OXFORD, Miss. - Blues music and presidential politics merge Sept. 11 at the University of Mississippi when the J.D. Williams Library hosts the Brown Bag Lunch program "Tell Every President to Listen to the Blues: Presidents, Politics and the Blues."

Scheduled for noon in the Faulkner Room of the Department of Archives and Special Collections on the library's third floor, the program is free and open to the public.

Greg Johnson, UM's blues archivist, and Scott Barretta, producer and host of "Highway 61" blues radio show on MPB, plan to play audio clips and discuss references to presidents and politics in the blues. Attendees are welcome to bring along a lunch and relax during the hourlong program.

"We're excited that the first 2008 presidential debate on Sept. 26 is being hosted on our campus, and we think this is a perfect opportunity to show the unique collections that we have in the Blues Archive," Johnson said. "In general, the blues has not been an art form that has addressed politics directly, like blatant protests for example. We'll look at how some artists have used music in subtle ways to address political issues."

Barretta said he expects the audience "will be surprised - and hopefully amused - at the many ways the figure of the president is used in the blues."

"Most blues deal with matters of love and lust, but there's a significant minority that deal expressly with politics. In many other songs, the political commentary is coded, while in others the singer might bring up a political issue only to use it to turn the spotlight back to their own personal problems."     
Among the library's blues holdings are recordings by J.B. Lenoir. The Mississippi native and blues guitarist wrote lyrics of political commentary and made records, including "Eisenhower Blues," "Korea Blues" and "Vietnam Blues."

Other songs from the archives that contain presidential references or commentary include Champion Jack Dupree's "F.D.R. Blues," Sleepy John Estes' "President Kennedy," Percy Mayfield's "I Don't Want to be the President," Big Joe Williams' "President Roosevelt" and Louis Meyer's "Tell Every President to Listen to the Blues."

For more information, visit http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/general_library/ .