A Delta Journey: Dawn in Rena Lara and Breakfast in Greenville
I had agreed to drop off a co-worker at work on my way out of town, so I ended up getting on the road at …
music
A Fall Celebration on Mason’s Lower End
Every October, the town of Mason in Tipton County, Tennessee sponsors a Unity Fall Festival on the square, in front of what is left of …
Commemorating a Holy Site of the Bentonia Blues
2019 was the 71st anniversary of a community institution in the town of Bentonia, one of the last Mississippi juke joints. Jimmy “Duck” Holmes’ family …
The Human Jukebox and the Mighty Sound of the South Fight It Out in Memphis
The historically-Black college band tradition of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and the corps-style tradition of the University of Memphis are vastly different, and while …
Celebrating The Legacy of R. L. Boyce at Como, Mississippi
What Sherena Boyce, daughter of Hill Country bluesman R. L. Boyce, started as a birthday party for her dad in August of 2017 has now …
The Last Black Fife and Drum Picnic in America
Fife and drum music was once found in Black communities throughout the South, but by 1970, it was found only in Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee, …
Haute Cuisine and Hill Country Blues at Home Place Pastures in Como
Home Place Pastures was originally founded in 1869 or 1871, depending on the source, as a cotton plantation in the wilderness east of the railroad …
Books Coffee and Blues in Greenwood
Part of my plan when I decided to go to Vaiden to take pictures on a Saturday afternoon was to try to make it to …
A Void in Vaiden
Vaiden, Mississippi is a town on Highway 51 in Carroll County, and since 1873, the county seat of the second judicial district of that county. …
A Hot Evening of Blues for a Mississippi State Senate Candidate in Senatobia
Old habits die hard in Mississippi, and candidates for office still see a value in hiring the old-time blues musicians to play for rallies. With …