Joyce Jones, Kenny Brown, R. B. Stone and Destination Up at Foxfire Ranch

On Mothers’ Day afternoon, I saw that Joyce Jones, whom I had seen at Sherena Boyce’s party in Como a month ago, would be performing at Foxfire Ranch in Waterford, Mississippi. The weather was warm and sunny, so I decided to drive down, but I got there about an hour after the gate opened. Joyce performed one song after I arrived, but then turned over the stage to a comedian, an evangelist, a Southern Soul artist with a song called “Pour It In A Cup”, and then a Christian rock band called Destination Up. The latter act was interesting, as the drummer was one of Joyce’s cousins, and although I’m not always a big fan of rock, they were really good musicians and I loved the uplifting message of their songs. Then Kenny Brown came back on stage, with Joyce Jones and a guest artist from Nashville named R. B. Stone and Cameron Kimbrough on drums. They did several traditional Hill Country blues songs, including the standard “Rolling & Tumbling” and “Old Black Man”, Joyce Jones’ variant of the standard “Coal Black Mattie” or “Old Black Mattie”. Then Lightning Malcolm came up to feature on a song as well. Although it wasn’t exactly what I expected, it ended up being a decent night of music under a full moon and starry sky.