Legends May/June 2012

mississippilegends.com

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WE ARE Pearl River Resort Vegas with Sweet Tea!

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Pearl River Resort • Choctaw, MS • 1.866.44PEARL (1.866.447.3275) • www.pearlriverresort.com A development of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians

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may. june 2012

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Contents may / june 2012

Publisher ��������������������Marianne Todd Executive Editor ��������������������� Jayne Cannon Creative Director ���������������������� Shawn T. King

Designer ���������������������� Shawn T. King

Music

Advertising Sales Kay O’Shaughnessy - 757-617-9592 Kaymayfield@comcast.net Kellie Sanchez - 662-213-9441 Kellie@Mississippilegends.com Lynn Johnson, Director of Sales - 662-523-0201 Lynn@MississippiLegends.com Ken Flynt, Director of Marketing - 601-479-3351 Ken@MississippiLegends.com Editorial - 601-604-2963 Editor@MississippiLegends.com Contributing writers: Stephen Corbett, Joe Lee, Jayne Cannon, Bill Scaggs, Billy Dugger, Riley Manning, Jenny Enderlin Contributing photographers: Michael Barrett, Billy Dugger, Stephen Poff, Beau Gustafason Web calendar tech: James Sharp (www.MississippiLegends.com) Email calendar submissions to James@MississippiLegends.com LEGENDS would like to give a special shout-out to our fine printer, CJK Print Possibilities of Cincinnati, Ohio, and special thanks to Mark Wurm, Jamey Cullup and all the great pressmen at CJK for their outstanding excellence in service, consistent work quality and continued dedication to Blue South Publishing.

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or reprinted without express permission of the publisher. The opinions and views expressed by our contributors, writers and editors are their own. Various views from other professionals may also be expressed. Neither LEGENDS nor Blue South Publishing Corporation is endorsing or guaranteeing the products or quality of services expressed in advertisements. All advertisers assume liability for all content (including text representation and illustration) of advertisements printed and assume responsibility for any resulting claims against LEGENDS or its affiliates. Materials, photographs and written pieces to be considered for inclusion in LEGENDS may be sent to P.O. Box 3663, Meridian, MS 39303. Unsolicited materials will not be returned. LEGENDS is free and distributed through tourism offices, welcome centers, restaurants, theaters, casinos, and institutions of higher education. If your business, agency or industry would like to offer LEGENDS, please contact us at Editor@MississippiLegends.com.

For more information, write to Editor@MississippiLegends.com. More information, including a comprehensive, up-to-date calendar, may be found at www.MississippiLegends.com

About our cover Nothing says Mississippi like Elvis Presley.

This great American icon will be honored May 31-June 3 in his Tupelo hometown with live musical performances, movies and tribute artists. Here, he is pictured during the filming of the 1957 hit musical “Jailhouse Rock”.

Cover photograph: Elvis image used by permission, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.

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may. june 2012

28 The Sweet Sounds of Southern Rockers

Music greats descend on the Queen City for Jimmie Rodgers Festival

40 Growing up Elvis

The boy from Tupelo is still the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll

50 The Life and Times of the Legendary Chris Ethridge

56 A Tale of Two Festivals

From classical to rock ‘n’ roll, it’s the music that moves us

Features 6 Celebrating 10 Years with the Queen City Gypsies 12 Vegas with Sweet Tea

The new face of Mississippi’s Band of Choctaw Indians

16 Life, Full Circle

Choctaw native returns to the past to give to the future

22 Remembering Elvis

Gulf Coast girlfriend relives the heady days of life with the future King

32 Legendary Delta Blues Tours

Take a ride with Sylvester Hoover on an unforgettable journey

64 What’s Shakin’ Around the State?

literary 62 Book Review

“Forsaking Mimosa” by Valerie Winn

Home to blues legends like Kenny Brown, Joe Callicott, Memphis Minnie, Don McMinn and more, the blues have deep roots here in DeSoto County.

Come catch a live show or travel back in time along our historic Blues Trail.

For a free vacation guide, call 662-393-8770 or visit SoDeSoto.com.

Blues Trail

Museum

Great Venues

Shopping

Minutes from Memphis and Tunica in Northwest Mississippi.

With 36 hotels, 8 B+B’s, 250+ restaurants and lots of fun activities, a great time is just a phone call away.

SOULFUL!

DeSoto County, Mississippi H e r n a n d o · H o r n L a k e · oLive BrancH · SoutHaven · WaLLS

letter from the publisher Dear Readers,

April 23 of complications from pancreatic cancer.

I’ve often wondered if there is some secret, mystic ingredient in the Mississippi

Ethridge, who was 65, grew up listening to the music of Elvis, as well as the

soil.

country and folk tunes of his home state. Back then, there was little crossover –

The list of musical performers with Mississippi roots is also a list of the greatest

country was country, rock was rock – but Ethridge and other musicians of the late

names in 20th century music. With names like Robert Johnson and Jimmie Rodgers,

1960s were instrumental in changing that. They skillfully blended all their musical

we have undisputed bragging rights. But when you start adding names like B.B.

influences to create a unique sound – one that influenced music for decades.

King, Honeyboy Edwards, Muddy Waters, Tammy Wynette, Conway Twitty, John

At his death, his friend and colleague Chris Hillman talked to LEGENDS about

Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Buffet, Jerry Lee Lewis and Ike Turner, you can’t

Ethridge.

deny there’s something special about the Mississippi connection.

“Chris brought a R&B element to the band that Gram and I didn’t have,” he said.

In this issue of LEGENDS, you’ll find a story about yet another performer who

“Chris also wrote ‘She’ that Gram recorded on his first solo record. Those three songs

has deep ties to Mississippi. Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo and spent his early days

are the best vocals that Gram Parsons ever recorded, beyond anything else he ever

performing in Mississippi venues. There’s no doubt that Elvis was famous during his

did. He was also just an all-around gifted musician. There were times in the studio

lifetime, but it’s amazing that 35 years after his death, he’s still just as popular. His

where I wouldn’t know what to play on the guitar, and Chris would take the guitar

music is still played on the radio and purchased by fans. His face adorned a U.S.

and show me the part to play.”

postage stamp.

It’s easy to imagine these two young Mississippi boys – one in the early ‘50s and

What was it about Elvis that makes him relevant today? There’s not one definitive

one in the early ‘60s – sitting in front of a radio, mesmerized by the music. Something

answer, but for me, it’s simply that Elvis touched something inside the hearts and

they heard sparked a passion that lasted all their lives. They took what they heard, the

souls of many people. It comes down to nothing more than a feeling.

music of their roots, added their own uniqueness to it and created something special.

As we go to press, we’re mourning the loss of another Mississippi musician who

And that, my dear readers, are how LEGENDS are born.

touched the hearts of a generation. Chris Ethridge, a founding member of the Flying

Cheers,

Burrito Brothers, an accomplished songwriter and bassist and a Meridian native, died

Marianne mississippilegends.com

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Gypsy feature

to dance like a

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Q u e e n C i t y G y p sie s c e l e br at e 1 0 y e a r s

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“It is impossible to imagine a more complete fusion with nature than that of a Gypsy.” ~ Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer, musician, conductor. words and photographs by Marianne Todd

When most 13-year-old girls are in the throes of their first boy crushes, Gypsy Rosehill was falling in love with a culture far removed from her own.

The daughter of a Spaniard father and Mississippi-born mother, she was given a firsthand tour of Europe at an early age. In the streets of Rome and Paris, she became enamored with Gypsies.

“I grew up traveling … Rome, Florence, Paris, Switzerland, London, Spain,” she said, explaining that her mother left her Southern home to pursue a travel guide job through Europe. “Being 13 and being in Paris and London and Rome, you see a lot of Gypsies. You almost feel sorry for them because they’re so downtrodden and misunderstood. They beg in the street and you might think that’s so terrible, but when you hear their music and see them dance, you think that’s maybe not so bad. They’re free.”

When her family moved to Meridian when she was a junior in high school, she was drawn to Rose Hill Cemetery, where the King and Queen of the Gypsies are buried.

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may. june 2012

“I found myself up there all through high school, reading poetry, hanging out,” she said. “I liked being around Kellie Mitchell [Queen of the Gypsies]. She seemed like a mysteriously cool person.”

Years later, it is Kellie Mitchell that Rosehill pays homage to through her dance.

Having studied ballet and been discouraged from a formal pursuit of that career, Rosehill met a dance instructor who introduced her to belly dance.

“I came home and told my mother, ‘I’m going to belly dance!’ and she said, ‘Does that involve a pole?’ I told her it was an ancient art form. It was an art form, in fact, that connected her to the Gypsies she watched as a young teenager.

“To be a Gypsy, you have to grab everything from every culture, every type of music,” she said. “There’s no getting stuck on one thing. You have to blend it all together. It all goes back to where the Gypsies came from in India and their travels throughout the Balkans, parts of eastern Europe, portions of Spain and Portugal.

ďƒ§ Gypsy Rosehill and her band of Gypsy dancers will celebrate 10 years of belly dancing with a special performance on June 9. The troupe is performing and playing host to world-renown belly dancer Petite Jamilla and her dance troupe, Sirqus of Jreams at the Temple Theater in Meridian. mississippilegends.com

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TOP ROW: Stacey Jemison, Jamela Johnson, Gypsey Rosehill, Keating Prather and Michelle Joyner prepare for an upcoming performance. • Gypsy Rosehill on stage at The Temple Theater.

MIDDLE ROW: Rosehill performing with double veils.

BOTTOM ROW: Jamela Johnson is the newest member of the Queen City Gypsies.

• Johnson surrounded by dancers (left to right) Melinda Wakeham, Mary Catherine Stennis, Michelle Joyner, Keating Prather and Gypsy Rosehill.

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may. june 2012

“There are a lot of people who don’t know just how ancient this is.

People think Shakira made it up, and that’s probably a bad analogy, but for me my focus never changes. I’m about showing off things you cannot get in our modern world, things that take you back before computers and cell phones, before organized religion even – to the most ancient level of civilization and culture you can possibly get to.”

Her interest in the artful dance that has been used for centuries to prepare women for childbirth led her to teach a Meridian class – from which three more classes have been born. Aside from the hundreds of women she has taught – ages 10 to 76 – Rosehill’s sultry moves have been passed to three sister dance troupes, all of which were begun by the original members of the dance troupe she created, The Queen City Gypsies.

On June 9, the troupe will celebrate 10 years of dancing and performing throughout the South with a special performance featuring belly dance celebrity Petite Jamilla. The world-renowned dancer will teach a workshop for people “with some dance experience” before performing with her own troupe, Sirqus of Jreams.

Rosehill said in keeping with Queen City Gypsy tradition, the show will be inclusive of several genres of music. Musicians from Rowdy South and Father of Waters Pipes and Drums will accompany the dancers, although Rosehill says the troupe has embraced all music from middle

eastern to death metal.

Keeping a five-member core troupe, Rosehill and her band of Gypsies have performed throughout Mississippi and into Alabama, Louisiana and Florida. Following the Gulf Coast oil spill, the troupe did a “Shimmy for our Shores” fundraiser for the National Wildlife Federation. They’ve performed at Relay for Life and Art for Heart.

Last May, Rosehill and fellow troupe dancer Jamela Johnson traveled to Stonehenge for “dance meditation and personal enrichment.” Each October, the troupe loans itself to Rose Hill Cemetery for the yearly tours that introduce residents to the people who are buried there. Each year, they don brightly colored skirts and beaded jewelry, and act out the roles of the entire Mitchell family buried there.

