The phenomenon of “town days” is fairly unique to the state of Mississippi, and occurs mainly in predominantly-Black towns. It is possible that they began as a sort of town reunion, a weekend occasion where people who had moved to Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit could return to their hometown and reconnect with old family and friends. Such days are held usually in the fall, and they occur in towns such as Hollandale, Winstonville, Coldwater, Como, Crenshaw, Coahoma, Jonestown, Friars Point and Tutwiler. At least one Arkansas town, Hughes, also has such a day. They do not occur in the same way in Tennessee, although the town of Mason has a fall festival each October which is similar. The centerpiece of these days is live music and entertainment, which is generally offered free of charge.
Coldwater, in Tate County, is the only town in its county to have an annual day. It is one of the few towns in America which died and came back to life. The original Coldwater was a few miles north of the current one, the site having been flooded by the building of Arkabutla Dam and the creation of Arkabutla Lake. The Federal government engaged a Memphis real estate developer to plan a new townsite, and a number of streets in Coldwater bear the names of Memphis streets, including Parkway, Autumn and Forrest. Highway 51 was made a double-lane boulevard with frontage roads, and the entire town was designed before anyone moved there. Houses and smaller buildings were trucked to the new site on flatbed trailers, and the new town was functional by 1942. It is, along with Diamondhead, one of only two pre-planned towns in the state of Mississippi.
Coldwater 2025 was a beautiful blue sunny day, warm and pleasant. One side of the town square (in Coldwater more of a rectangle) was occupied by food trucks, and the other by the tents, seating and stage. It took awhile for the performing acts to set up, and the main disappointment during the day was that most of the performers chose to perform with tracks rather than with a live band of musicians. An exception was Senatobia performer Greg Ayers, who performed with a drummer and a keyboard player. There was also a DJ, and a number of stepping and dance crews were present, such as the Stepping Seniors and the Sazzy Steppers. As is the case everywhere, Southern Soul was the preferred music of the day, although at least one rapper performed.
As the day progressed, more and more people gathered, and the crowd grew larger. After a fairly long interlude with the DJ during which some performers evidently failed to show up, a gospel group began to set up on stage with instruments. But by then, it was dark, I was hungry, and my phone was dead to the point that I could not shoot video footage. So I reluctantly headed back to my car, hoping to charge my phone.
As I walked past the open door of Red’s Bar B Que, I heard Hill Country blues coming from inside, so I walked up to see who was playing. It turned out to be Studd Ford, the grandson of the late bluesman T-Model Ford, who was playing a version of Junior Kimbrough’s “Meet Me In The City.” I considered going in there for dinner, but ultimately changed my mind, and headed to Windy City Grill in Como for a pizza.
I rolled back through Coldwater after dinner, hoping to catch the headliner Nathaniel Kimble, but the downtown area was absolutely mobbed at that point, and I could find nowhere to park. Thoroughly tired, I made my way home to Memphis. I should have parked and walked to the stage, because I later learned that Kimble did indeed have a live band. But otherwise, all the track performances were a disappointment. Still it was a fun day and one not marred by any kind of disagreement or unpleasantness.