Today at noon, the Arkansas Literary Festival started things off with a talk by longtime L.A. Times rock critic Robert Hilburn at the Oxford American Annex, moderated by Oxford American associate editor Maxwell George. Hilburn is the author, most recently, of “Johnny Cash: A Life,” and so was there to tell Cash stories: playing Folsom Prison (a concert Hilburn actually attended, though as a freelancer not, he stressed, a prisoner), stealing horn riffs from Bob Moore, having an affair with his wife’s sister, recording a novelty song called “The Chicken in Black” (“It’s too complicated to explain,” Hilburn said, after spending a few minutes trying to parse the song’s lyrics). Old 97’s frontman Rhett Miller, who will be performing at South on Main tonight at 8, was on hand to play Cash songs.
Our picks for the weekend’s highlights are in this week’s paper — the full schedule is at the Lit Fest site.