“People had forgotten Kellie Mitchell, and I think we’ve brought her back to life,” Rosehill says. “And we continue to portray a part of history that was long forgotten. We need to keep passing on to our children the stories of these important people. We need to keep our town’s history alive.”

Dancer Michelle Joyner has been with Rosehill for nine years.

“It’s a creative outlet for me,” Joyner says. “I love the movements, the costuming, the history. It’s an art form that I really embrace and one that embraces me back. And I love that I don’t have to be a size 2 to be a belly dancer. They come in all shapes and sizes and ages. It’s what I do mississippilegends.com

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for me. Some people paint, some people garden. I belly dance.”

Stacey Jemison, who uses the stage name Iantha Star – began The Gypsy Navel Academy belly dance troupe to help her lose weight following the birth of her son. Having danced with Rosehill for 10 years, the offshoot troupe nearer to her NAS Meridian job afforded her more time to dance.

“It definitely helped me lose the 40 pounds I gained while I was pregnant,” she said. “I was having trouble making it to regular Queen City Gypsies practices when Irie was really small, so I started a lunchtime belly dance class three times a week at work. It definitely did the trick for losing weight. I have a dozen who come to class on a regular basis, mostly military spouses and civilian employees.”

And Rosehill has created an offshoot company from the dance pursuit. Dead Gypsy Designs (on Facebook) offers everything from belly dance attire to medieval cloaks. “It’s wearable art. Some is recycled, some is vintage.” The pieces are interesting and varied, she says, and they always reflect an ancient feel.

“That’s what this dance is about for me, what the Gypsy culture is about for me,” she says. “The Gypsies always intrigued me because they were a spectral nation. They kind of had their own definition of freedom. They didn’t pledge allegiance to a home country. It’s a romantic notion of what the Gypsy life must have been like.” L

the workshop:

Photo by Beau Gustafason

petite jamilla a

b

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t

Carrying on the legacy of her mother, Jamilla Rasa, Petite Jamilla has been belly dancing since childhood, turning professional at the age of 15 in both performing and instructing. Joining the world-famous Belly Dance Superstars troupe in 2004, she has performed in more than 20 countries worldwide, taught numerous workshops and starred in several instructional DVDs.

Some dance experience is required. Bring veils and zills. The workshop will cover elements of various styles, cabaret and tribal.

Workshop is from 2 to 4 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the ballroom of the Temple Theater, downtown Meridian.

The cost is $50 and includes a ticket to the anniversary show.

the anniversary show: Show begins at 7 p.m., also in the Temple ballroom. Tickets are available online at www.queencitygypsies.com.

Cost is $10 online and $15 at the door.

the benefits of belly dance – yip! yip!

Improved muscle tone Improved posture Increased coordination Increased flexibility Creates energy Improves circulation Promotes a more restful sleep Promotes body healing Reduces Stress Promotes Weight loss Prepares for childbirth

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feature

vegas with sweet tea

Choctaw Chief says resort improvements, customer service are priorities by jayne cannon photographs by marianne todd

G

lamour … glitz … gaming …

and the commercials were filmed in December.

affairs. Putting the resort’s finances in order has

And sweet tea?

Anderson was right in the middle of preparing

been a top priority, she says.

It might seem an odd quartet of

her first budget as chief, but she knew that the

The tribe’s resort operations are important,

concepts, but for Phyliss Anderson, it makes

resort, plagued by problems from the previous

Anderson says, not just to the Choctaw tribe,

perfect sense.

summer, needed a public relations boost. So

but to all Mississippians.

Anderson, chief of the Mississippi Band

she became the campaign’s unlikely star.

“The Resort and the Tribe play a very important

of Choctaw Indians since the fall of 2011, is

“I would take a break from budget meetings

role in the economy of Mississippi,” she says.

also the face of those “Vegas with Sweet Tea”

and go over to the resort and film my lines,”

“We have operations in different pockets

commercials for the tribe’s Pearl River Resort.

she says. “I was nervous about doing the

all over the state. We are providing jobs and

She’s quick to give credit for the ad campaign

commercials because it wasn’t something I had

opportunities for tribal members and non-

to the tribe’s marketing department.

ever done.”

Indians.”

“For the last few years our resort marketing

She hoped that “Vegas with Sweet Tea” would

Mississippi

has been outsourced, but we wanted to create

catch on, but she didn’t dream it would turn

(R-Winona), chair of the senate’s tourism

an in-house team. I wanted our marketing

her into a celebrity.

committee, seems to agree. “The new Chief

team employed by the resort because there is

“I cannot tell you the number of times I get

brings an exciting dimension to the Pearl River

no better way to know your product than live

stopped and somebody asks me if I’m the lady

Resort. In my meeting with her, I found her

with it every day,” Anderson, 51, says. “Our

with the sweet tea,” Anderson says. “It’s fun

to be receptive to ideas involving cultural and

resort marketing team deserves all the credit.

seeing and hearing the reaction from people. “

heritage tourism. Clearly she is an asset for the

They put together the campaign from start to

Anderson was ready for some fun. When she

Choctaw Nation and for Mississippi tourism.”

finish.”

took over on Oct. 4, Pearl River was reeling

Indeed, Anderson is quick to tout the tribe’s

quickly.

from an FBI raid and news that Moody’s had

contribution to Mississippi’s cultural heritage.

Anderson took office in October, becoming the

downgraded $200 million in casino bonds to

“We are part of the state’s identity,” she says.

tribe’s fourth elected leader and its first female

junk status. Anderson says she’s looking ahead.

“We’ve always been here. We have a lot to share

chief. Right away, the marketing department

A new debt agreement has been signed and

– our culture, our traditions.”

started planning the Pearl River campaign,

she’s pushing for greater transparency in tribal

Anderson has always been here, too. She grew

The

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campaign

may. june 2012

came

together

Sen.

Lydia

Chassaniol

Chief Phyliss Anderson is pushing for greater transparency of tribal affairs and boosting the tribe’s resort image. Putting finances back in order has been a priority during her first 100 days as the first female chief and the fourth elected leader of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. mississippilegends.com

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 Anderson said she thought the tribe's new "Vegas with Sweet Tea" ad campaign would catch on quickly, but she never dreamed it would turn her into a celebrity. People frequently stop her to ask if she's the lady with the sweet tea, she says.

“There are misconceptions.

There are people who think we still live in teepees.” up on the reservation, leaving to go to college

The tribe is eager to share its culture, Anderson

resort provides that venue and we are pleased

and become a teacher. She’d always been part of

says.

that people want to come and experience the

Choctaw language and tradition, but her love of

“Cultural tourism is such a hot buzz word these

shows.”

the culture around her was ignited during her

days, but we’ve been living it for many years

Her first months in office have been a whirlwind,

years as a student teacher.

now, she says. “We have visitors from all over

she admits. But she relishes certain moments.

She realized then, she says, that the Choctaw

the world who come to visit our reservation and

Her election as the tribe’s first female chief is

story is “interwoven through our basket-making,

learn about the Choctaw tribe. They come to see

something she never dreamed of when she was

our drum-making, our stickball, our beadwork,

our museum and visit the Choctaw Indian Fair

growing up, she says, but she hopes it may inspire

our language and stories.” And not only had

to see stickball and our tribal artisans.”

young people to get involved in tribal affairs.

she become passionate about her culture, she

But for many Mississippians, it’s the “Vegas

“This election and the historic nature was never

realized the importance of passing it to the

with Sweet Tea” campaign that defines the tribe.

about me, but about the people,” Anderson says.

next generation – and not just Choctaw youth.

So Anderson says that resort improvements are a

“I am so glad I am a part of it and that I can serve

She wants all of Mississippi to understand the

priority.

in the role to lead my people.”

contribution of the Choctaw tribe.

“It is important that we continue to offer new

She says she has accomplished the goals she set

Anderson says she is often surprised at how little

and exciting features for our resort guests. Of

for her first 100 days in office, but that doesn’t

even those who live in central Mississippi really

course we want to entice new visitors but we

mean she’s slowing down.

know about their Native American neighbors.

also want to welcome back old friends,” she says.

“At the end of this first year, I want to look

“There are misconceptions,” Anderson says.

“The most important thing for me is to continue

back and see that we have been able to make a

“There are people who think we still live in

to grow our customer service. I want people to

positive change and that we’ve made day-to-day

teepees.”

feel welcome when they walk into any of our

life a little easier for our Choctaw families,” she

Others think the tribe is defined by its casinos.

resort properties, and I want them to leave happy

says. “I want to say ‘Look at what we’ve done to

And still others, Anderson says, don’t even

with their experience.”

raise the standard of living on the reservation.’

know the Choctaws exist, even though the

To that end, visitors are likely to see

But most importantly I want to look back and

10,000-member tribe is scattered among 35,000

improvements in casino offerings.

see that we did it together -- united as one tribe,

acres and eight reservation communities.

“We will continue to bring world-renown

one people.”

Perhaps that’s changing. Heather Knight, who

artists to The Arena at the Golden Moon,”

Making life better for the Choctaw tribe has

works in the tribe’s public information office, says

Anderson says. “Not very often can you find an

great personal meaning too, she adds.

people stop by daily for tours of the reservation.

outlet for top name entertainment in the middle

“This is my home,” she says. “I never considered

That’s always welcome, she adds.

of what is considered mostly a rural area. Our

going anywhere else.”

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may. june 2012

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life, artist profile

full circle

Native Choctaw returns to the past to give to the future

"You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round..... The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.

Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours ...." by joe lee photographs by marianne todd

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may. june 2012

ďƒŹ Thallis Lewis didn’t begin to appreciate her Choctaw culture until she was in her 30s.

Now, she works to preserve her cultural heritage by teaching Choctaw arts to younger generations.

mississippilegends.com

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beadwork, reconstructing it and then re-creating pieces in her own design. • Lewis’ baskets and beadwork will be on display at the 2012 Choctaw Indian Fair July 11-14.

 TOP TO BOTTOM: Lewis’ skilled hands create detailed baskets and beadwork in the tradition of her forefathers. • Her traditional Choctaw dress is adorned by beaded emblems, which Lewis learned from taking apart

A

s her delicate fingers weave reeds into baskets and tiny beads into detailed art, Thallis Lewis knows that with each thread of work she is preserving a skill that can’t be taught from textbooks.

“I can’t go back and ask my mom for stories of the old days,” said Lewis, who retired as Director of Cultural Affairs for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. “I was about 30 when culture became important to me.

Culture may become much more important to our young people when they get older, but it’s important to teach it to them when they’re young so they’ll have a knowledge of it.”

As a child, Lewis had never known any other way of life.

“My parents were in the fields picking cotton when I was young,” she said. Born on the reservation in 1944 and growing up in the Neshoba County community of Bogue Chitto, “I spoke only Choctaw. My dad and the landlord were able to communicate in some English. I remember being in the fields at age six by 7 a.m. each day. We were out there all day. I did not know what money was until later in life. Growing up the way I did made me strong.”

Although Lewis continued to work in the fields through her teens, she graduated from Pearl River High School’s

20

“I bought a piece of beadwork and wanted

to know how it was

made. I took it apart and reconstructed

it. I saw how the

designs were made

and came up with

my own.” may. june 2012

mississippilegends.com

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For decades Thallis Lewis has been creating baskets and beadwork in the tradition of her forefathers. Her work is a draw at the yearly Choctaw Indian Fair, one of the most popular draws across the Southeast region.

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may. june 2012

inaugural class of 1964 and earned a degree in education from Tougaloo College in Jackson. One of her high school classmates was the man she would marry, Woodlin Lewis, who became an accomplished drum maker.

