November 2026
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
November comes at us with a guitar in one hand and a match in the other. Gram Parsons would have turned eighty this month, and in Norwood we’re celebrating Asa Brebner’s birthday with SONO After Dark - bringing friends, songs, and stories together as the Route 1 Project approaches its tenth anniversary. We’re also following Boston’s long history of fire, from Cocoanut Grove to the clubs and neighborhood places we knew ourselves; revisiting the argument Darwin set loose in 1859; and looking toward Provincetown’s three-hundredth year through the complicated history of those who arrived before us. Some of these stories we inherited. Others we were there for. All of them have unfinished business.
Chuck White
Searching for the Motherlode
MOTHERLODE MAGAZINE: FALL 2026
One story. Many doorways.
Asa gets his wings—and the rest of us get a night of art, live music and beautiful trouble at Asa After Dark, November 21, 6–10 PM, at Norwood Space Center.
BOSTON 400
COCOANUT GROVE:
CITY IN FLAMES
On November 28, 1942, Boston’s hottest nightclub became its deadliest address—the Cocoanut Grove fire killed 492 people and changed the rules for everyone who went out after them.
POLITICS
JOHN F. KENNEDY
WHO KILLED JFK?
A trip to New York to pitch the future takes a strange turn when a crew from Allston is offered the chance to sell who killed JFK.
MUCHOLAPKA
DARWIN:
ORIGIN OF SPECIES
Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species, and Harvard’s Louis Agassiz digs in his heels. He could move mountains with glaciers, but wouldn’t budge on creation.
PROVINCETOWN 300
THE PILGRIMS:
SPY CAPE COD
After weeks of Atlantic misery, the Pilgrims spy Cape Cod and a coastline with a history that didn’t begin with them.
GRAM.
GRAM PARSONS:
THE SPARK
Gram Parsons heard American music as one continuous transmission—and spent the rest of his life tuning the world into it.
RADIO
MOTHERLODE RADIO:
24/7 - 365
Roadkill Revival returns forgotten music to the airwaves—because some records are too alive to stay buried.
THE OUTSIDER INSIDE US ALL
Motherlode.TV
is a digital museum and world atlas of culture built from the David Bieber Archives—one of the largest collections of popular culture ever assembled. We uncover the hidden connections linking music, art, books, film, photography, places, and people across time.
We celebrate the people who create, collect, preserve, and dream—not for fame or recognition, but because they can't help themselves. We believe culture survives through curiosity, persistence, and the quiet determination of those who keep the story alive.
Because they can't help themselves. Neither can we.
