There’s an article in today’s Memphis Commercial Appeal announcing the opening of a new museum on Beale Street that honors the great photographer Ernest Withers. Withers began working as a photographer in World War II, and remained active until his death in 2007 at age 85; here’s his obituary from the Commercial Appeal. His work documented the history of black Memphis for decades, covering the music on Beale Street, the Negro League baseball teams, and the Civil Rights movement–he was at the Lorraine Motel when Dr. King was assassinated, camera in hand. Withers was not a documentarian - most of his work was associated with assignments or for news items - but his collective work can nevertheless be seen as capturing an era when the achievements of African American were largely ignored by the mainstream media.

A gallery of his photos is here; his music photos were captured in the book The Memphis Blues Again.

A young B.B. King

Memphis sanitation workers striking with "I am a man" signs, February 1968

This weekend is the 15th annual Howlin’ Wolf Blues Festival in West Point, Mississippi, just south of where the mighty Wolf was born on June 10, 1910. On Friday night the festival will be held (indoors) at the West Point Civic Center beginning at 5pm, and will feature Super Chikan and the Fighting Cocks, Mark “Mule Man” Massey with keyboardist Billy Earheart, Blind Mississippi Morris and the Black Prairie Kings, Homemade Jamz, and Cherry Lee Mewis.

On Saturday there’s an associated Blues Bash at the Ritz Theater in downtown West Point, featuring music by Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcolm, Ben Prestage and All Night Long. Music begins at 1pm and the day’s activities will feature screenings for an upcoming documentary on Howlin’ Wolf and a panel on which I’ll be speaking (ca. 3pm). A poster for the event is below.

The centennial of Howlin’ Wolf’s birth has already been celebrated a number of times this year. Back in June I was in Chicago at the Blues and the Spirit conference at Dominican University, where there was a special panel saluting Wolf. Participants included former Wolf band members Hubert Sumlin, Eddie Shaw, Abb Locke, and Jody Williams, as well as musicians including Bob Stroger, Eddie C. Campbell, and Chuck D, who gave a really good keynote address the following day. There were also performances featuring most of the musicians present. A couple days later there was another panel at the Chicago blues festival as well as a reunion of former Wolf band members at the Chicago Blues Festival.

Also, in June the Library of Congress named Wolf’s song “Smokestack Lightnin’” to the National Recording Registry. Each year twenty five songs deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” are added — there are now 300 songs in the registry. The song has gotten considerably more publicity recently, though, through its use in a Viagra tv commercial….

Here’s an article I wrote about the picnic for the Clarion Ledger this week.

Sharde Thomas with a lifemask of her grandfather, Otha Turner, made by Como-based sculptor Sharon McConnell. Photo by Scott Barretta

UPDATE - the Saturday night blues show at the Riley Center featuring Eddie Cotton and others has been cancelled, but the Symposium is still on.

On Saturday August 21 an all-day symposium - A Celebration of Mississippi’s Music Heritage - will take place at the MSU Riley Center in Meridian as part of a weekend of events celebrating Mississippi’s rich musical traditions.

Highlights of the Symposium, which runs from 11am to about 5:30pm, include a performance by 81-year old bluesman L.C. Ulmer, who met Jimmie Rodgers when he was small child, an interview with Meridian native Chris Ethridge, who helped pioneer country rock through his work with the International Submarine Band and the Flying Burrito Brothers, a multi-media presentation on the musical legacy of Jimmie Rodgers by Barry Mazor, author of the recent book Meeting Jimmie Rodgers.

The Symposium is part of a weekend celebrating MS music - there’ll be a songwriter in the round show at the Riley Center on Friday night  featuring three successful Nashville songwriters — Meridian native Don Poythress and special guests Steve Dean and Walt Aldridge.

The Symposium is taking place in conjunction with the wonderful exhibit Sparkle and Twang, consisting largely of country music memorabilia from the personal collection of Marty Stuart. A short film about the exhibit is here.

