Pig Out at Pig N Out in Halls, Tennessee
I had spent the better part of a Friday afternoon in Ripley, Tennessee, doing research on Black fife and drum bands at the office of …
Headstone Dedication for the Late Memphis Bluesman Charlie Burse
It had rained all day, but T. DeWayne Moore of the Mount Zion Memorial Fund had sent me an invitation to the dedication of a …
Find Your Place In Society…Society Memphis, That Is
I am old enough to remember when Memphis did not have even so much as one coffee bar. Now there is actually a bewildering array …
Breakfast, Worship And Black History at Salem Missionary Baptist Church at Mason, Tennessee
A while back, I had crossed paths on Facebook with the Rev. T. Ray Greer, pastor of Salem Missionary Baptist Church in the countryside just …
A Friday Night in Nashville
After a day of research on my thesis in the Tennessee State Archives, I decided to enjoy my Friday night in Nashville. I headed first …
A Rainy Night in the New Nashville
I drove up to Nashville on a Thursday night so that I could spend Friday in the Tennessee State Archives doing research for my masters’ …
A Day in Lauderdale County, Tennessee
Lauderdale County, Tennessee, and its county seat of Ripley have a significant blues tradition. Petey Wheatstraw was from Ripley, and Noah Lewis and John Henry …
The Forgotten Town of Austin, Mississippi
Tunica County, Mississippi once had dreams of greatness. After all, it bordered the most important navigable stream in North America, and had some raised hills …
Coastal Cuisine at Cooper-Young’s Elwood’s Shells
Since the closure of Anderton’s Restaurant in Midtown some years ago, Memphis has had a noticeable lack of decent seafood restaurants, and several attempts at …
From Funk to Crunk at Railgarten for the Holidays
If Memphis rap were a nation, Al Kapone would be the unanimous choice for an ambassador’s position. One of the earliest Memphis rappers, he has …