Blues on Walnut Street

Friday, March 6 a benefit for the Highway 61 Blues Museum will be held at the Walnut Street Blues Bar in Greenville, MS. The event time is 7pm until 2am. Performers for the night include: Pat Thomas, Eddie Cusic, T-Model Ford, The Rob Mortimer Band, The Mayhem String Band, and The Walnut Street Allstars. Admission is a $5 donation that goes to support the blues museum. Thanks to Danny & Sharon Peeples for sponsoring this annual event. See more on the Highway 61 Blues Museum at http://www.highway61blues.com/ .

IBC Finals

L.C. Ulmer and Chase Holifield were a hit at the Orpheum in the Solo Finals of the 25th Annual International Blues Challenge. Even though they did not place, they commanded a standing ovation. They were one of six Solo/Duo entrants making it to the finals in a field of contestants from all over the world this weekend in Memphis.

Homemade Jamz Blues Band from Tupelo opened the weekend performing at the New Daisy Theatre Wednesday night. This group won 2nd Place Band in 2007 representing the Mississippi Delta Blues Society of Indianola. Eden Brent from Greenville performed in the Orpheum Lobby Saturday opening the finals. She won 1st Place Solo in 2006 representing the Indianola Blues Society.

Another Mississippi blues society now joins the list with a win. Rosedale's Crossroads Blues Society of Mississippi won 2nd Place Solo/Duo with Alphonso Sanders and Richard Johnson. Their original songs with keyboard, trumpet, and saxophone accompaniment were most impressive. Three Mississippi bands competed in the semi-finals on Thursday and Friday
nights. The Grady Champion Revue from Canton represented Indianola's blues society. Mark "The Muleman" Massey represented the Rosedale blues society. Stevie J & the Blues Eruption from Jackson represented the Central Mississippi Blues Society.

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