode Ephemera