Como Now

Anderson H. pointed me to Como Now, a new a cappella gospel album by Daptone Records, recorded in (North) Panola County, Mississippi.  My first year teaching was at North Panola High School in the town of Sardis, about ten minutes of cotton fields south of Como; my students came from all of the county north of the Tallahatchie River, which means Sardis, Como, and Crenshaw.  A few of the “Jones Sisters” (Chapter VIII) came and sang for us Mississippi Teacher Corps people in Oxford over the summer.

The text of the promotional site (and the narration of the videos) has some clumsy generalizations and a touch of exoticism (“Folks in Como believe that…,” “In Como, everybody sings and everybody prays,” etc.) but the singing is wonderful, and with the photographs that are displayed in the videos evokes the place where I lived and worked for a very difficult year better than anything else I could suggest.  I will be buying the album.

August 27, 2008 · Links, Music, The South · (No comments)

I just realized

  1. Bankhead, by T.I., who faces prison on weapons charges.

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  2. Theme to Exodus, 1960 Paul Newman movie about founding of modern Israel.

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June 11, 2008 · Music · (No comments)

A Passer-By Comments

I received an interesting comment to an old post:

I visited the area in the early 70s with Bobbie Lee herself. At that time I worked with her in Las Vegas. We have remained friends ever since. Much of the area in and around the famed Tallahatche Bridge is not what it was 30 years ago, actually poorer. It is in Chickasaw County, not far from Greenwood Mississippi. The bridge was, back then, almost unuseable. The so-called Choctaw Ridge is just one of many areas identified by the locals as “up on the ridge”, all with various little names. It is unlikely any map would identify the exact location of a Choctaw Ridge, people of the area called the same place different things. I can only say it is a real place, and probably long forgotten by most in the area now.

This is interesting, though “Chickasaw County” is not especially near to Greenwood, and the Tallahatchie River does not enter it. History is strange.

I’ve not posted anything in quite a while. Stress and procrastination are partners. I’ll add a few posts soon.

March 26, 2006 · Geography, History, Music, The South · (No comments)

Choctaw Ridge

My sitemeter logs, among other things, “referrals,” which are the sites from which visitors to this blog clicked links to arrive here; and it reveals a steady flow of readers who find this blog by doing websearches on “Choctaw Ridge” or “Where is Choctaw Ridge” or similar variations, no doubt curious about the Bobbie Gentry song.

Choctaw Ridge doesn’t turn up on many sites apart from those with Gentry lyrics. It seems to be an archaic description.

August 28, 2005 · Geography, Music, The South · 1 comment

Clarksdale Blues Festival and First Weekend Back in Oxford

A couple of weekends ago Evan and I went to the Blues festival in Clarksdale. I hesitated before going, concerned that I had too much work to do, but was very pleased when I got there.

We saw Honeyboy Edwards, the 90-year-old bluesman who knew Robert Johnson and was present when he died. (I am told that it is his account of Johnson’s death that is widely considered most credible.) He sounded quite like I would have imagined, playing acoustic Blues as a man who played it when all Blues was acoustic.

Then last weekend we all reunited for the first time in Oxford. And what a relief, to decompress with my peers who are experiencing similar trials. Or even to chat over drinks with people my age, somewhat hip and somewhat liberal and somewhat well-educated. It sounds ugly and provincial, maybe (if it isn’t too backwards a use of provincial), and I do not mean it to be derogotary to anyone outside of that description, but what a relief it was, ugly relief or not.

August 27, 2005 · Culture, Geography, Music, The South · (No comments)

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