Forty-eight years later, the couple passes on their cultural traditions to their four grandchildren and eight greatgrandchildren.

“My grandson, at age four, was already chanting and dancing and playing stickball,” she said. “My nineteenmonth-old great-grandson is already hopping around the dance floor.”

Chief Phyliss Anderson, who became the first female leader in the history of the tribe last fall, has known the Lewises for years and served with Woodlin on the Choctaw Tribal Council. “They are an inspiration for me,” Anderson said. “They want to not only celebrate and respect the Choctaw culture, but keep it alive by passing their skills and knowledge to our young generation.”

Lewis’ deep interest in Choctaw culture started when she was a student teacher at Bogue Chitto Elementary School, translating Choctaw to children. There, she saw basket weaving demonstrations and was so curious of it, she became a student along with her students. Although basket weaving was her first foray into her tribal culture, Lewis found she liked beading even more.

“I bought a piece of beadwork and wanted to know how it was made,” Lewis said. “I took it apart and reconstructed it. I saw how the designs were made and came up with my own. Then I began to display my own work at the Choctaw Indian Fair. It was a small fair then and started at the high school. There were family booths, and dance and stickball was the only entertainment.”

Today, the Choctaw Indian Fair

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is one of the most popular draws across the southeastern region of the country.

“It’s all over the reservation, all over the Southeast, and all over Indian country,” said Heather Knight, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians The 2012 fair is set for July 11-14 and will feature food, live music, games, dance and expressions of the Choctaw Indian culture and traditions through arts and crafts.

To attract the attention of youngsters, Lewis has given talks about Choctaw culture and traditions and has conducted seminars about everything from cooking to dancing to beading. Brochures published and distributed by tribal leadership are helpful, she says, but it’s her goal to write or collaborate on a book

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which would serve as a permanent document of the tribe’s past.

Malcolm White, executive director of the Mississippi Arts Commission, met Lewis in the late 1990s. When White and a friend paddled the entire 431 miles of the Pearl River, starting from the Choctaw mound at Nanih Waiya, Lewis gathered tribal elders to give White and his co-pilot a spiritual blessing.

“The Choctaws are Mississippi’s original culture and do great work,” said White, who was present in 2003 when Lewis received the Governor’s Award for Leadership in Mississippi Heritage from then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove. “The Mississippi story is based in music, art, literature, civil rights, and so much more, and the Governor’s Awards honors and

tells the stories of those who’ve dedicated their lives to their causes and cultures.”

The tribe’s commitment to honoring its roots fits well with the move to spark Mississippi tourism by celebrating the state’s cultural resources.

“Cultural tourism is such a hot topic right now, and our tribe is certainly an embodiment of that idea,” Anderson said. “I see more and more of our younger generation becoming not only interested but involved in the arts, crafts and culture of our tribe. We start very young with our children, teaching them the ways of the Choctaw people. There really seems to be a spark, and I am so happy that our traditions are alive and strong.” L

Want to go?

The 2012 Choctaw Indian Fair is scheduled for July 11-14 in Philadelphia.

For more information, visit www. Choctawindianfair.com. mississippilegends.com

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Words and Photographs by Billy Dugger

Former Gulf Coast girlfriend recalls glory days with the King of Rock 'N Roll

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June Juanico is still in love with music more than 50 years after her whirlwind romance with Elvis Presley.

She is seen here with her musician grandson, Dallas Gollott.

Above RIGHT: Jaunico was Elvis’ Gulf Coast girlfriend. mississippilegends.com

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A young and on-the-rise Elvis Presley came into June Juanico’s life when she was just 17, leaving an indelible mark on the impressionable teenager that continues to resonate a half-century later.

This summer, 35 years after his death, Juanico will travel from her Biloxi home to Graceland as an invited speaker for Elvis Week. There, she’ll recall those heady days when they were in love and the brash young singer was beginning his rocket ride to stardom.

Juanico’s time with Elvis began in the summer of 1955, while Elvis was on break during a performance at the Airman’s Club at Biloxi’s Keesler Air Force Base. The young singer, who had spotted Juanico walking by, reached out and took hold of her arm and asked,”You aren’t leaving, are you?”

She wasn’t. She was headed back to her seat to catch the singer’s next set. He asked her to stay around and show him some Biloxi sights. She did and that first “date” didn’t end until six the next morning, she said. They had spent the night riding the Biloxi strip (U.S. Highway 90), sipping Cokes and hugging and kissing at the end of a moonlit pier.

Thus began Juanico’s romance with a 20-year-old Elvis Presley, the man who would one day hold the record for having the most Top 40 hits and an artist who would be inducted into the Hall of Fame for rock, country and gospel music. Five decades later, she easily recalls those memories.

From their first meeting in 1955 to their last in 1957, Elvis would repeatedly return to the Mississippi Gulf Coast between concert tours, spending time with Juanico both there and at his Memphis home.

On a vacation to Memphis with friends, Juanico went by the Presley home so her friends could see where he lived. They had been told that he was out of town, but when June peered over a fence to see the swimming pool under construction in the

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backyard, she felt someone’s hands around her waist pulling her away from the fence, she said.

Turning around, she saw it was Elvis. She said he seemed startled to see her, and he asked, “June, what are you doing in

June Juanico, who dated Elvis for two years as he rocketed to stardom, says life around the rising musician was exciting, unpredictable and busy.

Memphis?”

After explaining her presence there, he said, “I’m not going to let you out of my sight.” He meant it.

That week with Elvis was filled with trips to the movies, to the Memphis Fairgrounds midway and on thrilling motorcycle rides on the Mississippi River’s Mud Island.

Juanico said she got to know his parents, Gladys and Vernon Presley. Since Elvis’ mother objected to being called Mrs. Presley and asked Juanico to find another name, she settled on Lovie for Gladys Presley’s middle name, Love. Juanico said Elvis’ mother seemed to like her and they got along well.

Life around Elvis was exciting, unpredictable and busy, she said.

On one visit to Memphis, Elvis received a call that the Cadillac Eldorado he had ordered had arrived at a dealership in Texas.

He took Juanico to the airport, and for her

first plane ride they flew to Houston to pick up the 1956 white convertible. They drove back to Memphis with the top down, she said.

In the fall of 1956, Elvis asked her to accompany him to New York, where he was scheduled to appear on Ed Sullivan’s TV variety show. But she declined the offer, saying she was tired from weeks of visiting and needed to get some rest at home in Biloxi.

Juanico said she arrived at home to a new television set – the family’s first – purchased by her mother to watch Elvis’ performance.

That memory became iconic for Juanico, she said.

As his fame grew, Elvis had a harder time getting away from his growing multitude of fans. To give him privacy, Juanico said her family found a secluded home for him in Ocean Springs.

Jaunico said of all the questions asked about her relationship with Elvis, she’s most often asked if Elvis was a good kisser.

“Elvis had the softest lips,” Juanico said.

“He asked me, ‘Who taught you to kiss?’ and I told him, ‘I think I’m learning right now from you.’”

Elvis was also incredibly kind, she said.

“Dating Elvis totally changed my life,” she said. “I was Elvis’ Biloxi girlfriend. He was my first love and everyone has a story about their first love – a love you never forget – and when your first love is Elvis Presley, well …”

Juanico said she doesn’t doubt that Elvis loved her, too. He once told her that he could not get married right away because he had promised his manager, Col. Tom Parker, that he would not marry for at least three years. She said Parker knew Elvis was smitten with her and she believes he secretly plotted to keep them apart by insisting that Elvis date flashy women for publicity.

Elvis warned his girlfriend to not believe what she heard and saw in the media

“

He said, ‘A lot of things are happening, baby. Come back to Memphis with me.’ … I last saw him on the steps of that train car as it pulled away.”

because he had no control over the press and what it reported, she said. The performances on the Sullivan show (he made three in four months) launched Elvis to national stardom. He had already received his first gold record for “Heartbreak Hotel” and things had vastly changed since the couple’s first meeting two years earlier.

After the Sullivan appearances, Juanico didn’t talk to Elvis, she said. After missing his calls, she eventually grew tired of waiting and began dating others.

Then Juanico received a telegram out of the blue asking her to meet Elvis at Union Station in New Orleans. The telegram said, “Meet me. Love, E.P.” “I went to New Orleans to meet his train, where he had a layover,” she said. “He had a Pullman car all to himself, and I thought we would have some time together.” But she had missed the layover and his train was about to leave.

“He said, ‘A lot of things are happening, baby. Come go back to Memphis with me,’” she said. Juanico turned him down, telling Elvis she had become engaged. “I was upset.

My pride was hurt.”

She felt the jolt of the train and the wail of the horn as it began to move and ran to get off the train with Elvis on her heels.

“I was standing on the platform and he was on the steps of that train car,” she said.

“He was just staring at me in disbelief. I could not believe what was happening either.

He looked at me with a stunned expression and said, ‘You’re kidding.’ I wasn’t. I last saw him standing on the steps of that train car as it pulled away. If I had had 15 minutes more with him, my life might have been a lot different.”

The next day, Juanico picked up a newspaper to see a photograph of Elvis signing papers purchase Graceland.

“I looked at the picture in the paper and

just started crying because he looked so sad,” she said. “I regret never telling him how badly he had hurt me. He had put me on hold too long while I was seeing pictures of him in the papers with showgirls. That did it for me.”

After that, Juanico said she never went to see Elvis’ movies and would change the station if one of his songs came on the radio.

She didn’t see him again until a chance meeting in Memphis in 1963. He invited her to come to Graceland the next day.

When she arrived, the guard at the gate told her Elvis wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t accepting guests.

She returned to Biloxi and did not see him again until 1969, when he was performing at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. There, after the show, they talked for a half hour, reminiscing “about the good old times.” L

Did you know?

Before Elvis’ rise to stardom he frequented Biloxi, playing shows there and visiting his girlfriend, June Juanico. While his managers wanted him to date flashy women for publicity, Elvis was more of a down to earth guy who liked posing with his fans. In this photo, Mary Helen Bounds made a lifetime memory at the Biloxi batting cages.

“We heard Elvis was at the batting cages on the beach, so I ran down there to get a picture with him. I was 14 and it was a very exciting moment, a lifetime memory,” she said. Years later at a 1972 concert, “He was tiny as an ant from our seats and all you could hear was screaming, so I guess I was lucky to have had that day and photo.”

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ALL AMERICAN FIDDLER: MARK O’CONNOR Sat., June 2, 2012 � 7:30 p.m.

Mark O’Connor is an American bluegrass, jazz, country and classical violinist fiddler, composer and music teacher. O’Connor’s music is wide-ranging and critically acclaimed, and he has received numerous awards for both his Colman Pearce playing and his composition. As a teenager he Guest Conductor won national string instrument championships for his virtuoso playing of the guitar and mandolin as well as on the fiddle. His mentors include Texas old-time fiddler Benny Thomasson, French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli and Mark O’Connor guitarist Chet Atkins.

Featured Soloist

SYMPHONY FUN FEST

Tues., June 26, 2012 � 10:00 a.m.

It’s Free! Call 601-693-3595 to register.

Join us for this year’s Fun Fest celebration, sponsored by the Meridian Symphony Association.

