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: [...]

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 [...]

Kenny Brown learned how to play guitar from Joe Callicott and R. L. Burnside. His guitar accompaniment was an important part of the sound of R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough popularized by Fat Possum Records a few years ago. Now that both Burnside and Kimbrough have passed on, Kenny Brown plays and records with his own band. He also hosts the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic, an annual festival in rural Potts Camp, MS that showcases music from the hill country of north Mississippi. My wife and I attended the 5th annual picnic recently. Cindy took a lot of [...]