CLARKSDALE CARAVAN MUSIC FEST - May 8, 2010

 

Turner's Drug Store Blues Marker Ceremony - May 15, 2010 - Belzoni, MS

 

CLARKSDALE CARAVAN MUSIC FEST 4th annual, free music festival Saturday, May 8, 2010 downtown Clarksdale, Mississippi CAT HEAD DELTA BLUES & FOLK ART (252 Delta Ave.) - FREE! 10am till:  All Night Long Blues Band, La La, Mary Ann "Action" Jackson. ROCK & BLUES MUSEUM (113 E. 2nd St.) - FREE! 2pm till:  Theo D "The Boogieman," Selwyn Cooper, Bob Walters, Black Smoke, Little Bobby & the Storm and more.   RELATED NIGHTTIME MUSIC IN CLARKSDALE (cover charges apply): Ground Zero Blues Club (Reba Russell), Red's Lounge, Tricia's and more!   FESTIVAL MERCHANDISE: Two collectible show poster designs available exclusively at Cat Head store and Rock & Blues Museum.   MORE INFO: website www.blues2rock.com and www.cathead.biz   Also, don't miss the Clarksdale Caravan Music Fest fundraiser this Thursday night (4/29) at the Rock & Blues Museum from 5pm-9pm.

 

Fairwell Party for Connie Gibbons

Bluesman dies....

Sad news:

Mississippi Slim died this morning (Wednesday, April 14, 2010) around 7 am at Delta Regional Medical Center (Greenville, MS) of natural causes.

 

Chris Thomas King to perform at Delta State University

Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz

CLEVELAND— The acclaimed Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and Grammy winning blues artist Chris Thomas King, will perform a Sunday matinee concert on April 18, at 2 p.m. in the Delta and Pine Land Theatre of the Bologna Performing Arts Center on the Delta State campus. Hollywood movie star Chris Thomas King will join Grammy-nominated jazz saxophonist Antonio Hart,  Charlie Parker Institute Director and vocalist Lisa Henry; past Wynton Marsalis Quartet pianist Richard Johnson; past Terrence Blanchard Quintet bassist Derek Nievergelt; and Esperanza Spalding’s drummer, Otis Brown, III for the Sunday matinee performance.  The show will feature musicians who have worked with everyone from Coldplay to recent Grammy Album of the Year winner Herbie Hancock. Chris Thomas King is a Grammy-Award Winning Artist who acted in two Oscar-winning films, Ray (as Lowell Fulson) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (as Tommy Johnson). Also in attendance will be Thelonious Monk’s son and chairman of the board of the Monk Institute, TS Monk.The program is a celebration of African American music in DSU’s Year of the Arts, and is part of the Monk Institute’s return to the Mississippi Delta during its annual "The Blues and Jazz - Two American Classics" educational outreach tour (www.thebluesandjazz.org). The April 19 and 20th Informance tour includes visits to public schools in Cleveland and Ruleville.Funding for the entire tour was provided by Carolyn and Bill Powers, in memory of Mrs. Powers' grandparents, Joe Rice Dockery and Keith Dockery McLean, the late owners of Dockery Farms. Of Dockery Farms and the blues, B.B. King has said, "You might say, it all started right here.”

 

WROX Blues Marker - Clarksdale, MS

 

Delta State's Delta Center donates heritage tour for worthy cause

The Delta State University Delta Center for Culture and Learning recently donated a Delta heritage tour to the Cleveland Junior Auxiliary Children’s Benefit Ball Silent Auction.  The tour was purchased by Beverly McWilliams of Cleveland and conducted by Lee Aylward of the Delta Center.  Photo: Tour participants from left-right, Lenora Lott of Greenwood, Maggie Spitz of Cleveland, and Sam Lott of Greenwood at Po’ Monkey’s Lounge in Merigold. 

 

MS Blues Trail-WROX Blues Marker-Clarksdale, MS

WROX Radio Station at 257 Delta Avenue in Clarksdale will be added to the Mississippi Blues Trail with its marker unveiling on Friday, April 16^th at 12 noon.  WROX-AM is the oldest radio station in Northwest Mississippi.  WROX began operation on June 2, 1944, broadcasting from 321 Delta Avenue in downtown Clarksdale.  In 1946, the station moved to 257 Delta Avenue, where it remained until 1953.  That location now houses the WROX Museum.

Map link:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=h&msa=0&msid=100688295274335080390.00043ac16963dc41feb11&ll=34.201554,-90.574722&spn=0.007303,0.007864&z=17

 

Alex T. Thomas

Music Development, Program Manager

Mississippi Development Authority/Tourism

P.O. Box 849

Jackson, MS 39205-0849

Office: (601) 359-3297

Fax: (601) 359-5757

athomas@mississippi.org

 

 

 

Brown and Clark at MDOT Awards Celebration

Dr. Luther Brown, director of the Delta State Delta Center for Culture and Learning, and Wanda Clark, creative director of Hammons and Associates of Greenwood, presented the keynote speech at the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) Outstanding Achievement Awards March 23 in Jackson.  The theme of this year's celebration was " Honoring the Blues in the Place Where it All Began:  The Mississippi Blues Trail."  The event honored MDOT employees throughout the state who have been recognized by their supervisors and peers for their superior performance.  Clark serves as Project Director for the Blues Trail and Dr. Brown serves as Project Engineer for those parts of the Trail that are funded by MDOT. They appeared as representatives of the Mississippi Blues Commission, which along with the Mississippi Development Authority/Tourism Division oversees and helps fund the Trail.  The Mississippi Blues Trail began in December of 2006, and today has 100 interpretive displays scattered across the state, with four more in other states.  The Trail has received major financial support from MDOT, as well as major support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mississippi Development Authority, and local Chambers of Commerce and Convention and Visitor's Bureaus.  The Trail web site has now received visits from 88 countries around the world, and over half a million web pages worldwide include the term "Mississippi Blues Trail."  The official Blues Trail web site is www.msbluestrail.org.

 

DSU's Delta Center hosts Swiss blues society members

CLEVELAND―The Delta State University Delta Center for Culture and Learning introduced the Delta’s heritage to eight visitors from Switzerland last week.  The group was organized by Donatella Rasi of Ganras Adventure Travel.  Most members were also involved in the “Blues Crew Oberschan” which is a Swiss blues society.  They spent ten days in the Delta, visiting Tunica, Clarksdale, Cleveland, Shaw, Leland, Greenville, Greenwood, and Indianola, as well as Memphis.  The group included several blues musicians.  They performed in Indianola at Club Ebony Sunday night, April 4 at the “Mary Shepard Day” celebration.