Bring your children to enjoy a day of music education and fun. Best of all, it’s completely free! The fun lasts from 10:00 am until 12:30 p.m. Call our education director Susie Johnson at 601-693-3595 to register.

at the MSU Riley Center TICKETS: (601) 696-2200 MSO: (601) 693-2224

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The songs of

Souther Mac McAnally

Lenny Le Blanc

Teddy Gentry

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rn rockers McAnally, Gentry and LeBlanc show the Heart Behind the Music

by stephen corbett Photographs by Stephen Poff

ďƒŤ Lenny Leblanc, right, and Teddy Gentry, along with Mac MacAnally will perform at Songwriter's Night, which opens the Jimmie Rodger's Memorial Festival in Meridian on May 16. The trio has deep ties to each other and to Rodgers, the Father of Country Music.

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I

t’s a fitting addition to the yearly tribute to Jimmie Rodgers, the Father of Country Music, the singer/songwriter whose heart fueled the music that inspired the world.

On May 16, The Heart Behind The Music show comes to the Temple Theater in Meridian as the opening act of the 59th annual Jimmie Rodgers Festival. The show is part of the festival’s Songwriter’s Night and will include Lenny LeBlanc, Teddy Gentry, and Mac McAnally, three artists with deep connections.

As a member of country super-group Alabama, Teddy Gentry recorded McAnally’s “Old Flame” in 1980, which became Alabama’s third consecutive No. 1 song on Billboard’s Country Singles Chart and McAnally’s first No. 1 song as a songwriter. And McAnally co-wrote his 2009 hit “You First” with LeBlanc.

They also have deep connections to Jimmie Rodgers, but in entirely different ways.

“I’ve been a Jimmie Rodgers fan all of my life,” LeBlanc said. “I was introduced to him through TV specials that I saw growing up. I loved the way he wrote about the common man and the common man’s struggles. He was definitely a pioneer of songwriting.”

Gentry also became a fan at an early age. “My parents introduced us to his music, and it had a huge impact on me. He was one of the pioneers who forged ahead on his own track. We did that in Alabama.

We wanted to be a band, even though that wasn’t done in country music at the time. But you take your influences and move forward on your own path.”

McAnally, a Mississippi native and four-time CMA Musician of the Year, grew up with a history teacher for a father. “Mississippi folks are proud of Mississippi folks, so I definitely knew who he was. My dad was also an antique collector, so he had a bunch of old 78s from Jimmie Rodgers. Growing up, it was one of the only things I heard aside from gospel or classical music. He was really out there by himself, being at the inception of country music.”

Rodgers recorded his first songs, “The Soldier’s Sweetheart” and “Sleep, Baby, Sleep,” in October 1927, in Bristol, Tenn. The following month, he entered a studio in Camden, N.J., to record four more songs.

One of those songs would become one of the most enduring songs in the history of popular music. “Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)” has since been covered by countless artists including Waylon Jennings, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dwight Yoakam, the Felice Brothers, Townes Van Zandt and Memphis Slim.

“Spare time is our greatest export. Mississippi is 50th in a lot, but we’re first in the creative arts,” McAnally said. “Country, blues, rock, soul – they all come from the same place. They’re all tapped out of the same thing – the same human experiences – and apparently that’s not too far below the surface in Mississippi.”

McAnally is a perfect example of this, having written songs for, produced, and performed with artists from numerous genres.

“When I left home, my mama told me ‘Make use of yourself.’ But she said it like I wasn’t going to,” he said. “I’ve always tried to live my life that way and do whatever is called for - songwriter, singer, musician,

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Teddy Gentry, Mac McAnally and Lenny LeBlanc on piano, are three artists who were deeply influenced by Jimmie Rodgers, the Father of Country Music.

In their Heart Behind the Music tour, they'll talk about the stories behind their hit songs and perform as the opening act of the Jimmie Rodgers Memorial Festival.

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producer, whatever. I’ve always tried to be of use, but I also know the difference between being of use and being used.”

Gentry says The Heart Behind The Music show is one of his favorite events. “You get to explore the creative side of the song,” he said. “You never really know what a song is about. It could be about an old love or somebody’s dog. You don’t always hear that story on the radio.”

LeBlanc, who has written hits on the country, pop, and Christian music charts is also excited about the show. “Great songs are timeless.

I have younger musicians telling me that they’re listening to the same things I did when I was their age. It’s a great thing, because I feel that

a lot of times in recent years, the art of songwriting has gone by the wayside.”

During The Heart Behind The Music, an acoustic concert, each singer/songwriter will talk about the inspiration and back story of his song, followed by its performance, allowing audience members to get to know the stories behind the hit music on Billboard Country and Gospel charts.

Tickets to The Heart Behind The Music show on May 16 are available at the Temple Theater box office, the Jimmie Rodgers Museum, and online at www.itickets.com. L

did you know?

Mac McAnally, Teddy Gentry and Lenny LeBlanc will be featured against the backdrop of Meridian's Jimmie Rodgers Festival – the longest-running music festival in the state - for SportSouth network's popular television series, "The Right Place with Kevin Sport. " The show is featured in more than nine million homes throughout the Southeast United States via cable and satellite.

Jimmie Rodgers Festival schedule May 17 – Traditional Country Night featuring Daryle Singletary at Dumont Plaza May 18 – American Music Symposium, MSU Riley Center; Juke Joint Night at Rhythm & Brews, Weidmann's Restaurant, Brickhouse Bar & Grill, Echo Lounge and Dumont Plaza May 19 – Talent Competition featuring country and gospel music at Dumont Plaza, 8 a.m. to noon; Jimmie's Jam featuring Blue Mountain, The Cedric Burnside Project, Michael Grimm and Alan Sibley & The Magnolia Ramblers, 4 to 11 p.m.; State of Legends with Wynonna & The Big Noise at MSU Riley Center, 7:30 p.m.

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ďƒŹ Sylvester Hoover relaxes in his "Back in the Day" museum, where artifacts of the Mississippi Delta can be seen while hearing his stories of how the blues came to be.

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Exploring the “Safe Haven” of the blues Greenwood’s Delta Blues Legends tours offers the real deal Words by Riley Manning Photographs by Mike Barrett mississippilegends.com

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W

illiam Faulkner famously said, “In order to understand the world, one must first understand a place like Mississippi.”

And truly understanding Mississippi isn’t always easy. It is hard to know what to feel about a place whose triumphs are so tangled up with its sins, perhaps in no instance more so than in the story of the blues. Like any great story, there are many versions and angles, but luckily, there is a keeper of the legend in Greenwood.

Meet Sylvester Hoover, owner and operator of Delta Blues Legends tours.

“I started the tour in the early ‘90s,” Hoover said, “mainly

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Robert Johnson attractions at first, but as the Blues got famous it just … grew.”

Hoover’s three-and-a-half hour tour begins with a walk through Baptist Town, the historically black neighborhood in Greenwood and “safe haven” for the blues. It was here that artists like Robert Johnson and David “Honeyboy” Edwards hid indoors all day to work on their music while others worked in the cotton fields. Hoover knows their every step, from the street corners where they used to play, to where Johnson was first seen after his apocryphal deal with the devil, and to the authentic location of his death and burial.

Guests will also visit Hoover’s own “Back in the Day” museum, which was opened by Hoover’s wife, Mary Hoover, in 1999. The museum is furnished by elders in the community who donated their antiques to Mary Hoover when they moved away or died.

From old work equipment to handmade items, the “Back in the Day” museum paints an effective picture of the rigorous labor carried out in the cotton fields Granted, it is impossible to talk about the Mississippi Delta blues without mentioning Johnson, but what makes Hoover’s tour so exceptional is his near-scientific understanding of the Delta’s economic and social climate. A market for the blues would have

been non-existent if not for the reign of King Cotton, and the hopeful spirit of the music would never have been born without its harsh conditions.

“The land made the music and the music made the land,” Hoover said. “They couldn’t have happened without each other.”

Hoover himself is just as much a part of the tour as the attractions. Hoover’s father, born in 1910, moved to Greenwood from Lexington in 1929 to sell moonshine whiskey. Hoover was born in 1957, just outside of Greenwood on Money Road. He has always lived in the Delta, attending Mississippi Delta Junior College in 1978. Like many African Americans, members of

 Hoover gives a tour among the antiques in his "Back in the Day" museum.  Tourists leave the gravesite of legendary bluesman Robert Johnson, who spent his time hiding indoors to work on his music while community members worked the cotton fields.

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“

Truly understanding Mississippi isn’t always easy. It is hard to know what to feel about a place whose triumphs are so tangled up with its sins, perhaps in no instance more so than in the story of the blues.”

 Hoover's tour begins with a walking tour of Baptist Town. The area served as a filming center for the movie "The Help."

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Hoover’s family moved to Chicago to finish their education, but Hoover stayed in the Delta and moved to Baptist Town.

“I want to preserve African American history in the Delta because there has to be someone around to talk about it. That’s how I learned, from the stories of older people in the community. They had lots of wisdom about the Delta.”

Delta history is a topic that is at times so gritty that it is uncomfortable to discuss. Hoover’s tour reflects this, and includes the story of Emmett Till and Bryant’s grocery store.

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On a late August day in 1955 , 14-year-old Till, who came to Mississippi from Chicago to visit relatives, allegedly whistled at Carolyn Bryant, who owned a small grocery store with her husband. A few days later, Bryant’s husband and his halfbrother abducted Till from his uncle’s home, beat him, shot him and threw his body in the river. The two were charged with Till’s murder, and even though they were acquitted, the trial was the first media frenzy of the Civil Rights movement, in addition to the first time multiple white citizens had been charged with murdering a black person in the Delta. Hoover said that when Southerners take the tour, they often know most of the story, but it still makes them cringe. The store, now dilapidated and overgrown, is testament to a history that is hard to own up to.

(Using the protection of double jeopardy, the two men admitted to the murder and described it in detail after the trial.)

After the on-foot portion of the tour, Hoover transports his guests to the other sites in a comfortable Delta Legends Tours SUV, narrating the finer points of the Delta along the way. Other attractions include Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church and the residential areas of Baptist Town that were used in the filming of “The Help.”

The producers of “The Help” worked closely with Hoover. “I worked mainly with the location manager,” Hoover said, “finding places, say a church or a shotgun house, that would fit their scenes.”

“The Help” has brought a lot of attention to Greenwood, Baptist Town in particular. The film has helped catch Baptist Town up to the rest of Greenwood because it has garnered a large amount of attention from outsiders. “They don’t look down at Baptist Town now; they look at it, for its history,” Hoover said.

Hoover also runs a small convenience store right next to the “Back in the Day” museum, and a restaurant – Hoover’s Country Kitchen, which features recipes and cooking by none other than Mary Hoover.

“I show them the sites of the Delta and then bring them to her for a taste of the Delta,” Hoover said.

Hoover gives between six and 10 tours a month and has had visitors from all over the world.

“Even had a group from Iran, who didn’t want anyone but me,” Hoover said.

Hoover has also toured, among others, the trainers of Muhammad Ali, the cast of “The Help” and even Eric Clapton, “But he spent most of his time at the bar,” Hoover said with a grin. However, Hoover’s favorite guest is Randy Winston, a famous Blues artist who plays exotic venues from California to South Africa.

“I liked Randy because Baptist Town seemed a lot like places he had been to.” L

Want to go?

Hoover’s tour costs $75 per person, $45 for ten or more, and he gives special rates for large groups. He can be contacted through his website www.hoovertours. homestead.com or by phone at (662) 302-5370.

TOP TO BOTTOM: A scene inside Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church. • Relics in the "Back in the Day" museum. • Bryant's Grocery, where Emmitt Till allegedly whistled at a white woman and sparked the first arrest of white on black crime. • The "Back in the Day" museum is frequented by tourists to Baptist Town.