Here’s the schedule for the Symposium. A General admission fee is $15, and includes lunch and admission to the Mary Stuart exhibit, which costs $10

10:15 am: Registration (lunch orders confirmed)

11:00 am – 11:50 am: Heritage Tourism and Mississippi Music
– Scott Barretta (MS Blues Trail), Barry Mazor (MS Country Trail), Dr. Edgar Smith (MS Blues Commission), Alex Thomas (Mississippi Development Authority Tourism Division)

Since 2006 the Mississippi Blues Trail has dedicated over one hundred markers, and this year the Mississippi Country Trail was initiated with markers acknowledging Meridian’s Jimmie Rodgers and Philadelphia’s Marty Stuart. The panel will discuss the implications of the trails for economic development and they allow us to reconsider our rich musical heritage

Noon – lunch break: Interpreted tour of Sparkle and Twang exhibit
(Boxed lunches will be ordered for all advance ticket purchases and any “walk ups” at registration. Order must be placed by 11:00 am.)

1pm – 1:50 pm: Multi-media presentation on Jimmie Rodgers’s legacy in American music

Barry Mazor, author of Meeting Jimmie Rodgers: How America’s Original Roots Music Hero Changed the Pop Sounds of a Century. Mazor’s presentation will feature video and audio recordings and demonstrate how Jimmie Rodgers’ music resonated not only in country music, but also in pop, blues, rock and jazz.

2:00 pm – 2:50 pm: A talk with country-rock pioneer Chris Ethridge

A discussion with the native Meridian on topics including his work with groups including the International Submarine Band and the Flying Burrito Brothers, his years on the road with Willie Nelson, and his session work with artists including Roger McGuinn, Randy Newman, and Ry Cooder.

2:50 pm – 3:15 pm: Break

3:15 pm – 4:15 pm: Musical performance and discussion with L.C. Ulmer and Jake Fussell

81-year old L.C. Ulmer is best known as a bluesman, but he’s also played country music for most of his life. Ulmer will perform on guitar, banjo, and mandolin, accompanied by Jake Fussell, an Oxford-based guitarist in his ‘20s who’s skilled at early styles of blues and old-time country music.

FRIDAY NIGHT

Singer-Songwriters in the Round • Friday, August 20 • 6:00 pm

General admission: $10 includes exhibit (open at 6:00 pm) and performance (7:30 pm)

Meridian native Don Poythress joins two other Nashville singer-songwriters, Steve Dean and Walt Aldridge, to share the stories behind their hit songs and perform in an intimate, up close & personal environment. These accomplished singer-songwriters have written award-winning and chart-topping songs for artists ranging from Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Reba McEntire to Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Lou Reed and The Martins.

Special Package Price:

Purchase events above separately or together as $40 package.
MSU Riley Center • 2200 5th St. • Meridian, MS • 601-696-2200 •www.msurileycenter.com

Here’s LC Ulmer talking about a wide variety of topics

Last week the New York Times ran a review of a show by young traditionalists Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, who plays early blues, and Frank Fairfield (and here), an old-time country music specialist. Both are just in their early ’20s. I had the fortune to see Paxton last year at the Chicago Blues Festival, and was blown away by the fact that someone so young could play the music of artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, and Fats Waller so well (he plays guitar and piano with seemingly equal facility).

Here’s Paxton with one of my favorite songs, Ragged But Right

And here he is on the piano with Hoodoo Man

And here’s Paxton together with Fairfield

CNN recently aired a piece that focussed on how Clarksdale has gained revenue through their focus on blues tourism. It features locals including bluesman Big T and Ground Zero co-owner Bill Luckett. Here’s the link.

Also, Jeff Konkel, owner of the label Broke and Hungry Records, recently wrote a thoughtful essay about the state of traditional blues in the Delta for the British newspaper the Spectator.

This weekend is the inaugural Oxford Blues Festival, featuring three days of local artists at venues across town and, on Sunday, at the Foxfire Ranch in Waterford. Artists include Terry “Harmonica” Bean, Robert Belfour, Terry “Big T” Williams, Alphonso Sanders & Bill “Howlin’ Madd” Perry, and Garry Burnside. Here’s the article I wrote for the Clarion Ledger.

The Beer and Bones Backyard Grilling Competition and Arts and Music Festival takes place this Saturday at the club F. Jones Corner on historic Farish Street in Jackson. It’s been open for nearly two years now, I believe, and occupies the same locale as Field’s Cafe, which featured blues both inside and on an outside stage behind the building. It’s become a pretty popular late-night blues venue, and it’s nice to see them sponsoring bigger events as well. The club is co-owned by the son of blues artist Sherman Lee Dillon, who is playing at the event on Saturday

The Oxford American is hosting a special event at Clarksdale’s Ground Zero Blues Club on Friday and Saturday this weekend featuring a wide array of Southern music. On Friday night the club will host North Mississippi bluesman Robert Belfour, singer songwriter Kevin Gordon, and Jimbo Mathus, who will be performing songs from his musical Mosquitoville. The musical is set in a lumber camp in the late 1800s in the Sledge area, in the hill country just east of the Delta, and incorporates songs by artists including Jimmie Rodgers and Stephen Foster as well as originals.

