Joyce Shearer is a good example of a person who becomes involved in the arts later in life, but who is transformed by them. A native of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Shearer sang older country songs and listened to her mother tell jokes while growing up, but she did not perform in public until she […]
Bill Rogers grew up in the house next door to his current home in Collins, Mississippi. It is an old family house built on land his great-grandfather bought in 1897. Rogers is a public health environmentalist from nine to five, then goes home and plays bluegrass and old-timey fiddle. He didn’t start fiddling until he
Jesse Robinson has been playing blues and jazz for over four decades. Born in Benton and raised in Mileston, Mississippi, Robinson was “the seventh son, thirteenth child, baby boy, and a preacher’s son.” He first picked up the guitar at six and was soon backing his father at church. As a young boy, Jesse also
Rockabilly and country performer Joe Rickman was born in Corinth in 1943 and has lived in Glen for fifty years. As a child, he listened to the Grand Ole Opry, and in 1955 he found his musical direction when he heard “some of the prettiest music I ever heard” by rockabilly artists including Elvis Presley,
Johnny Rawls was born near Pascagoula, Mississippi, where his father worked in the shipyards. He grew up on a 70-acre farm in Stone County (his father commuted to the coast). Music has been in his family and in the air at home as long as he can remember. His older sister, older brother, and mother
Tommie Pruitt was born in Ellisville, Mississippi on April 17, 1933. His father, Joe Pruitt, was a fiddler, harmonica player and tap dancer who enlisted his 11 children to sing in front of downtown Laurel businesses for tips but died when Tommy was only three. Pruitt’s older brother “Baby Ruth” was an accomplished blues guitarist
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“Cadillac” John Nolden is a blues harmonica player, songwriter, and vocalist from Renova, Mississippi. He was born in Sunflower on April 12, 1927, one of ten children. The family worked on various plantations in the area, including one owned by the mayor of Sunflower, W.L. Patterson. Nolden, who emphasizes the value of hard work, picked
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Charles Nelson lives in McCall Creek, in Franklin County, Mississippi, on land purchased by his father in the 1930s, less than five miles from the house in which he was born. Nelson is a talented, although unrecorded, boogie-woogie blues pianist—a style that features rhythmic left hand with melodies played with the right, is largely instrumental
The Myles Family is both a family and a gospel group based in Kosciusko. Reverend Marvin Myles, Sr., the father of the family and leader of the group, grew up singing gospel with his brothers in Friars Point. The brothers performed for many years as the group Sons of Wonder. Reverend Myles and his wife
Thomas Moss is carrying on and passing along a family tradition–bluegrass. In addition to being a father and full-time diesel mechanic, Moss plays at festivals and churches around the state and region with Foxfire, a group based near Bay Springs, and has released recordings both with the group and as a solo artist. Born in