• A mural depicts legendary bluesman Robert Johnson's deal with the devil.

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ďƒŤ Hoover poses for a group shot during one of his tours. mississippilegends.com

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growing up

by stephen corbett

T

he story of a young Elvis Presley walking into the Memphis offices of Sam Phillips’ Sun Records in August 1953 has become something of an American folklore tale.

When receptionist Marion Keisker asked what kind of music he sang, Presley responded, “I sing all kinds.” When she asked him about who he sounded like, he said, “I don’t sound like nobody.” It has become such a huge part of the Elvis Presley legend that for many this is where the American icon’s story begins.

But the real Elvis story begins much earlier in the unlikely rural side of Tupelo. Born on Jan. 8, 1935, Elvis didn’t move to Memphis until he was 13 years old, and according to historian and author Roy Turner, Elvis had already developed his talent before the move, despite his young age.

“Without a doubt, Elvis was already Elvis before he left Tupelo,” Turner said. “He had performed everywhere.

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He had played on the local radio station WELO, at talent competitions like the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. He would bring his guitar to school on a regular basis.”

The two-room house in which he was born was built in 1934 and is the focal point of the Elvis Presley Birthplace and Park near downtown Tupelo. The clapboard house was built by his father, Vernon, his uncle, Vester, and his grandfather, Jesse, with $180 that Vernon had borrowed from his boss at the diary where he worked.

“They lost the house in 1938 when the house was foreclosed on because Vernon failed to pay back the money he had borrowed,” said Blair Hill, assistant director at the Birthplace.

In those days, the house was situated on the poorer side of town where sharecroppers lived.

“In Elvis’ days, they were mostly good, Christian folk,” Turner said. “They were poor, but primarily hardworking

Cover Story

ďƒŤ Before Elvis ever moved to Memphis he had developed his talent, playing on local radio station WELO and at talent competitions like the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show.

Elvis image used by permission, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.

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people. The people below the highway were far wealthier – doctors and lawyers.”

Elvis’ lifelong friend, Guy Harris, frequents the Birthplace and draws attention merely by sitting in the shade with his bag of Elvis memorabilia.

“Elvis and his twin brother Jesse were delivered in that house by the same doctor that delivered me in 1938. Jesse was born about 30 minutes before Elvis. He was stillborn,” Harris said.

According to Hill, the house has seen very few changes over the years. The ceiling and roof have been replaced, two lights have been added and air conditioning was installed a few years ago to accommodate tourists during blazing Tupelo summers. It still doesn’t have running water.

Following the loss of their home, the Presleys made several moves within Tupelo and East Tupelo, most of which were influential in Elvis’ musical education. The family attended the Assembly of God church, which is also situated on the grounds of the 15-acre park, just in view of the original two-room house.

“The sermon is very musical. It would have been the first place that Elvis would have seen this kind of movement and learned about harmony,” Turner said. “In addition to that, they listened to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio. Later on, the Presleys moved

into one of the black communities in Tupelo. This is where Elvis would have heard the blues and the inspirational gospel singing of the black churches. You can hear all of this in his music.”

While living in one of the black communities of East Tupelo, Elvis became friends with Sam Bell, who introduced him to the black churches and the blues.

“During segregation, Elvis and Sam would go the Lyric Theater together,” Turner said. “Sam would go through the colored-only entrance and Elvis would go through the front door. Once the movie started, Elvis would climb over the railing and up to the balcony, which is where the black section was, so they could watch the movie together. Sam also introduced him to Bo Clanton, who was a bit older than both of them. Bo is the one who took Elvis to Shake Town to see and meet Muddy Waters. Shake Town was the rowdier black community in Tupelo, and it was very odd for a white kid to be there. Elvis was accepted. Everyone loved him because they knew his heart was pure.”

The bedrock of Elvis’ musical education, however, came from the little clapboard church.

“The first chords Elvis learned how to play on the guitar would have been in that church from Preacher Frank Smith,” Turner said.

“In fact, the only Grammys he won were for gospel recordings.

photography by marianne todd  Guy Harris talks with visitors from Alabama and New Jersey at the Elvis Presley Birthplace and Park. Harris was Elvis' lifelong friend and usually draws the attention of visitors with his stories and personal Elvis memorabilia.

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“

Bo is the one who took Elvis to Shake Town to see and meet Muddy Waters. Shake Town was the rowdier black community in Tupelo, and it was very odd for a white kid to be there. Elvis was accepted. Everyone loved him because they knew his heart was pure.”

 LEFT: The neighborhood gang when Elvis was a child. Elvis is pictured standing on the left. His friend, Guy Harris, is seated to his right. RIGHT: Elvis and Guy Harris at Elvis' first Memphis home.

 The Assembly of God Church Elvis and his family attended would have provided his first gospel influences. Despite his stardom, the only Grammys he won were for his strong gospel music.

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“

 The counter at Tupelo Hardware, where Elvis bought his first guitar (he nearly got a bicycle instead).

At the time, Elvis would primarily only sing two songs and ‘Old Shep’ was the one he sang most often.

He sang it so much that some of his classmates would split whenever they saw him coming with his guitar, because they knew that's what he was going to sing.”

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The reach and the range of his gospel music is amazing. You can feel it. It just makes you come alive.”

At the age of 10, Elvis made his first public performance in a talent show at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show in Tupelo.

“The manager of WELO agreed to let Elvis participate in the talent show,” Turner said. “But only if he agreed not to sing ‘Old Shep.’ At the time, Elvis would primarily only sing two songs and ‘Old Shep’ was the one he sang most often. He sang it so much that some of his classmates would split whenever they saw him coming with his guitar, because they knew that’s what he was going to sing.

It wasn’t that they didn’t like him or the song, it’s just because they heard him singing it so much.

“Anyway, the talent contest took place before Elvis had received his first guitar. Because he was so short, he had to stand on a chair to reach the microphone. And what does he end up singing? ‘Old Shep.’ He ended up coming in at fifth place, which probably has

 Guy Harris reminisces hanging out with Elvis at Johnnie's Drive-in.  The "Elvis Booth" at Johnnie's Drive-in was said to have been Elvis' favorite booth.

less to do with how well he did and more to do with the fact that he sang the one song he’d been told not to sing. That was pretty brave for a fifth grader.

“Years later, Elvis ended up recording ‘Old Shep’ for one of his albums. He called up the manager of WELO and told him, ‘I just cut a record of ‘Old Shep,’ and it sold a million copies.’ That was very indicative of Elvis’ sense of humor. He loved to rib people.”

The following January, Elvis received his first guitar for his eleventh birthday. His mother Gladys took him to Tupelo Hardware to pick out a bicycle. When they arrived a rifle caught his eye, but his mother coerced him into choosing the guitar instead.

Harris remembers Elvis’ attachment to the guitar. “They were living on Berry Street when he got that little old guitar. I’d go over to his house, and he’d be sitting on the porch with it asking everyone, ‘Y’all wanna hear me sing ‘Old Shep?’” And I’d say, ‘Let’s go to the swimming hole, it’s getting late.’ And he’d say,

‘Just one more time.’

“But that wasn’t the only thing he was into. He was also into funny books. He loved them. He was more into them than I was because I was a few years younger. I just always wanted to play instead. But we’d always come to some sort of agreement. Well, being the youngest, I’d usually just end up doing whatever he wanted.”

The pair loved to sneak off to the swimming hole in the wooded area off Reese Street, Harris said.

“We’d get an old apple or orange crate and turn it into a wagon.

We’d take that around with us everywhere in case we found some scrap metal or something else that we could use, he said.

“One day, O’Dell, Elvis, and I were down at the swimming hole, and on the way back, we found a mess of poke salad. O’Dell and Elvis decided to cut a bunch of leaves off of it and put it in a sack, so they could take it home and butter up their parents with it. cont'd on page 48

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Representing Arrists of Mississippi

122 W MAIN ST. TUPELO MS 662.205.0351 THECARONGALLERY.COM

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“Well, Gladys cooked it up, and about two weeks later, she came out to where me and Elvis were playing and asked us if we remembered where we’d found that poke salad. We told her we did. So, she got a couple of sacks, and we went off to get some.

“Now to get down to the where it was growing, you had to pass through a barbed wire fence. In them days, women always wore dresses or skirts. So we had to hold apart the barbed wire to keep it from ripping her dress. Elvis says to me, ‘I’ll hold up the top wire, Mama can steady the second one, and you get down there and pull down the bottom one.’

“She had her dress wadded up with her hands and bunched up between her legs. She looks down at me as she’s about to go through it, and says, ‘Boy, if you turn that fence a-loose, I’m gonna beat you dead.’ Of course I didn’t do it, but I was grinning because all I could think of was how funny that would be if I did let it go.”

In mid-1946, Vernon moved the family from East Tupelo to Tupelo.

“Elvis growing up in East Tupelo was idyllic, even though they were poor,” Turner said. “It was a sharing community. Everyone looked after one another. Nobody kidded Elvis about his singing in East Tupelo. Things were different for him in Tupelo. There’s a class picture from when Elvis was in the sixth grade, and he’s the only one in overalls. His clothes were always clean, but they were definitely hand-me-downs and didn’t always fit properly. I’ll put it like this, Elvis was the guy that if you wrote ‘Susie loves Elvis’ on the chalkboard, she’d be pissed at you. It was the first time he’d experienced rejection, but it didn’t daunt him one iota.”

The Presleys left Tupelo for Memphis in 1948 in what Turner

calls “a mass exodus of people looking for work.”

“My aunt left with them to Memphis back in ‘48 when things had dried up,” Harris said. “We always stayed in contact with them. My aunt was working in a sewing factory and lived on the same floor of the apartment complex the Presleys lived in. Me and Elvis just had a bond. Ever since I was an infant, really. He would always come over with Gladys when she would be visiting my mother. He would just pick and play with me. We stayed friends even after he got big. I just wish I would have saved more pictures of us, but growing up, you didn’t think about things like that. My mom had a lot of pictures, but the creek water would rise every now and then, and that ruined a lot of them. I still have some, but not as many as I wish I did.”

By the time Elvis got to Memphis, he had no doubt that music was his calling.

According to Turner, Elvis was definitely a product of his roots.

“Had Elvis been born in New York, he would have still had that talent, but different influences and encouragement. It would have changed the entire course of rock music.

“I worked on a book called “Elvis and Gladys” with Elaine Dundy in the early ‘80’s. She said, ‘You can hear the soil in Elvis’ voice just like you can hear the cement in Sinatra.’ That sums it up perfectly. Sinatra had a very clipped and harsher way of singing.

Very Northern. Almost rude, for lack of a better word. But Elvis’ voice was smooth like fresh-plowed soil. He was a sponge and loved all kinds of music. He always put himself where he could hear music. Then eventually, he came to the realization, ‘With my guitar, I command attention.’ And the rest is history.” L

come to the tupelo elvis festival!

Fans of the King of rock 'n' roll from around the globe will converge on Tupelo May 31 for the 2012 Tupelo Elvis Festival. The event, which pays tribute to Elvis and the impact his music has had on the world, will run through June 3. This year's musical celebration will again feature the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist competition with dozens of Elvis tribute artists competing. Fans will also hear the performances of three national Ultimate Elvis Tribute artist winners.