On Saturday night the featured artists are jazz great Mose Allison, a native of Tippo in the Delta who is now 82. He recently released his first CD in ten years, The Way of the World. It’s a good one. Also appearing that evening are the True Soul Revue, who are, from what I can gather, a retro soul band in the style of Oxford’s own Wiley and the Checkmates.

Tickets for Friday evening are $20; Saturday, $30; both nights $40

There’s also a series of related events during the day on Saturday

11 a.m.: The Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale Trail talk and tasting moderated by Amy Evans Streeter, oral historian of the Southern Foodways Alliance

1 p.m.: A FREE onstage interview conducted by OA editor Marc Smirnoff with famed music writer Peter Guralnick, author of Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom, and Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, and largely considered one of the giants of American music history. At the Delta Blues Museum

4:30 p.m.: The First OA Independent (Southern) Beer Tasting and Contest, moderated by Daniel Bradford, Publisher of All About Beer Magazine

23nd Annual Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival
August 6-7-8, 2010, Clarksdale

FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 2010 - Main Stage
4:15pm - 4:45pm Delta Blues Museum Band
5:00pm - 5:45pm Richard “Daddy Rich” Crisman
6:00pm - 6:45pm Bill “Howl-N-Madd” Perry
7:00pm - 7:45pm Robert “Bilbo” Walker
8:00pm - 9:00pm Joshua “Razorblade” Stewart
9:15pm - 10:15pm James “Super Chikan” Johnson

SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 2010 - Main Stage
1:30pm - 2:00pm Bill Abel Band
2:15pm - 2:45pm All Night Long Band
3:00pm - 3:30pm Phillip Carter Band featuring Jacqueline
3:45pm - 4:30pm Venessia Young & Pure Blues Express
4:45pm - 5:30pm Terry “Big T” Williams & Family Band
5:45pm - 6:45pm James “Jimbo” Mathis
7:00pm - 8:00pm Johnny Rawls
8:00pm - 8:15pm Awards
8:15pm - 9:15pm Homemade Jamz Blues band
9:30pm - 10:30pm Juke Joint Duo- Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcolm

Acoustic Stage #1
9:00am Arthneice “Gas Man” Jones
9:40am Robert Belfour
10:15am Eddie Cusic
10:50am Pat Thomas
11:25am T-Model Ford
12:00noon Big Jack Johnson
12:35pm Sharde Turner & Rising Star Fife & Drum Band

Acoustic Stage #2
1:30pm Charles Fowler
2:10pm Foster “Tater” Wiley
2:50pm Bill Abel & Cadillac John
3:30pm Jimmy “Duck” Holmes
4:10pm Kenny Brown
4:55pm Johnny Lowe Bow

SUNDAY, AUGUST 8, 2010 - Gospel Stage
4:00pm Christopher Coleman
4:40pm Voice of Joy
5:35pm Chapel Hill Men’s Chorus
6:25pm The Myles Family

The Pinetop Perkins Foundation is a recently formed non-profit organization that both encourages young people to take up music and takes helps out with the needs of older musicians. As the poster notes, the instructors will be Greenville’s Eden Brent, who won this year’s Blues Music Award in the newly created “Pinetop Perkins Piano Player” category; Ann Rabson, who anchored the blues trio Saffire for many years; and Chicago’s Erwin Helfer, a master of older boogie woogie and barrelhouse traditions.

The workshops will consist of two advanced and one intermediate level master class.  The advanced level will be limited to 8 attendees and the intermediate to 12 attendees to ensure a quality educational experience for all.

The workshop will be held at the Hopson Plantation, and costs $375.00 for the Advanced level and $300.00 for the Intermediate level, which includes two days of personalized instructional classes plus lunches. On August 5 the students will perform at the Ground Zero Blues Club along with special guests including Bob Margolin. Pinetop Perkins, born in Belzoni in 1913 and still active, will be in attendance at the workshop, but it’s not promised that he will perform.

For more information visit the link above or e-mail Pat Morgan:  momorgan2 @ yahoo.com