PLEASE VISIT OUR NEW SITE
Posted in Uncategorized on August 26th, 2010 No Comments »
All new work relating to this project and other ethnographic work on music by Ali Colleen Neff has been moved to:
www.ethnolyrical.org
Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
Of Logging Clips and Tall Boys
Posted in Uncategorized, Clarksdale, Juke Joint, blues, Documentary Work, Music on July 7th, 2006 No Comments »
Brian and I spent the day reviewing and logging the footage we’ve taken so far, including some of Brian’s excellent “b-roll” (video shots of surroundings to be used for cutaways or expository material). We’ve come up with a logging system as we collect clips in FinalCut Pro; after all, we are planning to collect 50 […]
This is a Blues-Oriented Town
Posted in Uncategorized, Clarksdale, blues, Hip-Hop, Music, Tourism on July 6th, 2006 No Comments »
I encountered a group of blues tourists-cum-entrepreneurs today as I bought a soda in the local gardening shop. As “The Delta Blues” gains cache with middle America and blues tourism increases, a number of investment bankers and real estate moguls have been buying chunks of Clarksdale for tourism development. One heavy investor from California has […]
And….ACTION!
Posted in Uncategorized, Clarksdale, oral culture, Mississippi Delta, Documentary Work, Hip-Hop on July 6th, 2006 No Comments »
We roll into Top Notch’s neighborhood in the early afternoon to film our first interview for our documentary about his community and his work. It’s the day after the Fourth of July and a trio of boys around the age of 11 are shooting off bottle rockets while walking down the street. They watch as […]
Signing off the Radi-yi-yo
Posted in 2685 Uncategorized, Clarksdale, radio, oral culture, Mississippi Delta, blues on July 5th, 2006 No Comments »
George Hines discusses Early Wright’s legacy
“This is Hines in the mornin’ times at WROX, the station that Early Wright built. George Hines, Hines, Hines on your radi-yi-yo. NO! There is nothing wrong with your radi-yi-yo. We are simply…jammin’!” –George Hines, WROX Station Manager
Rumor had it that WROX, the famous old Clarksdale radio station, was to […]
Hill Country Picnic
Posted in Uncategorized, oral culture, blues, Music on July 5th, 2006 No Comments »
We’ve wandered into the high hill country that adjoins the Delta to the east to enjoy a music festival featuring hill country artists T-Model Ford, Bobby Rush, Robert Belfour, Kenny Brown and members of the renowned Kimbrough and Burnside families. The family of Othar Turner, the beloved hill country fife-and-drum musician, is also present today. […]
Sunday Morning, Sunday Night
Posted in Uncategorized, Clarksdale, oral culture, Juke Joint, Mississippi Delta, blues, Music on July 2nd, 2006 No Comments »
Back in Red’s, only this time it’s for an actual blues party. Big Jack “Oilman” Johnson, the revered bluesman from Clarksdale whose secondary legacy was driving the town’s biggest fuel truck, has agreed to play a short, early set. The crowd swells to fifteen at around 8 p.m. when Big Jack begins to tune his […]
Saturday Night, Sunday Morning
Posted in Uncategorized, Clarksdale, oral culture, Mississippi Delta, Delta Religion on July 2nd, 2006 No Comments »
I guess I’m feeling a little guilty as I step into church today. I push the tall boy Budweiser and red-lit posters from the night before to the edges of my mind as I cross the holy threshold of St. James Temple. Church of God in Christ, or COGIC, is a Pentecostal denomination that was […]
A Night at the Juke Joint
Posted in Uncategorized, Clarksdale, oral culture, Juke Joint, Mississippi Delta, blues on July 1st, 2006 No Comments »
I spend my first night back in the Delta within the close walls of Red’s juke joint just across the tracks—those ubiquitous railroad tracks–in black downtown Clarksdale dubbed “the New World District.” The club is situated, in the words of its proprietor, “with the river behind me and the graveyard in front of me,” and […]