A Multimedia Tribute to the Mississippi Blues

The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science Presents A Multimedia Tribute to the Mississippi Blues.

The project was the culmination of the students’ study of the historical significance of the Delta’s role in the development of indigenous American music as a reaction to the social conditions of the time. The primary goal of this collaboration was to expand each student’s know-ledge of the music and history of the Delta while encouraging parents and community leaders to take an active role in the educational process. Many of our students had never traveled to the Delta or explored the Delta’s musical, historical, or cultural contributions to our nation and the world. The enthusiastic response they received to this project has resulted in additional Spring concerts throughout the state.

The Blues and Mississippi are synonymous to music lovers everywhere. The repertoire of any Blues or rock band is full of songs, guitar licks, and vocal inflections borrowed from Mississippi bluesmen. Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Son House, and John Hurt were some of the early Mississippians who influenced the movement. A couple of generations later, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and many others were still making Mississippi Blues and sending it out all over the world. The MSMS Stage Band and Choir toured the Mississippi Delta during November, 2008, presenting Sights and Sounds of Mississippi, a poignant multi-media concert which they prepared in collaboration with their fellow history students.

 

 

 

 

Band Headed for IBC Performs

The 5^th Annual MS Delta Regional Blues Challenge Band Winner – The Grady Champion Revue from Canton, MS will perform Sunday, January 25^th at Club Ebony in Indianola.  Music begins at 6:30pm.  Join the Mississippi Delta Blues Society of Indianola for an Award Presentation following the performance.  This band is going to the 25^th Annual International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN February 5-7, 2009.  

 

 

British news network films Delta residents & Blues Juke House - Po' Monkey's Lounge

CLEVELAND, MS - The Sky TV News team recently visited the Delta to interview people about their hopes for the new Obama presidency. 

Sky TV is the largest satellite news channel in Europe and the first all news channel in Great Britain. It reaches 145 million people in 36 countries in Europe alone, as well as Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Sky TV also filmed historic Mound Bayou and interviewed the town’s mayor, Kennedy Johnson, and its historian, Dr. Eulah Peterson. The London based news team interviewed several people at the St. Gabriel Mercy Center in Mound Bayou as well.

Later, they filmed at Poor Monkey’s Lounge outside Merigold and ate at The Senator’s Place restaurant in Cleveland, where they interviewed Billy Joe McCain of the Bolivar County Community Action Agency. 

After leaving the Delta, the Sky News team headed to Washington, DC, to cover the inauguration of President Obama. 

 

Pictured are (seated from left) Kareem Lateef, and Sky News Anchor Jeremy Thompson, (standing from left) Sister Donald Mary of the St. Gabriel Mercy Center; Dr. Luther Brown of the Delta State University Delta Center for Culture and Learning; the Sky TV news team of Jamie Wood, producer; and Neil Hamilton, camera.

International Blues Challenge

 

 

 

SAVE THE DATE-February Mississippi Blues Trail Marker Ceremonies

 Mark your calendars for the upcoming marker ceremonies in February.

 

February  13^th  at 10:00AM

Rube Lacy

Pelahatchie, MS

 

February 27^th at 11:00AM

Living Blues

Oxford, MS

 

February 28^th at 10:00AM

Sonny Boy Williamson II

Glendora, MS

 

Leigh Portwood

Heritage Trails

Mississippi Development Authority/Division of Tourism

P.O. Box 849

Jackson, MS 39205

Phone: 601.359.3061

Fax: 601.359.5757

lportwood@mississippi.org

 

Great Christmas Gift Idea!

Surprise the blues fan in your life with the gift of a Mississippi Blues Trail License Plate!  The information and order forms are on this website’s homepage.  The MS Blues Foundation currently has 75 orders.  They need 200 orders for the plates to go into production.  You can still be one of those who make this project happen.  It is not too late to be a Trailblazer!

 

IBC Bound!

5^th Annual Mississippi Delta Regional Blues Challenge Winners

 

Solo/Duo

1^st – L.C. Ulmer & Chase Holifield - Laurel, MS

2^nd – Terry “Harmonica” Bean-Pontotoc, MS

 

Band

1^st – Gary Champion Revue-Canton, MS

2^nd Place – Dexter Allen-Jackson, MS

 

 

1^st Place Winners will represent the Mississippi Delta Blues Society of Indianola at the 25^th Annual International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN.  For more details about the IBC see www.blues.org/ibc