Music/Film: M for MISSISSIPPI - A Roadtrip through the Birthplace of the Blues
While checkin' out info on the upcoming Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, MS, I stumbled upon a link for the documentary "M for MISSISSIPPI". Billed as a "timely road movie exploring the thriving underbelly of a dying American art form in the land where it began – Mississippi", you know we had to snatch up a copy ($40 - click through to their store here) Can't wait till it arrives. Roger Stolle, one of the people behind the doc, also owns Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art and Cat Head Presents record label and appears to be a real cool cat himself, and a kindred spirit of ours.
From the Cat Head Story:
After 7 years of Delta journeys and a year of intense planning, Roger and his wife Jennifer left St. Louis to start Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art, Inc. in small-town Mississippi. Both left comfortable marketing careers of 10-plus years, with Roger in a lucrative management position. "A year ago, I was meeting with the CEO of May Company and traveling to Hong Kong on business," explained Roger. "Last week, I booked a blues musician named T-Model Ford for our grand opening and set up a store display that included a chair made out of painted cow bones. You tell me which sounds more fun."
Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art, Inc. is a 6-day-a-week store that features a full selection of blues CDs, videos, DVDs, books and collectibles as well as an affordable mix of Southern self-taught, folk and outsider art. "It's kind of like shopping in a juke joint," Roger said, describing the building's rustic interior, colorful artwork and down home music. "It's the kind of store we always dreamed of finding in our Delta travels but never did."
Roger is quick to acknowledge that it's not all fun and games. Starting a new, untested business out of state is a challenge enough, but add to it the unique culture that is "the South," and it becomes too much of a risk for most people to consider. "We didn't do this to get rich. It's definitely a labor of love," offered Jennifer. "We were at a crossroads in our lives," Roger continued, "We could either keep working those crazy corporate hours in the big city, trying to buy happiness, or we could do what we wanted to do and try to make a difference. We chose the latter."
As former tourists themselves, the two Delta transplants believe they can make a positive difference by marketing the Delta to the rest of the world, bringing more recognition to the region and its people. "Hopefully, this will translate into more visitors coming here which benefits everyone," said Roger, "Believe it or not, Clarksdale, Mississippi has a lot to offer. Great blues music. Wonderful art. Even Tennessee Williams spent time here. It's also in a great location, within an hour or less of Memphis and Tunica."
Continue Reading...
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Music: Poor Black Mattie - R.L. Burnside
(Wikipedia:) R. L. Burnside (born Robert Lee Burnside, Harmontown, Lafayette County, Mississippi, Nov. 21 or Nov. 23, 1926; d. Memphis, Tennessee, Sept. 1, 2005) was a blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He spent most of his life in the rural hill country of northern Mississippi, working as a sharecropper and a commercial fisherman, as well as playing guitar at weekend house parties. He was first inspired to pick up the guitar in his early twenties, after hearing the 1948 John Lee Hooker single "Boogie Chillen." He learned music largely from Mississippi Fred McDowell, who lived nearby in an adjoining county. He also cited his cousin-in-law, Muddy Waters, as an influence. During the 1950s Burnside grew tired of sharecropping and moved to Chicago, Illinois in the hopes of finding better economic opportunities. But things did not turn out as he had hoped. Within the span of one month his father, brother, and uncle were all murdered in the city, a tragedy that Burnside would later draw upon in his work, particularly in his interpretation of Skip James's "Hard Time Killing Floor" and the talking blues "R.L.'s Story," the opening and closing tracks on Burnside's 2000 album Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down. Around 1959 he left Chicago and went back to Mississippi to work the farms and raise a family. Burnside claimed to have been convicted for murder and sentenced to six months' incarceration for the crime. Burnside's boss at the time reputedly pulled strings to keep the murder sentence short, due to having need of Burnside's skills as a tractor driver. "I didn't mean to kill nobody," Burnside later said. "I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head. Him dying was between him and the Lord." Continue Reading...
Check this out:
Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down [EXTRA TRACKS]
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Music: Death Letter - Son House
Some footage of seminal Delta bluesman Son House layin' it down. Here's his story from wikipedia:
Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. (March 21, 1902 – October 19, 1988) was an American blues singer and guitarist. The middle of seventeen brothers, House was born in Riverton, two miles from Clarksdale, Mississippi. Around age seven or eight, he was brought by his mother to Tallulah, Louisiana after his parents separated. The young Son House was determined to become a Baptist preacher, and at age 15 began his preaching career. Despite the church's firm stand against blues music and the sinful world which revolved around it, House became attracted to it and taught himself guitar in his mid-20s, after moving back to the Clarksdale area, inspired by the work of Willie Wilson. He began playing alongside Charley Patton, Willie Brown, Robert Johnson, Fiddlin' Joe Martin, and Leroy Williams, around Robinsonville, Mississippi and north to Memphis, Tennessee until 1942. After killing a man, allegedly in self-defense, he spent time at Parchman Farm in 1928 and 1929. The official story on the killing is that sometime around 1927 or 28, he was playing in a juke joint when a man went on a shooting spree. Son was wounded in the leg, and shot the man dead. He received a 15-year sentence at Parchman Farm prison. Continue Reading...
Check this out:
The Original Delta Blues - Son House (CD)
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Music/Travelin': The Howlin’ Wolf Story - By Ron Brown
Nice little piece on Howlin' Wolf and Richard Ramsey's Howlin' Wolf Blues Society of West Point, Mississippi. Help keep the American Delta history alive for future generations.
Here's the contact info. And if ya can, make a donation:
The Howlin' Wolf Blues Society of West Point, MS. Inc.
P.O. Box 1334
West Point, MS. 39773
Fax: (662) 495-2007
tel: (662) 494-2921
email: rramsey@wpms.net
Also check out the city of West Point, Mississippi's website for more info: http://www.wpnet.org/About_HWblues.htm
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Music/Eatin'/Travelin': Road Trip: Blues & BBQ
Last year my brother and I lit out from Austin to follow the Black Keys to New Orleans and then on up Highway 61 to Memphis. Just a couple of knuckleheads in a pick-up truck trying to capture a picture that had been in both of our minds for as long as either could remember. A southern-borne, bourbon fueled meandering through the deep south. Belly's full of brisket after a quick stop outside of Austin, we were on the road. Some Willie on the radio and some Levi Garrett in the cheek. Bliss I tell ya. Big, open sky, rolling Texas hills, the clack of the highway slabs and the warm sun through the windshield. We hadn't seen each other in a while, with him livin' outside Austin and me settled down in Florida. And these kinda trips never seem to match what was in your head pushin' you to do it in the first place. After some small talk, we both sat silently leaving the weight of our respective existences behind like each curving mile. After about an hour or so, I look over and my brother's smilin' like when we were kids. A big toothy grin, with a little chew stuck in his teeth. 'Whiskey river take my mind....' 'it don't get any better-n-this' he says. The Old Milwaukee tagline that became a half-funny, half-serious battle cry when we were growin' up. Usually right before someone did something really stupid...To be continued.
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