Gravel Springs Block Party and Day 2 of the Otha Turner Picnic
The second day of the annual Otha Turner Picnic was much more crowded than the first, as crowds came out to hear such artists as …
Dance
Keeping The Legacy Of Fife and Drum Music Alive
Each year, Sharde Thomas, the granddaughter of legendary fife-and-drum band leader Othar Turner, holds an annual picnic in her grandfathers’ memory at Gravel Springs, a …
Robert Kimbrough’s Blues Yard Parties in Benton County
Benton County, Mississippi is due east of Marshall County, and was once a part of it, having been carved out of it and Tippah County …
Opening the Crosstown Concourse
I had driven out to Covington for the inaugural Isaac Hayes Day in Frazier Park, but found it disappointing, as there were no live bands …
Brass Bands Clash on Frenchmen Street
Later in the evening, my homebody Darren Towns of the TBC Brass Band had a gig with a pick-up band of musicians from various brass …
A Birthday Party Uptown at Sportsman’s Corner With TBC Brass Band
After getting off work, I changed clothes, packed my car and headed out Interstate 55 into Mississippi. My friend, the trombonist Edward Jackson had asked …
An Authentic Blues Experience in the Wilderness of Fayette County
If you travel due north from Holly Springs in Marshall County, Mississippi, you will come to Fayette County, Tennessee, a rather similar county in many …
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 …
The Hurt Family Celebrating The 4th of July With Fife and Drum
As I have discussed before in this blog, Black fife and drum music is an endangered form of pre-blues that probably played a role in …
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 …