Celebrating Mason, Tennessee’s Important Legacy
Mason, Tennessee, located in Tipton County by geography, but more socially and culturally linked to adjacent Fayette County, is the dead center of what might …
Festivals
The Tennessee Delta V: Fayette County
On a Friday evening, after meeting a friend for dinner in Memphis, with nothing in particular to do, I headed out Poplar Avenue through Collierville …
An Even Bigger Saturday at Coldwater’s GOAT Picnic
Although Saturday, August 25, 2018 was even hotter than the day before, the crowd that gathered in the late afternoon in Coldwater for the second …
Celebrating The Legacy of Otha Turner at Coldwater
Back in 1950, Othar Turner, of Gravel Springs, a few miles east of Senatobia in Mississippi’s Hill Country region, decided to hold a picnic for …
Celebrating R. L. Boyce’s Birthday at Como, Mississippi
Last year marked the first time we had organized a large outdoor birthday party for Hill Country bluesman R. L. Boyce, and that first picnic, …
Brunch on Full Blast and Murals in the Bywater
Sunday morning, Darren Towns and I headed over to yet another new breakfast spot in New Orleans, this one in a familiar location, 139 South …
Remembering Willie “Po Monkey” Seaberry at Merigold, Mississippi
Although a few of my friends expressed concern and disapproval of the name of Merigold, Mississippi’s Po Monkey Day, the event was organized for the …
Celebrating West Tennessee’s Folk Music Roots in Stanton
Ted Maclin is a farmer, an anthropology professor, a folk musician, and the owner of the antebellum home Oak Hill at Keeling, between Mason and …
The Rising Star JuBallLee Takes Over Cherry Place At Waterford
Since the death of the legendary fife and drum musician Othar Turner, his granddaughter Sharde Thomas has done stellar work in preserving that musical tradition, …
Simple, Inexpensive, Outstanding Food at Brownsville’s Mindfield Grill
I had been in Brownsville for the Fife Fest at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center, which broke up at 8 PM, and I was …