Joe Hall’s Annual Car Show on Lum Guffin’s Old Grounds, Bartlett, Tennessee
The man they call Joe Hall is one of the eight children of the late Bartlett blues musician Columbus “Lum” Guffin, who was the descendant …
Fife and Drum
Celebrating Fayette County’s Blues Legacy in Moscow, Tennessee at the Inaugural Ghost River Blues Festival
Fayette County, Tennessee is historically a twin of Marshall County, Mississippi which lies to its south, both demographically and geographically. Both counties had Black majorities, …
Remembering the Late R. L. Boyce in His Hometown of Como
Bluesman R. L. Boyce was a native of Como, Mississippi in Panola County, the town which Mississippi Fred McDowell called home for much of his …
75 Years of Hollering “Goat” in Tate County, Mississippi: Blues and Fife and Drum
For 75 years, there has been a Labor Day picnic in Tate County, Mississippi, featuring barbecued goat and fife and drum music. The tradition was …
Remembering Como Bluesman R. L. Boyce in Como Park
Como, Mississippi bluesman R. L. Boyce knew Fred McDowell, Otha Turner and Rainey Burnett personally, and was the last of a generation of bluesmen. Like …
The Field Is Empty, The Drums Silent
A friend of mine in Senatobia had heard that there might be fife and drum going on at a party on the Compress Road between …
Celebrating the Legendary Blues Researcher Axel Kustner in West Point, Mississippi
German blues researcher Axel Kustner was one of the last blues field workers to comb the southern United States looking for bluesmen, and he was …
Hot Weather and Hot Blues at the Mississippi Hill Country’s Biggest Weekend
Each year, on the last weekend in June, blues musician Kenny Brown and his wife Sarah host the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic at Betty …
Preserving The Black Fife and Drum Culture in Coldwater
For 73 years, people in North Mississippi have been going to the Goat Picnic for goat sandwiches, music, dancing, and one of the rarest and …
A Day of Gospel Music in West Tennessee at Mason’s Zodiac Park
Black baseball fields were tremendously important in rural Black communities into the early 1970s. Every community had baseball teams and softball teams, but the ballfields …