Hi, I'm Lovar Burton and this is Lovar Burton Reads.

Every episode I hand-pick a different piece of short fiction and read it to you.

The only thing these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope you will too.

Today, I have a very special bonus episode of Lovar Burton Reads for you.

I recorded it in front of a live audience at the Now Here This Podcast Festival in New York City.

The story is called Goat and it's from the new short fiction collection entitled Five Carret Soul

by the best-selling author James McBride and it is now out and available from Riverhead Books and Imprint of Penguin.

Now, James received the National Book of War for fiction in 2013 for his novel The Good Lord Bird.

In addition to being a terrific novelist, he's also a saxophoneist, a composer.

He's written several screenplays. He's done all kinds of things.

The man is a veritable renaissance man.

The story Goat is told from the perspective of a kid who goes by the name of Butter and Butter plays in a funk man

in Union Town, Pennsylvania in the early 1970s.

While I read, I was accompanied by live music from the cellist Trevor Exter and afterwards,

I sat down with Mr. McBride himself for what I hope is an enjoyable conversation.

We talked about the surprising twist in this story about the community and the dignity of the people who inspired it and about his life.

I sincerely hope you enjoy.

If you're ready,

then let's take a deep breath.

And let's begin.

Goat by James McBride.

When I was little, I used to look out my window and see a little boy running behind a man on a bicycle every morning.

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