Food, Fun, Blues, Soul and Fellowship at the Mason Jubilee Fall Festival
Mason, Tennessee is a unique town in the middle of Tennessee’s most Delta-like region, close to the junction of Fayette, Tipton and Haywood Counties. Its …
History
West Memphis Blossoms Along the Broadway of America
West Memphis, Arkansas is a youngster as cities go, having been founded only about 1916. Its growth was steady throughout the 1920s, and even continued …
A Renaissance For South Eighth in West Memphis
Beale Street is one of the most storied streets in African-American history and folklore, but its sibling across the river, West Memphis’s Eighth Street has …
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 …
Old Highway 61 from Marion to Turrell
Since the building of I-55, most folks breeze on their way from West Memphis to Blytheville without seeing any of the old East Arkansas towns …
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, …
A Bit of Mardi Gras in Downtown Memphis
On February 2, 1872, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia landed in Memphis, Tennessee, having come by boat down the Mississippi River from St. Louis. …
A Beautiful Day and Great Fun at Coldwater Day
The phenomenon of “town days” is fairly unique to the state of Mississippi, and occurs mainly in predominantly-Black towns. It is possible that they began …
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 …