The King Biscuit Blues Festival and the Decline of Helena
Like all of Eastern Arkansas, Helena had seen better days by the late 1970’s, but the worst was yet to come. When the Mohawk Tire …
Arts
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 …
An Afternoon in Biloxi and Ocean Springs, Dinner in Gulfport
My friend and I had visited my cousin in the Handsboro neighborhood of Gulfport, and then we had headed on east into Biloxi. We noticed …
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 …
Brunch at Katie’s and North Claiborne Avenue in the Treme
My last day in New Orleans is always a little sad, but for this Sunday morning, Darren Towns and I decided to head out to …
R. L. Boyce, Lightnin Malcolm & Cedric Burnside Live at Oxford Blues Festival
The Grove on the campus of the University of Mississippi is a beautiful setting for any event, and it makes an awesome setting for the …
On the Trail of Lum Guffin, Bartlett’s Elusive Bluesman
I grew up in Bartlett, and went to Bartlett High School. A lot of my friends lived in the Black community along Old Brownsville Road, …
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 …