Songs of the South: Mississippi

"To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi." - William Faulkner

Mississippi makes some pretty big claims about its music. The Visit Mississippi website describes the state as "the birthplace of America's music", a reference to delta blues. The state also claims its native son Jimmie Rodgers is the "father of country music". Whether you agree with those claims or not, you'd be hard-pressed to find a state with a longer list of musical talent. Before you go to the list though, let's discuss the musical genres where Mississippi artists have made the biggest contributions.

Delta Blues
Historians are still divided on this, but there's a good argument that blues music was born in the Mississippi Delta, an outgrowth of slave songs, work chants and field hollers used there for hundreds of years.

As early as the American Civil War, white soldiers noted a different music created by black soldiers. They were still songs about marching, fighting and longing for home, but they were different; they were more personal and they seemed ad-libbed. Those call and response songs, blended with the spirituals that came from the slaves, were the direct ancestors of the blues.

Delta blues has a rhythmic style and features strong vocals. The lyrics are usually simple and use repeated lines. The subjects tend to be personal and often reflect the hard life of the African-American farmer in the delta. Considered by many to be the most influential of the blues music styles, delta blues originated in the Mississippi Delta region in the last decades of the 19th century. By the 1890s, the 12 bar blues format was set and blues music was heard from work camps to road houses.

- The regions of Mississippi

Blues songs were passed from one performer to another, and many artists added new lyrics to an old song to make the song their own. There were no copyrights, no printed sheet music and no recordings. There are dozens of blues artists we'll never know about. But things started to change around the turn of the 20th century. Blues music was becoming more widely popular and blues songs started to appear as sheet music.

One of the most influential of all the early bluesmen was Charley Patton. Born in Hinds County, Mississippi, he lived most of his life in Sunflower County (the home of Parchman Farm Penitentiary and the place sung about in the song of the same name). Patton was born sometime between 1881 and 1891, the son of Bill and Annie Patton. In 1900, his family moved to the Dockery Plantation near Ruleville, Mississippi.

Charley was already playing blues music and it's there that Robert Johnson, Willie Brown, John Lee Hooker and Howlin' Wolf became disciples. They'd work the fields and they'd played on the porch after dinner. If they were lucky, they got a paying gig in a saloon.

These are the guys that defined blues music for us, and their teacher was Charley Patton. His music exists today only as scratchy, nearly indecipherable recordings - unlistenable really. But there's a sad soulfulness in what's left. That mournful sound, and the stories his associates have told, make you realize the lineage of this music has to go back a very long, painful way. Is it any wonder Willie Brown came up with the lover's plea in "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor"? Could the regret and sorrow in Son House's voice in "Death Letter Blues" be any more real?

But not all of the music is about pain. Many of these songs are filled with fun and good humor. B.B. King displays that with "Better Not Look Down" and "Sitting on Top of the World". Ry Cooder, John Logan and Nathan East go to it in "Willie Brown Blues". Big Joe Turner gives us sex and humor in the jump blues song, "Shake, Rattle and Roll". Along those same lines, Walter Davis, from Grenada, Mississippi, wrote a song called "I Can Tell by the Way You Smell", and Cooder gives us a great arrangement of it. Finally, John Lee Hooker explains what it means to be young and free in "Boogie Chillen'".

So, following the thought from William Faulkner mentioned at the beginning of this article, to understand the blues, you have to wrap your head around the cumulative effect of 300 years of human slavery, Klu Klux Klan and Jim Crow laws.

-The Poor Monkey Lounge is a juke joint sitting in a cotton field, four miles west of Merigold, Mississippi.

The Robert Johnson Mythology
The legend associated with Johnson is that he made a deal with the devil - he traded his soul for mastery of the blues guitar. The legend developed over time, and it starts with Johnson's song, "Cross Road Blues". It's unlikely that Johnson was trying to create a mythology around himself when he wrote it, but over time these things develop a life of their own. It started with interpretations of the song after Johnson's death in 1938. But the part about the pact with the devil who took the form of a mysterious black man was added later when someone saw the similarities to the German legend of Faust. Johnson's renewed popularity in the 1960s resulted in the addition of the melodramatic midnight hour and the cross roads meeting location. By the 1980s, the story had taken on a life of its own with the movie, Crossroads and this brilliant interpretation of Johnson's song by Ry Cooder..

Blues Instrumentation
"The Mississippi Delta was shining like a National Guitar"
- Paul Simon

The banjo, acoustic guitar and harmonica were the original instruments of the blues, but the banjo fell out of favor by the end of the 19th century. The metal or glass slide gave the guitar new life, and the steel resonator guitar introduced in the 1920s added more volume and a distinct new sound. The electric guitar arrived in the 1930s and that changed everything. It was first used in blues music by T-Bone Walker in the 1930s, and he recorded one of the first electric blues songs, "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad)" in 1943. He was followed by John Lee Hooker, B.B. King and Muddy Waters in the 1940s. Their styles respectively developed into Detroit blues, Chicago blues and West Coast blues.

Hill Country Blues
Mississippi hill country is its own distinct part of the state. For the most part, it lies east of Interstate 55. The hill country isn't really hilly, but compared to the flat pan of the delta it sure is, and it has lots of cotton fields. Hill country blues is different too. There's a resigned sadness to it, and it has a haunting, uncanny sound about it, That droning, single-chord groove is its most notable characteristic.

