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 …
Black History
Earl the Pearl’s Authentic Blues on Historic Beale Street
Memphis bills itself as the Home of the Blues, and markets Beale Street as “the street where blues was born.” But since the street’s redevelopment …
A City of Murals
While the city of Memphis has struggled in recent years with abandonment and economic problems, one of the bright spots has been an explosion of …
Some Like It Black: Cxffeeblack Celebrates Coffee and Black Culture in Memphis
Years ago, Memphis was coffee-challenged, to say the least. After reading liner notes off my favorite Style Council album attributed to The Cappuccino Kid, I …
The Fading Ruins of Turrell, Arkansas
Turrell, Arkansas, about ten miles north of Marion, is like a number of East Arkansas Delta towns. Once dependent on agricultural, it is fading away …
A Blues Yard Party in Rosemark’s Chapel Hill Community
Chapel Hill Community is an odd subdivision in far north Shelby County between Rosemark and Arlington. It looks like a piece of Raleigh or Frayser …
The Annual Car Show on Guffin Road
Long before there was a subdivision or a Rivercrest Elementary School, Guffin Road was a driveway belonging to the farmer and blues musician Lum Guffin. …
Remembering the Lost Legacy of Bartlett’s Shadowlawn High School
Although I went to Shadowlawn Middle School north of Ellendale in the 1979-1980 school year, I was not aware there had ever been a high …
Remembering West Memphis’s South Eighth Street
While Memphis’s Beale Street is far better known, and has been restored as a tourist attraction, South Eighth Street across the river in West Memphis, …
A Day for Isaac Hayes in Covington’s Frazier Park
Despite being forever associated with Memphis and Stax Records, Isaac Hayes was born near Rialto, Tennessee, just north of Covington, and is arguably Tipton County’s …