A Fife-and-Drum Workshop in Brownsville, Tennessee
Fife and drum music once flourished in West Tennessee, but similar to what happened in Georgia, disappeared rapidly in the 1970’s. The last evidence we …
Art
Willy and the Planks Performing at Memphis’ Center for Southern Folklore
Willy and the Planks is a Nashville-based blues band with strong Hill Country influence, led by Bill Gibbs, whom I met through his friendship with …
Celebrating Tate County’s Blues Legacy at Senatobia Blues and Brews
On November 4, 2017, Senatobia launched its inaugural Blues and Brews festival in Gabbert Park, in unusually warm and wet weather. In fact, dense fog …
Great Breakfasts and a Taste of History at The Brunswick Kitchen
I had been hearing about a new restaurant that had opened in the old Brunswick community along Brunswick Road, and I had even ventured out …
Some Ice Cream, A Snowball, Seafood and Blues
After the second-line, we were so hot when we got back to the car that I immediately started searching in my phone for ice cream …
R. L. Boyce, Cam Kimbrough, Joyce Jones and the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band at the Memphis Music and Heritage Festival
New Orleans’beloved Jazz Fest celebrates the wide diversity of New Orleans music, but the Memphis equivalent, the Beale Street Music Festival generally does not feature …
A Blues Porch Party On A Rainy Night In Taylor
It was a rainy Monday night, and a work night at that, and I was tired and not feeling like doing much of anything. But …
Can Tourism and the Arts Save a Struggling Delta Town?
Along Highway 61’s strand of tired, worn buildings and washed-out towns, Wilson, Arkansas first appears as a grove of trees on the horizon straight ahead …
Authentic Blues at the Fourth Annual Goat Fest in Clarksdale
If Clarksdale’s Juke Joint Festival is sort of a family-friendly approach to the Mississippi Blues, at least during the daytime, the Goat Fest, now in …
From Savage to Minter City
On the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, I decided to continue my exploration of small towns and backroads in the Mississippi Delta. My first stop …