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Henry Townsend lived a remarkably clean and productive life, and despite being around bootlegging, violence and tragedy for much of it, remained optimistic, open, moderate and funny to the very [...]

THE RHYTHM RATS Pretty Crowin' Chicken 5-String Productions 9061 This CD, issued by Marimac in 1994, has come back to life on 5-String Production's label. It is a mix of [...]

VARIOUS Classic African-American Ballads Smithsonian/Folkways 40191 Folklorist Barry Lee Pearson has once again raided the Folkways vaults, and emerged with a CD that gives us a glimpse into African-American Narrative [...]

COREY HARRIS Teaches Blues Guitar from Mississippi to Mali Homespun COR-GT21 (DVD) DEL REY Boogie Woogie Guitar Homespun DEL-GT21 (DVD) Here are two very different videos from Homespun, both by [...]

MAMIE SMITH Crazy Blues: The Best of Columbia/Legacy 65712 MISSISSIPPI SHEIKS Honey Babe Let the Deal Go Down: The Best of Columbia/Legacy 65709 LUCILLE BOGAN Shave 'Em Dry: The Best [...]

STEFAN GROSSMAN Country Blues Guitar in Open Tunings Grossman's Guitar Workshop 969 JOHN SEBASTIAN AND HAPPY TRAUM The Fingerpicking Blues of Mississippi John Hurt Homespun SEB-MJ21 What did we do [...]

Howard 'Louie Bluie' Armstrong passed away on July 30, 2003. He was 94. An exuberant fiddler and mandolinist, he was regarded as one of the last black string-band musicians. In [...]

Gospel Treasures 2001 In his book Woke Me Up this Morning, Alan Young talks about the hierarchical trappings of black Gospel quartets: titles, uniforms, responsibilities, within-group authority. This tendency toward [...]

Smithsonian/Folkways 40123 In the hagiography of the Folk Revival, Rev. Gary Davis's position is somewhere between Woody Guthrie and God. It is therefore great, thanks to a certain pack-rat mentality [...]

Wooden Teeth 003 Michael Pickett is about as steeped in dead-thumb Mississippi blues as one could be, coming from Canada. His playing is stark but not simplistic, his rack harp [...]

FURRY LEWIS Furry's Blues: The Complete Vintage Recordings (1927-1929) Document 5004 REVEREND BLIND GARY DAVIS Meet You at the Station: The Vintage Recordings (1935-1949) Document 5060 Document prides itself on [...]

Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues By Elijah Wald Harper Collins (New York, NY), 2004, ISBN 0060524235, 368 pages, pbk., $24.95 First the disclaimer: not [...]

Swallow 6173 The Cajun music community is tight, family oriented, and as apt as any group in the world to have an infectious good time between the end of work [...]

WOODY MANN The Art of Acoustic Blues Guitar: The Basics Acoustic Sessions 101 WOODY MANN The Art of Acoustic Blues Guitar.' Fretboard Logic Acoustic Sessions 102 WOODY MANN The Art [...]

Blues guitarist David 'Honeyboy' Edwards, 96, died of congestive heart failure peacefully at home on the morning of August 29th, 2011. There is no one else still with us who [...]

THE 23 STRING BAND Catch 23 The 23 String Band There are actually 27 strings in this band from Louisville. I suspect they added the fiddle player, Scott Moore, a [...]

WATERMELON SLIM AND SUPER CHIKAN Okiesippi Blues Northernblues 0061 Okay, I'm prejudiced: If you can't get behind music like this, you've been drinkin' too much herbal tea. Slim and Super [...]

WATERMELON SLIM & THE WORKERS Live At the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi NorthernBlues 0060 On May 12, 2007, Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero flagship in Clarksdale, Mississippi had [...]

Discovering Folk Music By Stephanie P. Ledgin Praeger / ABC-CLIO (Santa Barbara, Calif.), 2010, ISBN 978-0-275-99387-0, 181 pages, hbk., $34.95 Stephanie Ledgin, noted photographer and lifelong folkie, has written a [...]

Jessie Mae Hemphill was born on October 18th, 1923, in Panola County, Mississippi. This is a place where African derived instruments played in African ways weave among blues, blues ballads, [...]

