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Luther Dickinson Celebrates the Release of “Ballads and Blues” at Shangri-La...
When I heard that Luther Dickinson would be having a performance and album release party at Shangri-La Records on February 13, I naively had assumed it would be indoors, completely forgetting that...
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Juke Joint Festival: Andre Otha Evans Fife & Drum Band
Black fife and drum bands were once ubiquitous in the rural South, but time has not been kind to this style of music, a sort of precursor to the blues with heavy African influence. By 1970, only four...
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R. L. Boyce & Friends at Foxfire Ranch
R. L. Boyce, Cameron Kimbrough, Joyce Jones Live at Foxfire Ranch / Google Photos During the summer, Hill Country blues fans flock every Sunday evening to Foxfire Ranch near Waterford, Mississippi for...
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Preserving Endangered Traditions at Day 1 of the Otha Turner Picnic
New photo by John Shaw / Google Photos New photo by John Shaw / Google Photos New photo by John Shaw / Google Photos New photo by John Shaw / Google Photos New photo by John Shaw / Google Photos New...
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“Memphis’ Worldly Fair”: Deciphering Riddles In A Hill Country Blues Lyric
Anyone that has spent any time listening to the Hill Country blues style of Mississippi has doubtless heard the song “Coal Black Mattie” AKA “Po’ Black Mattie” or “Old Black Mattie.” The bouyant,...
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R. L. Boyce, Cam Kimbrough, Joyce Jones and the Rising Star Fife and Drum...
New Orleans’beloved Jazz Fest celebrates the wide diversity of New Orleans music, but the Memphis equivalent, the Beale Street Music Festival generally does not feature Memphis’ musical culture or...
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The Lost Town of Mercer and the Bridges at The End of the Road
In December of 1979 or so, my parents had taken me to Jackson, Tennessee for my birthday. We had eaten at the Old English Steak House, and had visited the small towns of Beech Bluff and Mercer. What I...
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Celebrating West Tennessee’s Lost Fife and Drum Tradition
Last summer, the Tennessee Arts Commission began a Folklife Apprenticeship program to preserve endangered folkways in the state, and one of the areas of interest was in Black fife and drum music....
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A Reception for the Mentors and Apprentices of the Tennessee Folklife Arts...
After the six months of mentoring under the Tennessee Folklife Arts Program, mentors and apprentices were invited to a reception at the Tennessee Arts Commission office in Nashville in order to...
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The Blues Has A Future
Elsewhere in this blog, I have commented on Clarksdale’s excellent coffee roasting firm Meraki Roasting Company, but on a recent trip to meet with a British festival buyer who was scouting for talent...
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