Celebrating Unity And An Effort To Save A Dying Town
On a weekday afternoon, I had driven up to Mason, Tennessee after work to eat at Bozo’s Bar-B-Que, and had noticed signs around the little …
Black History
The Last Hurrah For Foote Homes and Booker T. Washington High
When the United States Department of Education complained about the location of Memphis’ all-Black Kortrecht High School in the middle of a noisy, smokey rail …
The Manassas High School Drumline at Melrose Stadium
Although Memphis’ Black community has an old and deep history of drumlines, the phenomenon has been fading in recent years. A reduced interest on the …
Preserving the Black Fife and Drum Tradition at Gravel Springs
For fans of the blues in Mississippi, the summer is somewhat framed by two major events, the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic in June, which …
Preserving the Hill Country Blues Tradition: Duwayne Burnside Live in Holly Springs
Think of Mississippi Blues and you are likely to think of the Delta. The long highways and crossroads, the endless flat land, broken only by …
The Abandonment of Henning, Tennessee
Back in the 1980’s, Henning, Tennessee became famous as the hometown of writer Alex Haley, whose genealogical novel Roots was a best-seller in the late …
The Rebirth of Jazz on Beale Street at The Blue Note: A Tribute to Emerson Able
Jazz is the forgotten piece of the Memphis music puzzle. People who are familiar with Isaac Hayes, Al Green or Otis Redding have likely never …
Celebrating Jim Dickinson’s Beale Street Saturday Night With Sons Of Mudboy at Shangri-La Records
The late Jim Dickinson was passionate about Memphis’ Beale Street. He carried on a running feud in song with the Memphis Housing Authority and Memphis’ …
TBC Brass Band Brings The Seventh Ward Funk Rolling Downtown With Revolution SA & PC
Perhaps no New Orleans experience is more enjoyable yet exotic as the Sunday afternoon parades called second-lines. Inspired by the bass-drum, cowbell and tuba-driven grooves …