Celebrating the Blues Culture of Brownsville and the Memory of Tina Turner
The death of soul and pop icon Tina Turner, who was a Haywood County, Tennessee native, hung heavy over this year’s Exit 56 Blues Festival …
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The Beginning and End of All Music
Marshall County, Mississippi in the part of Northeast Mississippi known as the Hill Country, is home to two of the state’s best-known blues families, the …
Garry Burnside Organizes A Big Day For The Hill Country in Ripley, Mississippi
Bluesman Garry Burnside, like his brother Duwayne, grew up in the rural areas near Independence, Mississippi, between the larger towns of coldwater and Holly Springs, …
A Recollection of Memphis’ Black Majorette and Drummer Tradition
Black majorettes and majorette drummers were a unique part of the culture of Memphis’ Black neighborhoods from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. Most …
Clarksdale Celebrates The Blues And The Juke Joint Culture That Gave It Birth
Most people throw themselves a party on their birthday, but Cat Head Delta Blues owner Roger Stolle throws one for his whole adopted hometown on …
Blues at Nightfall: How Dr. David Evans and High Water Records Tried to Secure A Future For The Blues
High Water Records was founded in 1980 by Dean Richard Ranta and Dr. David Evans, an eminent folklorist who was brought to what was then …
Further On Up The Road: Celebrating the Legacy of Bobby “Blue” Bland in Barretville
On January 27, 1930, Robert Bland was born in rural Shelby County, Tennessee. Most biographies place the birth at Rosemark, which is barely a wide …
Coldwater: A Struggling Town Celebrates Its Legacy
The original town of Coldwater, Mississippi was founded in Tate County, Mississippi in 1872 along the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad, which ran from Memphis to …
Whistling Past The Graveyard: Helena Celebrates Amidst the Ruins
The annual King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas is one of the United States’ major blues festivals. But time has not been kind to …
Food and Fun at New Albany’s Big Annual Day
New Albany, Mississippi is one of the Hill Country region’s more prosperous towns, and that was true even before the construction of the Toyota plant …