May 31 – DJ Fontana, Sonny Burgess & The Pacers and the 2009 Ultimate Tribute Artist Kevin Mills June 1 – Jordyn Mallory and Paul Thorn at Fairpark; 2008 Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Brandon Bennett June 2 – David Nail, Randy Houser and Little Big Town at Fairpark; 2011 Ultimate Tribute Artist Cody Slaughter June 3 – Gospel at the Lyric Theatre – The Landmarks, Kevin Mills and Cody Slaughter For ticket pricing, or for more information, visit www.tupeloelvisfestival.com or phone the festival's sponsor, the Downtown Tupelo Main Street Association at 662-841-6598.

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Even 35 years after his death, Elvis’ legacy continues Eleven years after winning fifth place in the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Diary Show, Elvis returned to Tupelo to perform on that same stage, only this time as a major musical sensation.

The 1956 homecoming was one of the most important events in Elvis’ career, said historian Roy Turner.

“In 11 years, Elvis went from fifth place to the biggest star in the planet – on the same stage. It was bigger than playing Carnegie Hall as far as he was concerned. The governor declared it Elvis Presley Day. He was met at the state line by highway patrolmen.

There were National Guardsmen around the stage to control the crowds, and the mayor gave him a guitar-shaped key to the city. Most importantly, however, his mom and dad were treated like royalty. He came home as much for them as he did for himself. All he wanted was for the folks at home to be proud of him.”

Elvis wound up giving all of the money he made from those shows back to the city of Tupelo.

“He told the city to buy the property on which he was born and turn it into a park. He donated every cent of the money he made that day to them. He was philanthropic before it became fashionable to do so,” Turner said.

In September the following year,

Elvis once again returned to Tupelo and once again, gave all of the money earned for his performance to the city of Tupelo. This time, Elvis instructed the city to buy the 15 acres around the birthplace and erect a recreational center.

“The birthplace was on the poor side of town,” said Blair Hill, assistant director. “Elvis just wanted to give this side of town a taste of what they had on the other side.”

These days the Birthplace sees about 75,000 people yearly, Hill said, with as many as 2,000 people walking through Elvis’ two-room original house in a single day.

“We get people from all over the world. Elvis fans are some of the most diehard fans in the world. He died in the hottest month of the year and was born in the coldest, and yet it doesn’t stop people from coming.

It’s a great economic drive for the community. We’re seeing third and fourth generations of Elvis fans.”

“When [biographer] Elaine Dundy passed away four years ago in May, I was made the executor of her estate,” Turner said. “She left $600,000 to the CREATE Foundation in order to set up the Elaine Dundy & Roy Turner Endowment for the Arts.

The Endowment operates solely on the interest earned by the initial

$600,000, which cannot be touched.

I believe we’re up to about $700,000 now.

“The point of the endowment is to expose kids to the arts – not just music, but all forms of art. The six-foot guitars that line the streets were given to the city as a part of the Endowment.

Each one has been decorated by a different school. She was knocked out by the encouragement that Elvis received to pursue his dream at such a young age, and she wanted the kids of Northeast Mississippi to have that same exposure and encouragement.

She said she was leaving the money for all of the ‘Little Elvises.’ It’s amazing that more than 30 years after his death, Elvis is continuing to give back to the city of Tupelo.”

Elvis image used by permission, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.

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ďƒŠ Ethridge performing with the Flying Burrito Brothers on stage in 1974 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

(Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns)

music feature

Spanning five decades of unforgettable music, you've heard him more times than you know By stephen corbett

Editor's note: Just as LEGENDS was uploading to press we sadly learned of Chris Ethridge's passing. The family of LEGENDS wishes to express our deeply felt condolences to his family and multitude of loving friends. Chris was a man of talent, kindness and generosity. His presence will be very much missed, and his musical legacy will endure.

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s both a musician and a music fan, there has always been a mystique about Mississippi for me. Mississippi is without a doubt the birthplace of American music - a Mecca, of sorts.

The Father of Country Music, the King of the Blues and the King of rock ‘n’ roll all hail from Mississippi. With all due respect to the aforementioned masters, it was another musical genius that brought me to this legendary land.

I made my first pilgrimage to Mississippi in 2006 to meet one of my heroes who became one of my best friends, Chris Ethridge. I vividly recall receiving the email that contained the invite. “I’m good friends with Chris Ethridge. He used to play in a group called the Flying Burrito Brothers. He lives here in Meridian. You should come down and meet him.” As I read those words, I nearly choked on my coffee. Just a few inches from the keyboard, Chris’ eyes were staring at me from my copy of “Farther Along: the Best of the Flying Burrito Brothers.” I didn’t have to be asked twice.

While Chris’ name may not be a household name, the impact this bassist has had on popular music is nothing less than spectacular. In a career that has spanned across five decades, Chris has recorded and/or toured with the Flying Burrito Brothers, Willie Nelson, the Doors, Judy Collins, Johnny Winter, Ry Cooder, Leon Russell, Randy Newman, Johnny Rivers, Linda Ronstadt, George Jones, the Byrds, Bill Withers, Jackson Browne, Arlo Guthrie, Gene Clark, Steve Young, Graham Nash, Dave Mason, Rita Coolidge and Booker T. Jones. Impressive as this list is, it only scratches the surface.

What surprised me most during my first visit with Chris was his humbleness. The modest house in the Meridian suburb offered no outward indication that it was inhabited by one of recorded music’s major figures. There would also be very little inside to clue a person in

were it not for the platinum and gold records on the walls. The man himself was just as unassuming; he did very little name-dropping and hardly talked about his legacy unless he was prompted. My first hour with him was spent walking across his land and listening to him talk about landscaping and gardening – not one single mention of music. It was more like hanging out with a botanist than a bassist.

After settling on his front porch and having a few drinks, the conversation finally came around to music.

“So, what do you want to know about Gram Parsons?” he asked in a matter-of-fact voice.

“I didn’t come here to learn about Gram Parsons,” I replied. “I came here to learn about Chris Ethridge.” Over the course of that weekend, I received a history lesson.

Chris was born in 1947 to a very musical family. His two brothers, Joey and Tommy Ethridge, are also gifted musicians. His father had a tape recorder that he would often use to record his young sons playing guitar together.

As tends to be the case in this musical holy land, the music Chris Ethridge listened to growing up crossed all sorts of genres and boundaries.

“I can’t say I was much of a country fan. When I was young, I loved Hank Williams, but then I got into rock ‘n roll and then the blues. My friend Tom Rovinsky - we used to ride bikes together when we were teenagers - he turned me on to jazz. Oscar Peterson, John Coltrane, I can’t remember all the artists. So back then I learned a lot of those standards. That really helped me a lot.

“I loved all that jazz Rovinsky would play for me. I loved Bobby Blue Bland, Ray Charles, everything he did was incredible. I loved Elvis, I loved all that music.” mississippilegends.com

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“

While Chris’ name may not be a household name, the impact this bassist has had on popular music is nothing less than spectacular.

In a career that has spanned across five decades, Chris has recorded and/or toured with the Flying Burrito Brothers, Willie Nelson, the Doors, Judy Collins, Johnny Winter, Ry Cooder, Leon Russell, Randy Newman, Johnny Rivers, Linda Ronstadt, George Jones, the Byrds, Bill Withers, Jackson Browne, Arlo Guthrie, Gene Clark, Steve Young, Graham Nash, Dave Mason, Rita Coolidge and Booker T. Jones. Impressive as this list is, it only scratches the surface.”

It was this amalgamation of styles that helped inspire his trademark style of bass playing rife with walking bass lines and fills during a time when a lot of bassists were relegated to just keeping the beat in the background. At 17, this talent was spotted by a member of Johnny Rivers’ band who saw Chris playing in Biloxi. Shortly thereafter, Chris moved to Los Angeles and got an apartment on the Sunset Strip, at one point living with Rita Coolidge.

In typical Ethridge fashion, he describes having an apartment on the Strip in the 1960s by saying, “Well, it was better than not having one. Those were some good times.”

After doing session work for a few years, Chris began the first of many collaborations with Gram Parsons late in 1967. Parsons was playing in the International Submarine Band at the time, and just after all but one other member of the group had quit, they were signed to Lee Hazelwood’s LHI Records. Gram and guitarist John Nuese were scrambling to find musicians to complete the line-up. Mike Bloomfield, with whom Chris had played, suggested that Chris talk to him.

“He [Parsons] wanted to know if I knew of any steel players in L.A.,” he said.

“I knew Gram Parsons from the Palomino, but I didn’t really know him well. So I called him up, and he asked me where I was from. I told him Meridian, Mississippi, and he told me he was from Waycross, Georgia and we should get together. So, me and my old lady went over there and met Gram, and they asked me to play on the International Submarine Band record.”

The recording for “Safe at Home,” the sole album from the International Submarine Band, was finished in December of 1967 and released in April the following year.

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ďƒŠ Chris Ethridge plays his bass guitar in the living room of his grandmother’s Meridian home. The unassuming Ethridge lived a quiet life in his Mississippi hometown after having recorded with some of the greatest musicians during his five decades as a professional musician. (Photograph by Marianne Todd)

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“

In the ‘70s, there were a lot of musicians out there, but there were more singers than bands. I got to play on some real good records. Linda Ronstadt... Spooner Oldham and I played together on her stuff. Ry Cooder, that was really fun. He’s a real interesting person and a really incredible musician. He influenced me a lot. Jim Keltner, it was an incredible pleasure to play with him. We did some Randy Newman records.”

Unfortunately at that point, Parsons had quit and joined the Byrds, the remaining members of the group lost the rights of their name to LHI, and Chris was back doing session work. Despite its importance in the role of the country-rock and alternative country movements, the record went nowhere.

The Parsons-Ethridge hiatus was a short-lived one however, with Parsons leaving the Byrds in July.

“The Byrds were playing in Europe and were supposed to go to South Africa. Keith Richards had told him [Parsons] things were really bad down there and that it was like the South here, so he didn’t go. So he left the Byrds hanging.”

Within a few months, Parsons was assembling a band that would play country soul with a rock attitude, and he and Chris were working together again in the Flying Burrito Brothers with Chris Hillman and Sneaky Pete Kleinow.

The Flying Burrito Brothers released its critically acclaimed debut album “The Gilded Palace of Sin” in February 1969. The album has become a landmark album and was ranked #192 in Rolling Stone magazine’s list “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” in 2003. For many musicians, this album is a holy grail for alternative country music or “Cosmic American Music,” as Parsons called it.

In addition to playing bass and piano, Chris also co-wrote the songs “Hot Burrito #1” and “Hot Burrito #2.”

“I had already written the music to both songs and most of the lyrics.

Gram just changed up a few lines here and there. Elvis Costello did a version of “#1” with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1982. He changed the name to “I’m Your Toy.” It was beautiful. I had never heard one of my songs played like that before,” he said.

Those two numbers have since become two of the Flying Burrito Brothers’ most covered songs. Cowboy Junkies, Devotchka, Belly and the Mavericks are among the other artists who have recorded versions of “Hot Burrito #1.” Big Star and Dinosaur Jr. are just two of the acts who have covered “Hot Burrito #2.”

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For me, “Hot Burrito #1” also contains the definitive example of what makes Chris’ bass playing so distinct and innovative. As compared to other genres, few uptempo or “rocking” country-based songs contain prominent bass lines. It is almost unheard of for a country ballad to be driven by the bass, yet that is exactly what Chris does in this song. In the song’s instrumental breaks, the bass is demanding more attention than Sneaky Pete’s pedal steel, which would have actually been the lead instrument. The influence from the jazz records he heard as a kid are very evident in this recording.

Despite the praise bestowed upon the Flying Burrito Brothers, Chris Ethridge would end up leaving the band just prior to recording their second album.

