The Field Is Empty, The Drums Silent
A friend of mine in Senatobia had heard that there might be fife and drum going on at a party on the Compress Road between …
picnic
Bull Day in Covington’s Frazier Park-A Day of Peace and Community
Orlandus “Bull” Cobbins of Covington, Tennessee was only 29 years old when he was senselessly murdered at a relative’s home by two men who wanted …
Terry Wright Throws A Party on the Backroad in Fayette County
West Tennessee southern soul artist Terry Wright has sung a lot about backroads and backyard parties, so it is only appropriate that he set up …
Hot Weather and Hot Blues at the Mississippi Hill Country’s Biggest Weekend
Each year, on the last weekend in June, blues musician Kenny Brown and his wife Sarah host the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic at Betty …
Preserving The Black Fife and Drum Culture in Coldwater
For 73 years, people in North Mississippi have been going to the Goat Picnic for goat sandwiches, music, dancing, and one of the rarest and …
Celebrating Sam Mosley’s Legacy in New Albany and Charlie Musselwhite at the Hill Country Picnic
Sam Mosley is arguably the best-known musical performer to come out of New Albany, Mississippi, so this year, the city of New Albany organized a …
A Day of Gospel Music in West Tennessee at Mason’s Zodiac Park
Black baseball fields were tremendously important in rural Black communities into the early 1970s. Every community had baseball teams and softball teams, but the ballfields …
Cigars, Wine, Blues and Soul at Chulahoma
If anyone is familiar with Chulahoma, Mississippi at all, it is probably as the location of the late blues great Junior Kimbrough’s long lost juke …
Preserving the Legacy of the Hill Country and Cotton Patch Soul Blues in North Mississippi
After an interruption caused by COVID-19, the annual Hill Country Picnic returned to Betty Davis’ Ponderosa near Waterford, Mississippi in Marshall County, with two days …
The Mason Family Reunion: Great Weather, Good Food, Fun and Fellowship, But No Musicians
Predominantly-African-American towns in Mississippi have a tradition of annual “days,” named for the towns, in which there are live performances, and in which people from …