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 …
History
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 …
Big Don Valentine and the Hollywood All-Stars at a Fayette County, Tennessee Juke
Juke joints are a dying breed, but they loom large in blues history as well as in the popular image of blues culture. Eagerly sought …
Bartlett’s Annual Fall Car Show on Guffin Road
The homestead and surrounding acreage which belonged to Bartlett bluesman Lum Guffin still belongs to his descendants, and is occasionally rented out for events. Once …
Remembering the Roots of Hill Country Blues at Chulahoma
Blues singer Beverly Davis’ family owns the only store in Chulahoma, a small town about halfway between Senatobia and Holly Springs in the Mississippi Hill …
A Hot Saturday in Covington on the Square
I drove up to Covington to Breakfast Cove on a Saturday morning to meet up with a friend so that we could discuss the possibility …
A Car Show on Lum Guffin’s Homestead
My fascination with the life of Bartlett bluesman Lum Guffin is well-known, all the more so as I walked past his house for years with …
“If You Love It, Do it Everyday”: Glenview Murals in Memphis
Glenview, a neighborhood of single-family homes along Lamar Avenue southeast of downtown Memphis was one of the first historically-white neighborhoods to open up to African-American …
The Mason Family Reunion: Great Weather, Good Food, Fun and Fellowship, But No Musicians
Predominantly-African-American towns in Mississippi have a tradition of annual “days,” named for the towns, in which there are live performances, and in which people from …
Great Blues and Barbecue in Coldwater, Mississippi
Memphis is known for great barbecue, but strangely, barbecue is rarer in Mississippi, so when a new place appeared in the town of Coldwater, in …