“At the time I was married and going out on the road all the time, which wasn’t easy,” he said. “It was also hard to make money. Sometimes when you love someone, you just decide to stay home. Plus, you could make a lot more money doing studio sessions in L.A. “In the ‘70s, there were a lot of musicians out there, but there were more singers than bands. I got to play on some real good records. Linda Ronstadt... Spooner Oldham and I played together on her stuff. Ry Cooder, that was really fun. He’s a real interesting person and a really incredible musician. He influenced me a lot. Jim Keltner, it was an incredible pleasure to play with him. We did some Randy Newman records.”

Chris spent much of the 1970s doing session work and bringing a lot of southern musicians to California.

“I brought Jim Dickinson out to L.A. from Muscle Shoals in 1972, and we played on some of the Ry Cooder stuff,” he said. “Jim coproduced some of it. Jim knew a lot about that old-time music. They were up the same alley. We could talk forever about music. I loved Jim. I love his children - Luther and Cody and Big Chris. Fabulous guys.”

In fact, Jim’s son, Luther Dickinson (The North Mississippi All Stars and the Black Crowes), has referred to Chris as the “Southern Ambassador to California” and cited Chris’ effort at getting southern

musicians work in California as a good example of his generosity.

Of course, Chris spoke much more humbly of his role in the matter saying, “Well, I guess I was one of the first to get accepted out there. And I had a bunch of friends who were also great musicians.

Since I already had a foot in the door, I was able to bring them out there so other people would know how great they were, too.”

During this period, Chris also co-wrote “She” with Booker T. Jones and Parsons. The song would show on the former’s 1971 album “Booker T. & Priscilla,” on which Chris also played, and on the latter’s 1973 album “GP.” It’s been covered by Emmylou Harris, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Black Crowes and Norah Jones.

According to Luther Dickinson, the Black Crowes were already playing “She” regularly in their shows prior to his joining the band in 2007. He did, however, get to introduce the band to the song’s author backstage at a show. “It was great introducing Chris and Chris,” he said, referring to Ethridge and the Black Crowes’ frontman Chris Robinson. “Chris [Robinson] likes to go shopping for vinyl records. He’ll call me randomly and say, ‘Wow. I just found this great record and Ethridge is playing bass on it.’ It’s amazing the amount of things he’s played on.”

Chris’ next big move came in the late 1970s when he signed on to play bass for Willie Nelson, a position he held just shy of a decade.

“We had a big band: two bass players, two drummers,” Chris said. “When I was with Willie, we were on the road all the time. We were never off the road. If you weren’t on the road, you were on the phone being told when you were going on the road.”

Chris played on some of Willie’s most celebrated and biggest selling albums, including “Willie and Family Live,” “Willie Sings Kris Kristofferson,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” and “Stardust,” which is Nelson’s biggest selling album to date. Chris also played the role of Easter alongside Willie Nelson in the movie Honeysuckle Rose.

Having grown tired of constant touring, Chris left Willie’s band just prior to the recording of “Always on My Mind,” which contained Nelson’s version of “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,” a song the Burrito Brothers had done on “The Gilded Palace of Sin.” Chris remained active as a session studio musician in the 1980s and 1990s, but to a much lesser extent than he had previously done.

He has also continued to write and occasionally record solo material.

In the early 2000s, he toured Europe as part of a blues band that included Cedric Burnside.

On Dec. 8, 2011, the body of Bee Spears – Nelson’s bassist was discovered outside his home in Nashville. Spears had played in Nelson’s band for more than 40 years and was one half of the bassduo during Chris’ tenure. Nelson called on Chris to reprise his role in the band, and more than 20 years after holding that position, Chris was back in the pocket, sitting in on Willie’s Philadelphia performance.

Unfortunately, it was also around this time that Chris was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. At the time of this writing, he was in the hospital recovering from pneumonia. The last time I spoke with him, he was in good spirits and was discussing some of the projects that he’d been working on. And it was still just as hard to get him to talk about himself.

Six years ago, I made the ten-hour drive back to North Carolina feeling like I had known Chris forever. I also expected that to be a once-in-a-lifetime meeting, and yet when I got back home, he called me to make sure that I’d made it back safely and to invite me back down. In the years that have followed, I’ve made that drive numerous times and rarely go very long without talking to him on the phone, and somehow I still get star struck each time. He’s played me archival live recordings of the Flying Burrito Brothers before they were released to the public. We’ve shared a few drinks, seen shows together, and played songs together, but there’s no greater feeling than going to the local truck stop diner for a “plate lunch” and being introduced as “my friend, Stephen” by a man whose work has meant so much to me and to so many others. And that is what makes Chris Ethridge such a special person. Even after all of the success he’s had and all of the people that he’s worked with and met, he’s still a regular guy.

I guess Chris said it best: “Aw man, at the end of the day, I’m just an old hippie from Mississippi.” L

 Ethridge with his brothers, bassist Tommy Ethridge, left, and guitarist/ keyboardist Joey Ethridge, during a break at the Sucarnochee Revue.

(Photograph by Marianne Todd)

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music feature

From Classical to Rock ‘n’ Roll, it’s the music that moves us jenny enderlin

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Natchez Festival of Music Jazz, classical and opera • Through May 26

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n a city where steamboats and horse carriages endure and where hoop skirts are still donned for certain occasions, it’s no surprise that Natchez holds the record for the most antebellum homes per capita in the United States.

“The houses survived because no one had money after the Civil War to modernize them,” says Rena Jean Schmieg, president of the Natchez Festival of Music Guild. It’s against the backdrop of the Southern parlors in these white-columned plantations that the festival has been holding concerts for more than 20 years.

The festival’s founder, the late Dr. David Blackburn, came up with the idea after the owners of Monmouth Plantation talked with him about how much they had enjoyed Santa Fe’s opera festival. He concluded that Natchez needed one of its own.

In 2010 when the festival needed a new director, the board approached Jay Dean, who serves as musical director for the University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and the Mississippi Opera. “I decided that I would like to be a part of the wonder of the long and treasured history of that city,” he said.

The festival has high standards, Dean said. “I was never more aware of that than when I was auditioning singers for the Mississippi Opera in New York, and a number of them had the Natchez Festival of Music on their resume,” says Dean. The majority of the festival’s artists were also recruited out of New York. “I heard about 140 singers in a two-day period, and then heard 30 more in Natchez.” Of these, about 20 were selected to attend this year’s festival.

Dean says performers in some of the recitals “will talk to the audience in first person so there’s a historical perspective.” For example, at Stanton Hall, soprano Kristen Vogel will present herself as Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale” P.T. Barnum brought to Natchez in the mid-1800s. Similar events will be  TOP: Returning to the festival’s opera roots, both “The Mikado” and “Don Giovanni” will be presented during the Natchez Festival of Music.

BOTTOM: At Stanton Hall, Kristen Vogel will present herself as Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale” P. T. Barnum brought to Natchez in the mid-1800s.

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held at The Towers, Lansdowne and Waverly Plantation.

Want to Go?

The three-week schedule will also offer jazz, Broadway melodies and classical selections. The festival opens with the One O’clock Lab Band, which has been around for decades; some of its members have gone on to play in house bands for David Letterman, Jay Leno and Johnny Carson.

The Voice of a Nightingale: An Evening with Jenny Lind 7 p.m. May 18 - $15 Stanton Hall 401 High St.

Returning to the festival’s opera roots, both “The Mikado” and “Don Giovanni” will be presented. The Natchez Festival Guild stages productions year-round, many of them free to nursing home residents and schoolchildren.

This year, “The Three Little Pigs” will be performed with music by Mozart for approximately 7,500 young schoolchildren, many of whom have never before been exposed to classical music.

A Portrait of Elegance: Orchestral Music of Mozart and Haydn 7 p.m. May 19 - $20 Margaret Martin Performing Arts Center 64 Homochitto St.

Producing a nonprofit festival of this magnitude requires a great deal of planning and fund-raising, but mostly a dose of something Southerners seem to have inherited in large quantities: hospitality. All artists are housed, fed and transported by volunteers.

“I grew up in one of the antebellum homes and I’ve known everyone all my life; they’re very generous. We all keep our artists in our homes, and once we get somebody, they’re ours—we claim them,” Schmieg says. “We have people from big cities saying ‘How can you do this?’ but we can because people care. All my life, I’ve known that if something is really artistically beautiful it will be appreciated here.” L To purchase tickets, call (601) 445-2210 or go to www.natchezfestivalofmusic.com.

For information regarding bed and breakfasts, check out www.natchezpilgrimage.com.

A Musical Wine Tasting 4 p.m. May 20 - $30 Lansdowne Plantation 17 Marshall Rd. Night and Day: An Evening with Cole Porter 7 p.m. May 25 - $100 The Towers 801 Myrtle Ave Don Giovanni 7 p.m. May 26 - $25 Margaret Martin Performing Arts Center 64 Homochitto St. Final Festival Gala 10 p.m.-Midnight May 26 - $20 Linden 1 Linden Place

festivalsouth Hattiesburg • June 9-23

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ean says he planned to stay at the University of Southern Mississippi for 23 years. “But the closer I got to that, the less appealing retirement became,” he says. “I wanted to do something with the community.”

While visiting Rome, Dean was inspired by the vibrant arts market and had the idea of creating something that could become a cultural identifier for Hattiesburg. So he devised a plan to partner with the university and others in the area to infuse Hattiesburg with music and art.

“Jay brought these ideas to the table and has been masterful at picking artists who will generate excitement and will attract a lot of people who might not otherwise attend a trio or an opera,” says David Ott, chairman  Artists like electric bluesman Vasti Jackson will perform at Hattiesburg’s FestivalSouth at the Bottling Company.

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PI TA L

S FO RR E

ENER AL H

OS

TG

Over the past 60 years, the heart of Forrest General Hospital has kept a steady beat, delivering world class medical care to generations of families in the Pine Belt. From a small community hospital to a health system now serving 19 counties, Forrest General and its staff and physicians continue their commitment to C.A.R.E. — for you, your family and generations to come.

Forrest General services: • Emergency and Trauma Services • Heart and Vascular Services • Surgical Services • The Family Birthplace and Women and Children’s Services • Pine Grove Behavioral Health • Cancer Center • Neuroscience and Orthopedic Services • Hospitalist and Intensivist Programs • Rehabilitation Services • Forrest General’s Wound Healing Center • Highland Community Hospital, a 95-bed acute care hospital in Picayune — new state-of-the-art facility opening in July!

• Forrest General also manages Jefferson Davis County Hospital and Extended Care Facility, Marion General Hospital and Walthall General Hospital.

Recent Forrest General recognitions: • Only Mississippi hospital listed in: “101 Hospitals With Great Spine & Neurosurgery Programs” -Becker’s Hospital Review • Top 100 Home Care agencies in the U.S. -HomeCare EliteTM • J.D. Power and Associates recognition for: Outstanding Cardiovascular Experience – 3 Years in a Row! Outstanding Patient Experience in Maternity Services – 2011 • Rehabilitation Unit ranked in the top 3 percent in the nation for Inpatient Rehab Facilities -Uniform Data Systems for Medical Rehabilitation

For more information on Forrest General, call FGH OnCall at 1-800-844-4445 or visit forrestgeneral.com or facebook.com/forrestgeneralhospital.

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of the Hattiesburg Concert Association. “We want to raise the awareness of the performing arts. We are very aware of all of the studies that show that music is one of the hallmarks of successful education. My desire is to see a child see the wonderful beauty of someone playing the cello and violin and bassoon, and pursue these opportunities on their own.”

