Piney Woods

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 […]

George Cecil McLeod, Jr. lived for almost four decades within a mile of his birthplace near Leakesville, in rural southeastern Mississippi. He represented the fifth generation of McLeods in the state. His father, a logger, farmer, and schoolteacher, enjoyed music, and was a fine dancer, but did not play an instrument. But fiddlers were far

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

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;

As a child growing up in Puerto Rico, Manuel “Cucho” Gonzalez’s mother introduced him to the music of the Beatles. Gonzalez knew that he wanted to make similar music one day. Gonzalez’s father, on the other hand, preferred that his son follow in the footsteps of a Harlem-based musician of Puerto Rican descent, Tito Puente,

Natchez-based drummer, harmonica player, and vocalist Hezekiah Early was born on October 7, 1934, on a farm in the community of Anna’s Bottom, located about a dozen miles north of Natchez adjacent to the Mississippi River. Some of the first music that Early heard as a young man was that of local fife and drum

YZ Ealey—“YZ” is his given name—was born in Sibley, about 14 miles south of Natchez on March 8, 1937, and grew up on a self-sufficient farm where his family raised crops and livestock. He is the middle of eleven children, with three sisters and two brothers both older and younger than him. He first began

Fiddler John “Buddy” Crocker was born and raised in rural Greene County. He first got interested in the instrument as a teenager. Crocker went to the same church as the local fiddle legend Jode Denmark and was able to convince the older musician to sell him a fiddle. He learned some tunes from Denmark and