Thursday, October 24, 2013

Indianola BAND Challenge Winners

“A Different Shade of Blue” blues band from Petal won the band competition in Indianola at Club Ebony Sunday night.  They will represent the Mississippi Delta Blues Society of Indianola at the 30th Annual International Blues Challenge in Memphis January 22-25, 2014.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

30th International Blues Challenge

Mississippi’s blues societies will soon be having their Regional Blues Challenges (Band and Solo/Duo Competitions).  The winners will advance to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis January 22-25, 2014 www.blues.org/ibcVICKSBURG:  Sunday, September 29th Band & Solo/Duo www.VicksburgHeritage.com; JACKSON:  Monday, October 14th Band and Monday, October 28th Solo/Duo www.centralmississippibluessociety.com; INDIANOLA:  Sunday, October 20th Band and Sunday, October 27th Solo/Duo www.indianolablues.org.   

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Poster Signing for 14th Annual Highway 61 Blues Festival - Mighty Mississippi Music Festival

The Leland Blues Project and the Mighty Mississippi Music Festival is announcing the poster signing for the 14th Annual Highway 61 Blues Festival - Mighty Mississippi Music Festival at E. E. Bass on Friday, August 23 from 5:00 - 7:00 PM.  This event is held in conjunction with the opening of Billy Johnson's blues photography exhibit, Gone But Not Forgotten.  Cristen Craven Barnard, the artist for this year's poster, will be on hand signing a limited number of posters from her artwork titled, Mississippi Delta Riverside Blues. Posters will be on sale with a numbered, signed poster costing $25 and and unsigned poster costing $15.  As this is the first year for the combined Highway 61 Blues Festival - Mighty Mississippi Music Festival, they will certainly become collector items and sales of the poster directly benefit The Highway 61 Blues Museum.  A reception for the public including wine and hors d'oeuvres will accompany the events of the evening. 

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Otha Turner Memorial Picnic

Roger Stolle
Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art
252 Delta Avenue
Clarksdale, Mississippi 38614
662-624-5992 • www.cathead.biz
www.twitter.com/CatHeadRoger
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Check out our latest projects:

- Moonshine & Mojo Hands web TV series

Friday, July 26, 2013

James "T-Model" Ford Memorial Services

Greenville, MS   Friday, July 26-Visitation at Redmond Funeral Home   Saturday, July 27-Funeral at the Washington County Convention Center   

See link below:

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20130725/FEAT/307250005/-T-Model-Ford-leaves-behind-blues-legacy?nclick_check=1

 

 

Saturday, July 20, 2013

 

Delta State Opens Alumnus Photography Exhibit

CLEVELAND, Miss. --- The University Archives and Museum at Delta State University will open its first exhibition of the fall semester Tuesday, August 13, at 6 p.m. A reception and lecture will be held for Delta State Alumnus, Easton Selby, as he returns to the Delta with his collaborative documentary exhibition "Photographic Interpretations: The Culture & Geography of the Delta Blues."

Selby states, "As photographers, we are trained from our first day to understand the meaning and intent of the final photograph. We are taught that just because we can look doesn't necessarily mean that we can see. Through my work, I am trying to connect my disconnect with something I do not fully understand."

Fellow photographers Armon Means and John Vincent combined their talents with Selby to create the original body of work by drawing inspiration from Dr. John Strait’s research, which emphasized the examination of the space in which we live.

The reception is open to the public, and community members are encouraged to visit the exhibit. Selby’s work of 20 images will be on display in the Capps Archives & Museum’s main gallery until the end of October.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Bluesman James "T-Model" Ford RIP

A blues great and a great man has passed… JAMES "T-MODEL" FORD... R.I.P.  The self-proclaimed "Ladies Man" and "Taledragger" passed away after a long illness at home in Greenville, Mississippi, on Tuesday morning, July 16, 2013, surrounded by his loving wife and family. Funeral arrangements are to come. In the meantime, for anyone who is interested in donating towards the funeral… per his wife Miss Stella, please use the bank information below:

