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 …
Drums
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 …
The Brunswick Picnic and the Independent Order of Pole Bearers
The modern concept of life insurance did not come to the South until after the Civil War, and when it did come, the early Southern …
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 …
Celebrating the Legacy of Junior Kimbrough in Holly Springs
Marshall County, Mississippi is recognized as the home of the Hill Country blues, and the home of its two greatest exponents, Junior Kimbrough and R. …
Great Music Documentaries and Live Music at the Clarksdale Film Festival
The annual Clarksdale Film Festival is a rather unusual film festival. For one thing it is held in the Mississippi Delta city of Clarksdale, which …
R. L. Boyce & Lightnin Malcolm Live at Antone’s
When a young Lebanese man from Port Arthur, Texas named Clifford Antone got kicked out (or perhaps dropped out, depending on who you ask) of …
Live Jazz on Sundays at Midtown Crossing Grill
Jazz is not an immensely popular music style in Memphis, so opportunities to hear authentic jazz in our city are few and far between, but …
A Death In The Delta: Tallulah’s Tragic Decline
In my childhood, Interstate 20 east ended at Waverly, Louisiana, which I remember as a railroad crossing with a store (where we would stop for …