A passionate old-time fiddler, Jack Magee draws on family tradition and also modern conveniences such as CDs to form his repertoire and style. There have been Magees in his hometown of Magee since before it was settled, when a Phil Magee arrived around 1820. But the family musical tradition comes through Jack’s father’s mother, born […]
Vocalist and guitarist Robert Lee “Lil Poochie” Watson was born in Natchez on March 29, 1951 but spent his first fourteen years in the rural community of Church Hill in Jefferson County north of Natchez. [He prefers to be called by his nickname and explains that it derives from his being small and that people
Thallis Lewis recently retired after working for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians for 43 years, finishing as Director of the Cultural Affairs Program. In 2003, she received the Governor’s Award for Leadership in Mississippi Heritage. Mrs. Lewis was born a sharecropper’s daughter in Bogue Chitto (about 20 miles east of her current home in
The Lane Chapel Male Quintet is based out of Tupelo and performs a wide variety of music, ranging from spirituals to modern R&B. As its name implies, the group sings in five-part harmony. They use an acoustic guitar as accompaniment on some of their songs. Charles Raymond Richardson, who led the group until his death
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Guelel Kumba is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter of Fulani heritage who is currently based in Oxford. He grew up in the Futa Toro region in the Senegal River valley, which encompasses areas of northern Senegal and southern Mauritania. His father was of Senegalese nationality, his mother of Mauritanian nationality. Kumba’s paternal grandfather was a
Debbie Kreiser has always loved music, and needs to be around it—otherwise, she gets what she calls “grumpy.” But it took a while for her to find the right environment for her personality within the larger world of music. Her parents, both originally from New York, had moved from Virginia to Jackson, Mississippi in 1971;
The Kattawar Brothers consist of Jerry Kattawar on piano and Mike Kattawar on drums. The Greenville-based duo plays a unique blend of boogie-woogie, blues, country, and classic rock & roll. The brothers grew up in Greenville, listening to blues late at night on WLAC from Nashville. They got interested in the music of B.B. King,
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The Jones Sisters are a gospel group from Oxford comprised of five sisters who span eight years in age; in early 2005 they ranged from 18 to 25. The oldest sister, Tambra, began singing when she was just three and was soon joined by her sister Tara, two years her junior. In order, the others
James “Super Chikan” Johnson was born in the small Delta community of Darling in 1951 and grew up in rural towns around the area. As a young boy living in the country, he developed an interest in his family’s chickens and spent time trying to understand the meaning of the noises they made. His friends
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Guitarist and vocalist “Big” Jack Johnson was born in Lambert, Mississippi, in 1940. He was inspired to play music by his father, Ellis Johnson, a fiddler, banjoist, and guitarist who played blues, breakdowns, and country music. Johnson, a lifelong fan of country music, began playing guitar with his father at age thirteen, and later mastered
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