Two Night of Jam Band Fun at the inaugural Duwayne Burnside Festival in Marshall County
Over the last decade or so, Hill Country bluesman Duwayne Burnside has sponsored a fall picnic, usually in September. It was usually called the R. …
Folklore
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 …
Celebrating Junior Kimbrough’s Birthday With His Sons Robert and Kinney at Graceland Too in Holly Springs
Graceland Too was one of those off-the-wall quirky places I had heard of but never been to. I’m not particularly an Elvis Presley fan (although …
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 …
A Day of Community and Fun in Mason, Tennessee
Mason, Tennessee was once known for the Lower End, a collection of juke joints on Front Street, colloquially known as “cafés,” but these days most …
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 …
The Blues is Front and Center on Clarksdale’s Biggest Day
Most people’s friends throw them a party on their birthday, but Roger Stolle, the owner of Cat Head Delta Blues and Folk Art throws the …
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 …
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 …
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 …