VARIOUS Blues Guitar Women Ruf 1110 Ottawa-born Sue Foley took it upon herself to assemble and celebrate Women In The Blues. She did so in time honored fashion, by lifting [...]

BIG GEORGE BROCK Club Caravan Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art 51590 BIG GEORGE BROCK Round Two Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art 1003 Well, it's a good [...]

THE HOOVER UPRIGHTS Known for Their Reputation 5-String Productions 05002 The Hoovers are John Schwab (guitar), Bill Schmidt (fiddle), David Rice (harmonica), Kate Brett (banjo and Kevin Enoch (banjo-uke, bass, [...]

CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind Music Maker 076 I put this CD in my car stereo, and it all but fried the machine. The tunes are more [...]

ORPHEUS SUPERTONES Bound to Have a Little Fun Mudthumper 0020 This is what I call a damn good CD: made for fun by some excellent players, cleanly executed and recorded, [...]

THE HODGES BROTHERS Bogue Chitto Flingding Arhoolie 9037 Arhoolie records' Chris Strachwitz ran into the Hodges Brothers in 1960 during his first southern swing for his then fledgling label, and [...]

ROY CARRIER AND THE NIGHT ROCKERS Living Legend Severn 00301 Never heard of this guy? Me neither. My loss and yours, as well. Talk about kickin' butt, this guy is [...]

VARIOUS Blues in the Mississippi Night Rounder 1860 This CD was made from an interview Alan Lomax conducted in 1946 with Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Slim and John Lee 'Sonny [...]

JESSIE MAE HEMPHILL Get Right Blues Inside Sounds 0519 Jessie Mae Hemphill is a boogie-style, get-down jukester with a scintillating pedigree and several Handy awards. Due to a stroke in [...]

Arhoolie 9036 The term 'holy blues' is a contradiction. Though religious African Americans concede a relationship between the two broad genres, they keep the terms 'Holy' and 'blues' distinct. What, [...]

County 3528 It makes me proud when old friends get involved with projects of substance. Kerry Blech, who wrote the notes to this fine CD (with help from John Miller [...]

Telarc 83579 I'm jealous. 'Steady Rollin'' Bob Margolin is the most fortunate of blues revival players, having had steady employment and contact with all his blues heroes since his early [...]

WVUPress 4 Here is an all too rare example of a black musicologist, resident among the people he is studying, doing fieldwork among them. If ever there was a practicing [...]

Bluesette 300 The reason Mary Flower has been able to make a living playing the music she loves is that she is the very essence of taste. In the words [...]

Electro-Fi 3380 On 55 North, about halfway between Memphis and St. Louis, is the Trail of Tears State Park exit, marked by a sign that says 'Fruitland, Jackson.' This is [...]

Deep Sea 8002 If you were an alien exploring our galaxy for the first time, you'd encounter humans first as a faint signal from the spacecraft Voyager, launched in 1977 [...]

Jasmine 3011 The guitar Big Bill plays on these two CDs is the 000-28 given to him by Win Stracke, founder of the Old Town School of Folk Music. When [...]

Kenny Hall This two-CD set documents one week in the sixty-five year career of California's treasured mandolin and fiddle player Kenny Hall. At eighty, this sightless San Jose native almost [...]

The sheet music for the instrumental music "Jim Dickinson Stomp," by Andy Cohen is presented.

The article reviews the music release "Pretty Crowin' Chicken," by The Rhythm Rats.

The article reviews the music release "Classic African-American Ballads," featuring various artists.

Reviews two music video recordings released on DVD format including "Teaches Blues Guitar From Mississippi to Mali," by Corey Harris and "Boogie Woogie Guitar," by Del Rey.

The article reviews the music release "Known for Their Reputation," by The Hoover Uprights.

The article reviews the music release "Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind," by Carolina Chocolate Drops.

The article reviews the music release "Blues Guitar Women," by various artists including Etta Baker and Joanna Connor.

The article presents an obituary to several prominent figures in the soul and bluegrass music industry including, Joe Glazer, Fernanda de Utrera, and Kirk MacGeachy.

The article presents obituaries for several musicians including singer Liz Meyer, blues guitarist David "Honeyboy" Edwards, and folk singer Ray Fisher.