A Rapidly Vanishing Rural Past in Fayette County, Tennessee
Fayette County, in the part of West Tennessee that we might call the state’s Delta region, was for most of its history a highly rural …
Photography
Friday Night Dinner at The Biscuitry in Bolivar
Periodically, I receive sponsored messages in my Facebook timeline, and on one afternoon, a message from a restaurant called The Biscuitry caught my attention. The …
Quarantine Images
The sudden closure of everything in mid-March due to Covid-19 had a devastating effect on all live music, including the blues. Nearly everything was closed …
All On A Mardi-Gras Day: “I Run Through Water and Swim Through Mud”: Black Indians Uptown
The gangs of Black Indians (sometimes called Mardi Gras Indians) who appear in elaborate costumes on the streets of New Orleans on Mardi Gras, St. …
Breakfast in New Orleans, Lunch in Jackson, and a Christmas Parade in Como
The actual day of my birthday was much colder than the day before, but my friend Darren Towns of TBC Brass Band and I headed …
A Day With the TBC Brass Band in New Orleans
With my birthday falling on Monday December 2, I decided to celebrate a day early by going to New Orleans for the Dumaine Street Gang …
A Delta Journey: Early Sunday Morning in Rayville and the Ruins of Thomastown
As I headed east on Old Highway 80 from Monroe on a sunny Sunday morning, I decided to spend some time looking for things to …
A Delta Journey: Remembering Stubb’s Pecanland: When Pecans Were King
Eastern Ouachita Parish, Louisiana is loaded with pecan trees. They cover the land in great rows for miles and miles. These perfectly straight rows exist …
A Delta Journey: Morning at Bayou Desiard
Anyone who has ever eaten at Monroe’s Waterfront Grill knows how beautiful Bayou Desiard is at sunset. But the bayou has a complete different set …
A Delta Journey: A Chilly Homecoming in Grambling
When I woke up in West Monroe, the first thing I noticed was how extremely chilly it was, and that didn’t improve all that much …