Chapter 6 Summary

The chapter begins in Joe Odom's home, which is lively with various types of characters. Joe talks on the phone to a friend about waking in the morning to find two people he doesn't know in his bed. Joe introduces Emma Kelly, or 'the lady of six thousand songs.' Emma is a piano player and singer well-known throughout Georgia. She is about seventy, dresses elegantly, is a devout Baptist, and exudes plenty of Southern charm. She and Joe are owners and founders of a new bar in town, Emma's, in order to give her a place to perform without having to go on long trips throughout the state, but she continues to travel.

The narrator accompanies Emma one Sunday. They go to Emma's Baptist church in Statesboro, where Emma plays the organ for the senior assembly and the piano for the children...