That’s me on the right with the video camera. My wife and I made our annual pilgrimage to the hill country of north Mississippi for the 5th annual North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic on June 25th and 26th, 2010. Cindy took some still pictures and I shot some video. The Rising Star Fife & Drum Band put on a wonderful performance with Sharde Thomas singing and playing the fife. Ms. Thomas is the granddaughter of the late Otha Turner of Gravel Springs, Mississippi. African-American fife and drum music was heard across the Southeast at one time but Rising Star is [...]
The North Mississippi Allstars perform at the 5th annual North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic in Potts Camp, MS on June 26, 2010. The Allstars are a trio but bassist Chris Chew could not be a part of this performance, so they were billed as the NMA DuoLuCo with Luther and Cody Dickinson performing. (Cody Dickinson plays the bass line on a keyboard while also playing drums!) Here’s the opening of their set: A the end of the set, the Allstars invited guitarist Kenny Brown and members of the Rising Star Fife & Drum Band to join them for a medley: [...]
I’ve known about Live Blues World for some time but I didn’t take the time to join until recently. I’m glad I’ve joined now as I’m finding both old and new friends there. It is a Ning.com group, a social networking site, devoted to the promotion of live blues music, something that I enjoy very much. LiveBluesWorld.com was created by Eric Ashman, Chief Financial Officer for The Huffington Post and a big blues fan. It is a gathering place for blues music fans and musicians. If you’re a fan of the music, I recommend you check it out at LiveBluesworld.com. [...]
My wife and I recently attended the 5th annual North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic in Potts Camp, Mississippi. We’ve attended every one so far and it has become an annual tradition for us. The two-day festival features over 20 bands from the hill country of north Mississippi, an area with rich musical traditions and some very musically talented families. One of those families is the Burnside family. R. L. Burnside was a blues legend who passed away a few years ago. I loved his music and was thrilled to get to meet him and interview him for my documentary on [...]
