Rachel Baiman’s writing explores the music industry, the female experience, culture, power structures, and creativity. Her work has been featured in Litmosphere: The Journal of Charlotte Lit, The Bluegrass Situation, and No Depression Magazine, among other places. Her liner notes for Julia Belle: The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project received an IBMA nomination for “Liner Notes of the Year” in 2025. Her Substack Newsletter, The Weekly Croissant, is published every Sunday morning.

“I looked sideways at Kayla Rae, who seemed fluent in this language of crowdpleasing. She’d barely slept and had spent the morning defending her dead father’s house on stilts. I didn’t know how she found the energy to perform for these men. Preston held court while we drank, telling story after story about his family, his upbringing, and his success. He talked about his grandparents during the Great Depression and got verklempt. “And my grandmother was a school teacher and they were begging teachers to go teach in the black schools. They were paying a premium but nobody would go. And my grandmother said, ‘I will! I’ll go and teach those kids,’ and I’m so proud, I’m so proud of who I come from,” he said with tears in his eyes.

“In the years since he left Nashville, trading Luke Bell stories had become a common pastime among his old buddies here. I have my fair share of them, and I always recounted them fondly, though, in reality, they were sometimes terrifying. Yes, he drove his car drunk onto my lawn in the middle of the night and woke me up pounding on my bedroom window, and yes, he invited a hitchhiker from a religious cult into my van for a three-hour drive while I stepped into the gas station for 30 seconds. And yes, he often asked me to come over and hang out, only to force me into listening to the audiobook of Lonesome Dove while sitting in moody silence.”

All of These Fruits

I can’t help it! /A happiness has settled upon me

My labor greets me in the morning; /The smile of a child/ And good work laid out on my table

All of these fruits/ Ripe for appreciation…