Red Clay Hills

Louis Arzo Youngblood, aka “Gearshifter,” is a Jackson-based guitarist and vocalist who performs a unique blend of country blues, modern soul-blues, and everything in between. Louis was born in Picayune and grew up in Jackson, Bogalusa, and, mostly, Tylertown. There Louis was raised in a simple rural environment surrounded by older relatives. As a young

Leo Welch remembered well the day his cousin’s guitar came in the mail. Welch and another younger cousin brought the package to their house on a long walk up from the mailbox and were forbidden to play with it while the older cousin was away. But they could not resist and when the guitar’s owner

Every Wednesday evening, the members of St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Meridian begin their prayer meeting with a long-standing musical tradition. The group sings a series of long meter or “Dr. Watts” hymns. The hymns are sung in a slow, ornamental style, with each line being “lined out” (chanted in a quick, rhythmic manner)

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

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

Rockabilly drummer and songwriter Robert Morris, a resident of Senatobia, was born in 1954 in Memphis, where he spent most of his youth in the Whitehaven area. His father was a “flat-top” guitarist and a musical associate of Bill Monroe in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. Many musicians would come by the family house

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

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

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