SEND DONATIONS DIRECTLY TO BANK:
James Ford
Routing# 084205708
Account# 4700445890
Planters Bank
424 Washington Ave
Greenville, MS 38701
PH: 662-335-5258; FX: 662-378-4429

OR MAIL CARDS, CHECKS, ETC. TO HOME:
James Ford (� Miss Stella), 216 North Delta Street Greenville MS 38703

 

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=818276

 




 

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Delta Center for Culture and Learning Participates in NEH Workshop

CLEVELAND, Miss. The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State recently hosted a workshop called “The Most Southern Place on Earth:  Music, History and Culture of the Mississippi Delta” workshop. The workshop is held twice a year by the Center, with major funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) program known as Landmarks in American History and Culture. Each workshop admits forty teachers from anywhere in the U.S. The session lasts for six days, and examines the Delta’s heritage in the Blues, religion, Civil Rights, foodways, and other important manners. 

Tim Shaw, a top-notch instrument maker and elementary art teacher, was able to reunite with bluesman Bill Abel while attending. Shaw first met Abel when they did a workshop together last summer. Shaw had been making cigar box guitars for a year when he learned of Abel’s cigar box show at the Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center in Ocean Springs. Shaw’s wife got her husband and his friends permission to be in Abel’s show through the cultural center. “I spent two days with him down there at the cultural center. We immediately hit it off,” Shaw said. “I called my wife after the first day and I said, ‘I have met my Jesus.’”

The two have been in touch since, but Shaw’s being at Abel’s performance during the NEH workshop was a complete surprise. “I didn’t tell him I was coming,” Shaw said. “Yesterday when he was unloading his stuff I came here early to help, and I said, ‘Remember me?’ And he just couldn’t believe I was here.”

After Abel’s show on Wednesday night, Shaw demonstrated his skills on Abel’s cigar box guitar. Shaw said that while he has always been interested in music, he only became a musician in his early 30’s. “I worked with two guys who were surprised that I didn’t play anything because I knew so much about music,” Shaw said. “They set out on a mission to teach me to play. One of them played the drums, the other one played guitar. They decided they were going to teach me the bass so we could have a band.”

From playing instruments, Shaw became interested in making them. During his quest to make a solid-body electric guitar, he encountered a news clip about a man who made cigar box guitars on the coast. Shaw visited the artist’s gallery in Bay St. Louis with some friends the following Sunday and ended up buying one of the artist’s cigar box guitars. “I took it home and took it apart and looked at it and thought, ‘Huh, this is interesting. I think I can do this,’” Shaw said. “And so my endeavor to make solid body electric guitars took a left turn to cigar box guitars.”

Shaw, whose projects are usually commissioned, says that the six-day workshop has left him inspired. “I’m really excited about this workshop. I’ve already designed three new guitars,” Shaw said. “I can’t wait to go home and make them. They’re going to be blues themed.”

 

Friday, January 11, 2013

Delta Center assists Canadian film crew

CLEVELAND, Miss. -- The Delta Center for Culture and Learning recently helped the television company CMT Canada film part of an episode of their popular show Jason McCoy Eats America at Po’ Monkey’s Lounge in Merigold.  The cast and crew interviewed Bluesman Terry “Harmonica” Bean, and their star, Jason McCoy, later performed with Terry Bean.  Jason McCoy is a Canadian singer/songwriter who is best known for his country music. In 2001 he won Male Vocalist of the Year at the Canadian Country Music Awards, and he has also had 3 SOCAN Song of the Year awards, 19 CCMA nominations and 5 Juno nominations, all for Best Country Male Vocalist.  Other parts of this episode were filmed in Clarksdale, and other episodes of the series have been filmed throughout the Southeastern US.  PHOTO:  (L to R) Award-winning Country musician and TV personality Jason McCoy, Terry ”Harmonica” Bean, and TV producer Joel Stewart of CMT Canada, all at Po’ Monkey’s Lounge in Merigold, Mississippi, prior to shooting part of Jason McCoy Eats America.