Our guest today is Derek McCormack, a writer, artist, and fashion connoisseur who's spent three decades turning nostalgia into something profane and elevated.

His new book, a catalogue called The Sh*thole Opry Collector's Guide, imagines Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren as hillbilly vampires designing punk-influenced jewelry for other vampires visiting the Grand Ole Opry, the emanation point of family-friendly country music, which grew out of a live radio barn dance first broadcast from Nashville in 1925 and officially became the Grand Ole Opry in 1927.

In Derek's vision, the church of country music takes on the air of the avant-garde. It feels like walking into Dover Street Market or Barneys in its heyday, but with an aesthetic that honors the clean-cut facade of the Opry while perverting it into contemporary high fashion accessories.

Most of all, the Sh*thole Opry is a parody of the way fashion designers pirate the past for inspiration, while posing the question: what if the past stole from fashion the way fashion steals from the past?

In addition to The Sh*thole Opry Collector's Guide, Derek's first book of short stories, Dark Rides, was recently reissued by Pilot Press.

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