{gallery}08-2008/blues{/gallery}
OXFORD, Miss. – After toiling long hours in the field under a hot
Mississippi Delta sun, poor black sharecroppers of the early 20th
century gathered on front porches and put to music their sorrow and
suffering.
The soulful lyrics and sounds of those early blues pioneers moved from
the house parties to the juke joints, then north up the Mississippi
River. Once commercialized, the powerful music gave root to jazz,
country, rock ‘n’ roll and hip hop – a major portion of America’s
popular music.
“Juke joints were lively places to go to escape the drudgeries of
sharecropping,” says Charles Wilson, holder of the Cook Chair of
History at the University of Mississippi.
“They served the same purpose as church in African American culture – to share experiences,” Wilson says. “They were a type of community center, a gathering place that nurtured a whiskey congregation.”
One can hear and almost touch the originators and performers of this powerful art form on the University of Mississippi’s Oxford campus, where for more than two decades blues music has been studied, preserved and played, and writers have been capturing the lives of blues musicians and their music.
“When I came to Ole Miss in 1981, it was exotic to discover that the university featured blues as a course of study,” says Wilson, former director of UM’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture. “Blues is one of the most important contributions Mississippi has had on the world, and the university has played a major role in keeping the blues alive.”
Ole Miss holds 50,000 blues recordings, one of the world’s largest collections; publishes Living Blues magazine, America’s oldest and most authoritative blues periodical; and produces “Highway 61,” the blues radio show aired weekly on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
The blues emerged after the Civil War, when freedmen’s opportunities to own property vanished and sharecropping arose, Wilson says. “Blues simply originated as a response to frustrations within society.”
Living with segregation, poverty and other social ills, sharecroppers expressed their concerns through music. The music, Wilson says, gave them a sense of empowerment by enabling them to articulate their hopes and ambitions, along with their sufferings.
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One of the greatest misconceptions of blues music is the despair many attribute to it, says Greg Johnson, curator of UM’s Music/Blues Archive. “Blues artists may sing about having a bad day but, ultimately, they are telling everyone that they are OK. If it was all sad, then people wouldn’t flock to clubs and juke joints to listen to it all night.”
In reality, the music is dictated by the artists and their individual influences. Even within the Magnolia State, for example, blues differ. Mississippi Delta blues artists such as the legendary B.B. King or the mythic Robert Johnson have different styles and approaches to their music than their neighbors in the hill country, like the hypnotic R.L. Burnside or the fife and drum tradition of Otha Turner.
Thanks to UM’s archive and its more than 50,000 sound recordings, hundreds of visitors from around the world discover the diverse blues genres each year.
Perhaps not a household name like Muddy Waters or Howlin’ Wolf, blues guitarist J.B. Lenoir made his mark in the industry with his outspoken political commentary on records such as “Eisenhower Blues,” “Korea Blues” and “Vietnam Blues.” Born in Monticello, Miss., in 1929, Lenoir also penned “Shot on James Meredith,” lamenting the 1966 assassination attempt on the civil rights icon.
“J.B. Lenoir wrote several civil rights protest songs,” Johnson says. “However, he is just one artist from a broad spectrum that tackled race during the civil rights era. And yes, we have his recordings here.
“We also have opposing views when it comes to the civil rights era. We have recordings from The Freedom Singers, which were formed to raise money for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, as well as a songbook from the Women of the Ku Klux Klan. It’s an extensive, wide collection.”
The archive also holds some 15,000 photographs, more than 350 videotapes and more than 3,000 books, periodicals and newsletters. “A broad range of opportunities abound here at the archive, from listening to original Robert Johnson recordings to perusing more than 100 death certificates of blues musicians,” says Johnson, the archive’s curator since 2002.
The archive includes B.B. King’s personal collection of more than 8,000 LPs and 78s, along with records from Living Blues magazine founders Jim O’Neal and Amy van Singel. The duo created the journal of the African American blues tradition while living in Chicago in 1970.
Setting the standard for blues history, culture and journalism worldwide, the magazine has been published at UM since 1983. Renowned for its detailed feature stories and exceptional photography, the magazine has featured interviews with such blues legends as Magic Sam, Johnnie Taylor and John Lee Hooker.
“The blues is a unique African American expression, which has and continues to be the focus of the magazine,” says its managing editor, Mark Camarigg. “We simply provide a platform for the musicians to express their own words.”
For nearly four decades, Living Blues has publicized the contemporary blues scene, covering the lives and times of artists from New Orleans to Chicago. The Hurricane Katrina issue, published a mere three months after the storm flooded the Crescent City, enabled more than a dozen blues artists to share their experiences in their own words.
“It was not only a story of 14 individuals but also a story of a city that desperately needed help,” says editor Brett Bonner.
{xtypo?quote?left}”The blues is a vital force,”… “It’s adapted, and we’ve adapted
to its study. Ole Miss is truly a sanctuary for the blues.”
–Charles Wilson{/xtypo?quote?left}
In the September 2008 issue, the magazine examines the Chicago blues scene. It includes a cover story on Buddy Guy, a list of blues recordings made in the Windy City dating back to Robert Johnson’s 1937 “Sweet Home Chicago,” and coverage of the 25th anniversary of the Chicago Blues Festival and Restvale Cemetery, home to the graves of more bluesmen than any other cemetery in town.
The issue even includes a letter of praise from Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, saying, “Thank you for putting together this beautiful special edition of Living Blues magazine honoring the Chicago blues tradition … thank you for continuing to tell the story of the blues and the story of my hometown.”
As host of the “Highway 61” radio show, Living Blues contributing writer Scott Barretta helps perpetuate the blues. Barretta not only writes each weekly script but also shares selections from his personal collection of several thousand records and compact discs. The show airs at 10 p.m. Saturdays on MPB.
“This is a different kind of blues show,” Barretta says. “Anyone can listen to satellite or digital broadcast of blues music 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but here at Highway 61, each show has a theme.”
The themes are sparked by whatever intrigues Barretta, ranging from artists he’s been listening to at the time to previous related research for the Mississippi Blues Trail or the B.B. King Museum, which opens in September in nearby Indianola. Barretta tries to keep the themes related to Mississippi.
“I think it’s fun for the listeners,” he says. “They get to tune in and receive an opportunity to learn about someone from their community.”
With up to 100,000 listeners in Mississippi and millions of listeners across the Mid South, Highway 61 also is available around the globe, thanks to both streaming video and podcasting at highway61radio.org.
In harmony, the Music/Blues Archive, Living Blues and “Highway 61” are a point of pride for both Ole Miss and the Magnolia State.
“People think the blues is dying,” Wilson says. “It’s not. Mississippi was at the heart of the blues from the beginning, and it continues to be, thanks in part to the University of Mississippi.”
“The blues is a vital force,” he says. “It’s adapted, and we’ve adapted to its study. Ole Miss is truly a sanctuary for the blues.”
To learn more about the UM Music/Blues Archive, go to http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/general?library/files/archives/blues/index.html . To learn more about Living Blues magazine, go to http://www.livingblues.com/ .