Although these acts aren't from Mississippi, the Steel Drivers capture the sound of Hill Country Blues in "Ghosts of Mississippi", while Bobbie King and Terry Evans also get it with "Down in Mississippi".

R.L Burnside from Harmontown, Mississippi knows it because he grew up with it. He does a hill country version of "Rollin and Tumblin" and "Skinny Woman". His grandson, Cedric Burnside shows his chops in "Tell Me What I'm Gonna Do" and Junior Kimbrough from Hudsonville, Mississippi does it with "You Better Run" and "Lonesome Road".

Southern Rock
Southern Rock may have one foot in the blues and the other foot in country music, but it sure got its hips from Elvis Presley. The King shows us where it all comes from with "That's All Right, Mama", "Blue Suede Shoes", "Heartbreak Hotel" and "(You're the) Devil in Disguise".

You'll hear that southern charm and humor in The North Mississippi Allstars' "Shake 'Em On Down". John Murry, the second cousin of William Faulkner, gives us something completely different with "Ballad of the Pajama Kid" and even if she isn't from Mississippi, you'll hear southern humor in Susan Tedeschi's "Rock Me Right".

Country and Country Rock
In Mississippi, Country music starts with Jimmie Rodgers. He taught himself to play the guitar and learned to sing in church. He worked as a waterboy in the railroad yards, learning folk and blues songs from the men working there. You can hear those influences in his songs, "In the Jailhouse Now", "T is for Texas" and "Muleskinner Blues".

Jimmy Buffet from Pascagoula shows us there's more to the state than just the blues with "Why Don't We Get Drunk (and Screw)" and "Ringling, Ringling". LeAnn Rimes from Jackson shows style in "Swingin'". Faith Hill from Ridgeland shows another side of the state with "Mississippi Girl" and "Wild One". Chris Ledoux from Biloxi defines Mississippi country with "Born in Mississippi". Sugarland isn't from Mississippi, but they sure get it with "Down in Mississippi (Up to No Good)".

Mississippi Artists:
Here's a list of some of the most famous musicians from Mississippi. Each artist is listed with one - three songs to give you a sampler of their music. The list is long, but not comprehensive. Think of it as a primer. You can find a complete list of the members of the Mississippi Musician's Hall of fame right here.

Willie Brown, blues singer and guitarist
"Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor", "Future Blues"

Jimmy Buffett, country and folk singer
"Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes",
"He Went to Paris", "Cheeseburger in Paradise"

Chester Arthur Burnett (Howlin' Wolf), blues singer
"Smokestack Lightening", "Killing Floor", "Howlin' For My Baby"

R.L. Burnside, blues singer and guitarist
"Rollin and Tumblin", "Skinny Woman"

Sam Cooke, r&b singer
"Wonderful World", "Chain Gang", "Another Saturday Night"

Bo Diddley, blues singer and guitarist
"Who Do You Love?", "I'm a Man", "Before You Accuse Me"

Willie Dixon, blues singer and bassist
"I Can't Quit You Baby", "Bring It On Home",
"(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man"

Bobbie Gentry, country singer
"Ode to Billie Joe", "Mississippi Delta"

Mickey Gilley, country singer
"The Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time"

Faith Hill, country singer
"The Way You Love Me", "Breathe"

John Lee Hooker, blues singer and guitarist
"Boom Boom", "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer",
"Crawlin' King Snake"

Son House, blues singer and guitarist
"Death Letter Blues", "Low Down Dirty Dog Blues"
"Levee Camp Moan"

Mississippi John Hurt, blues singer and guitarist
"Spike Driver Blues", "Irene Good Night", "Pay Day"

Carl Jackson, bluegrass singer
"I'm Not Over You", "I Take the Chance"

Elmore James, blues guitarist and singer
"Dust My Broom", "Blues Before Sunrise","Rollin and Tumblin"

Robert Johnson, blues singer and guitarist
"Cross Road Blues", "Sweet Home Chicago", "Come on in My Kitchen"

B.B. King, blues singer and guitarist
"The Thrill is Gone", "Hummingbird", "Ridin With the King"

Chris Ledoux, country singer
"Hooked on an 8 Second Ride". "Cadillac Ranch"

Furry Lewis, blues guitarist and singer
"Falling Down Blues", "Good Morning Judge"

Charlie Musselwhite, blues singer and harmonica player
"Key to the Highway", "I'm a Stranger"

Pinetop Perkins, blues singer and pianist
"Sweet Home Chicago", "Down in Mississippi"

Elvis Presley, pop, rock and spiritual singer
"Promised Land", "Jailhouse Rock", "Heartbreak Hotel"

Charlie Pride, country singer
"The Snakes Crawl at Night", "Kiss an Angel Good Morning"

LeAnn Rimes, country singer
"Swingin", "Nothin' Better to Do", "Blue"

Jimmie Rodgers, country singer
"Mule Skinner Blues", "In the Jailhouse Now", "T is for Texas"

Conway Twitty, country singer
"Linda on My Mind", "Hello Darlin'"

Muddy Waters, blues guitarist and singer
"Hoochie Coochie Man", "Louisiana Blues",
"Champagne & Reefer"

Sonny Boy Williamson II, blues singer and harminica player
"Ninety Nine", "All My Love in Vain", "Keep it to Yourself"

Tammy Wynette, country singer
"Stand by Your Man", "(We're Not) The Jet Set"