On the Trail of Lum Guffin, Bartlett’s Elusive Bluesman
I grew up in Bartlett, and went to Bartlett High School. A lot of my friends lived in the Black community along Old Brownsville Road, …
music
Can Tourism and the Arts Save a Struggling Delta Town?
Along Highway 61’s strand of tired, worn buildings and washed-out towns, Wilson, Arkansas first appears as a grove of trees on the horizon straight ahead …
The Hurt Family Celebrating The 4th of July With Fife and Drum
As I have discussed before in this blog, Black fife and drum music is an endangered form of pre-blues that probably played a role in …
Live Blues at Clarksdale’s Ground Zero
Although Clarksdale’s Ground Zero Blues Club is not nearly the blues club it once was, booking a lot more rock and country these days, it …
Authentic Blues at the Fourth Annual Goat Fest in Clarksdale
If Clarksdale’s Juke Joint Festival is sort of a family-friendly approach to the Mississippi Blues, at least during the daytime, the Goat Fest, now in …
From Savage to Minter City
On the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, I decided to continue my exploration of small towns and backroads in the Mississippi Delta. My first stop …
Jake and the Pearl Street Jumpers at The Blue Biscuit
After leaving Alligator, we ended up heading down to Drew, and taking Highway 49W through Ruleville, Doddsville and Sunflower into Indianola, to one of my …
Alligator Blues
Although I have passed by Alligator, Mississippi many times on my way to somewhere else, I have never taken the time to venture off the …
Celebrating the Legacy of Junior Kimbrough in Holly Springs
Marshall County, Mississippi is recognized as the home of the Hill Country blues, and the home of its two greatest exponents, Junior Kimbrough and R. …
A Hill Country Blues Yard Party In Como
Como, Mississippi bluesman R. L. Boyce used to be famous for his yard parties, but in recent years he had stopped doing them after some …