Still, as Ott puts it, “You don’t generally get someone to listen to Bach first.” So, pop music and classical instrumentation will be fused in the Classical Mystery Tour, the first of three major performances. “Can you imagine the best Beatles cover band in the country with our Symphony Orchestra? It should be a great show,” says Ted Webb, president of BancorpSouth, one of the sponsors.

The second high-profile event, Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni,” will carry over from the Natchez Festival of Music, but this time the younger understudies of the first performance will take the lead. The festival finale will be five-time Grammy winner Sandi Patty singing hits from Broadway.

In its third year, the festival has grown to about 75 events in 40 venues— all of which take place in air-conditioned environments. There will be musician workshops, a family Jungle Brunch with a hands-on “instrument petting zoo,” and jazz, gospel, and string concerts in establishments all over town. “You can’t go anywhere and not be aware that there is music here,” says Dean. He is especially excited about Mississippi’s own Vasti Jackson performing at The Bottling Company. “This is not only a music event, it is a fashion, dining and dancing event.”

Dean says the festival wants to expand beyond music. Last year saw the addition of a dance competition and two-week exhibitions featuring painter Amy Giust and sculptor Ben Watts; this year, the featured artists will be painter Wyatt Waters and sculptress Kim Sessums. Festivalgoers will be able to enjoy wine tastings, ballet, art shows, a myriad of children’s events, daily musical luncheons and festival dinners at Brownstones and The Bottling Company.

Dean says he envisions the festival growing into a tourism engine that will encompass the city and contain everything from the arts to medical and business conferences. “One of the things I’m really anxious for is for people to take ownership,” he says.

Dr. Aubrey Lucas, retired president of the University of Southern Mississippi, says he devotes several days to the festival and attends as many of the events as his schedule will allow. “FestivalSouth is the most wonderful musical addition to our area that I can remember. We have always had delightful music, but nothing as concentrated as this festival. It takes us downtown, it takes us into churches, it takes us into synagogues, and it gets us to meet people. It’s getting better known and once you go, you’re hooked.” L  TOP: The Beatles cover band Classical Mystery Tour will be blended with symphonic music in a pop and classical music infusion.

BOTTOM: Sandi Patty, a five-time Grammy winner, will sing Broadway hits.  Hattiesburg will be home to about 75 events in 40 venues through June 23.

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Want to Go? Classical Mystery Tour (Beatles Cover Band) 7:30 p.m. June 9 Saenger Theatre $25 ($10 for children) Mozart’s Don Giovanni 7:30 p.m. June 14 and 16 Saenger Theatre $20 ($10 for children) Sandi Patty 7:30 p.m. June 23 Temple Baptist Church $25, $40 & $55 ($15 for children) *See www.FestivalSouth.org for a complete event listing.

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book review

forsaking mimosa author Valerie Winn publisher Dogwood Press pages 289 review by Bill Scaggs

hat initially drew me to review “Forsaking Mimosa” was the combination of Mississippi author and Mississippi publisher. Unlike my friend, our LEGENDS publisher, I’d not taken previous note of Dogwood Press -- nor Valerie Winn’s authorship -- nor Joe Lee’s editor/publisher role. I’m a home cooking kind of guy who believes local writers, booksellers and publishers are vital to our sense of community. Or if you prefer, are critical to our “creative economy.”

So when I received Valerie Winn’s “Forsaking Mimosa” and realized I’d agreed to review a coming-of-age yarn set in the 1930s, I was intimidated. After a bit of skimming and then letting it rest, I found myself increasingly drawn back to my rural South of that time. I even began looking at those family albums from the 1920s and 1930s. I may have even heard echoes of that train running one door and a vacant lot from our citrus grovesurrounded home.

The more I skimmed “Forsaking Mimosa,” the more appealing Winn’s home-cooking became. I realized it was deserving of consideration beyond my level of literary understanding. My friends who teach literature know I’m a “story” reader more than a reviewer. Plus escape fiction is my regular reading fare—Harry Bosch, Elvis Cole, Jane Whitefield, Joe Pike, Myron Bolitar, Marion Ford. You get the idea; no, make that the “action.”

For the record, I’m a representative of Malcom Gladwell’s “most favored generation of the previous century.” That is, I was born in 1935, a deep demographic trough, with birth rates clearly 64

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advantaging white males. My mother, a 1921 graduate of Florida State College for Women, was a primary school teacher. My dad’s first job was water boy for a crew laying track to serve a phosphate mining operation. His boss was my grandfather, the straw boss

on the trackage construction. My parents would have connected with the Brinkmannn family on every day save Sunday.

However, for reasons never clear, my schoolmarm mother and my classical poetry-quoting father chose to not teach me reading.

But they did ensure there were print materials ranging from Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible to Reader’s Digest to the Book of Knowledge. Yep, as the firstborn of 35-year-old parents, I didn’t need to read. They read to me when they were not busy telling me stories or reciting Tennyson or Longfellow or scripture.

And, of course, Sally and I share a divided household. She is an engaged reader; I’m a skimmer. She’s an English teacher.

I’m a very eclectic social scientist. She’s focused and I’m ADD. I maintain the Amazon account; she stimulates the Barnes & Noble account. Alas, she’s the Nook; I’m the Fire. She reads real fiction. I, on the other hand, keep all of John D. MacDonald’s adventures of Travis McGee on my Fire. However, we do share membership in the Jack Reacher fan club. So much for serious, engaged reading! Clearly not a reviewer’s credentials.

Yet the more I wandered around “Mimosa” my sense of connection with the Brinkmannn family’s world deepened.

Simultaneously with this, my sense of inadequacy as a reviewer grew. On one level I continue to be engaged with this work and on another my sense of intimidation grows. In the end Ms. Winn won. And you gentle reader, may have lost. I still doubt I can do her work justice.

However, her tale of young Max Brinkmann’s transitions from Mimosa townie to depression era farmstead adolescent while simultaneously “transferring” from a community-based Catholic school to a rural all-girl boarding school as a “day student,” to “forsaking” Mimosa for boot camp and beyond, captured my imagination in unexpected ways. Of course, St. Agnes Academy is managed and run---and I do mean run--by a cadre of nuns.

Max and his younger brothers are the only male students enrolled.

The disciplined order of the Academy may require a few extra degrees of “willing suspension of disbelief ” from Winn’s younger readers. For some of us oldsters this structure, discipline and order will be as familiar as the spiders in the outhouse. Yet by giving her readers glimpses of the diversity of personalities behind the cloth of the Holy habit worn by Max’s teachers, Winn avoids stereotyping the Sisters of St. Agnes Academy. It’s true: discipline and diversity.

I think I’ve known a few depression era families like the Brinkmannns. This includes the children as well as the parents, Nora and Josef. Viewed through the children’s eyes, their commitment to one another, to their faith traditions and to their family, is clearly drawn. Josef is a not-so-benevolent dictator.

Nora models understanding and compassion. Both live into the

Bill Scaggs, President Emeritus, Meridian Community College

discipline of their faith.

While “Forsaking Mimosa” is focused around Max and the Brinkmannn family, other youngsters share this process of coming of age. The story of Max’s classmate, Adele Rhinehart, is my favorite. I’d call her mother a floozy if the story was set in the 1920s. In any case or age, Ms. Rhinehart is a party girl. However Adele’s “sin” is she gets to read Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” aloud to her incapacitated aunt and uncle. Alas, her mentors at Saint Agnes have Steinbeck on the list of those authors paving the path to perdition.

Good stories draw the reader into the world created by the author. As this “non-review” demonstrates, Winn succeeded with this reader. And exactly when did Max “forsake Mimosa?” He didn’t. Mimosa went with him to boot camp and beyond. But I guess that’s Winn’s next book. L

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What’s shakin’ around the state? bay st. louis June 2 & 3................... 6th Annual “Bay Bridgefest” - Downtown Bay St. Louis - www.baybridgefest.org - 228-467-9048

bentonia June 14....................... 40th Anniversary Bentonia Blues Festival - Blue Front Cafe - www.facebook.com/events/196031997076818 - 662-746-1815

biloxi May 25....................... Jeff Dunham - IP Casino Resort - www.ipbiloxi.com - 800-436-3000 May 26....................... Lee Ann Womack - IP Casino Resort - www.ipbiloxi.com - 800-436-3000 June 1......................... Sinbad - Hard Rock Casino - www.hardrockbiloxi.com - 228-374-7625 June 8......................... Alice Cooper - Beau Rivage Casino Resort - www.beaurivage.com - 228-386-7444 June 15....................... Chicago - Beau Rivage Casino Resort - www.beaurivage.com - 228-386-7444

canton June 20 - July 1........... 2012 Mississippi Championship Hot Air Balloon Fest - Downtown Canton – www.ballooncanton.com - 800-844-3369

clarksdale June 1-2...................... Delta Jubilee - Clarksdale Expo Center - www.clarksdale-ms.com/jubilee - 662-627-7337

hattiesburg May 11....................... Adam Doleac - Bottling Company – www.bocobbq.com - 601-336-6755 May 25....................... Wet Willie and The Wailers - Bottling Company – www.bocobbq.com - 601-336-6755 June 1......................... Cowboy Blues Band - Bottling Company – www.bocobbq.com - 601-336-6755 June 9–23................... FestivalSouth - Downtown Hattiesburg - www.festivalsouth.org - 866.4-HATTIE

jackson Through July 22......... Curious George Saves the Day: The Art of Margret and H. A. Rey - Mississippi Museum of Art ................................... www.msmuseumart.org - 601-960-1515 May 19....................... The Goatees - Underground 119 - www.underground119.com - 601-352-2322 May 20....................... The Blind Boys of Alabama - Duling Hall - www.ardenland.net – 601-960-1537

laurel June 8......................... LRMA 19th Annual Blues Bash - Lauren Rogers Museum of Art – www.lrma.org - 601-649-6374

meridian May 17....................... The House at Pooh Corner - MSU Riley Center - www.msurileycenter.com - 601-696-2200 May 19....................... Wynonna and The Big Noise - MSU Riley Center - www.msurileycenter.com - 601-696-2200 June 2......................... The Meridian Symphony Presents “All American Fiddler: Mark O’Connor” - MSU Riley Center ................................... www.msurileycenter.com - 601-696-2200 June 7......................... Eddie Levert of the O’Jays - MSU Riley Center - www.msurileycenter.com - -601-696-2200 June 21....................... Jars of Clay - MSU Riley Center - www.msurileycenter.com- 601-696-2200

oxford May 18....................... Hill Country Harmonica Blowout - Rooster’s Blues House – www.roostersblueshouse.com - 662-236-7970 June 15-30.................. Oxford Shakespeare Festival - Ford Center – www.shakespeare.olemiss.edu

potts camp June 29-30.................. North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic – www.nmshillcountrypicnic.com

southaven May 18....................... Miranda Lambert - Landers Center - www.desotociviccenter.com - 662-342-4842

tunica June 9......................... Rick Springfield - Gold Strike Casino Resort - www.goldstrikemississippi.com - 888-245-7529

tupelo May 16-19.................. Ninth Annual Tupelo Film Festival - www.tupelo.net/film-festival - 800-533-0611

vicksburg Jun 23......................... Annual Milt Hilton Memorial Concert and Festival National Juneteenth Jazz Presenters Featuring The Ron Myers Group ................................... The Coral Room - www.vicksburgheritage.com

waterford May 19-20.................. North Mississippi Blues Harp Homecoming - www.hillcountryharmonica.com

yazoo city May 7......................... 7th Annual Jerry Clower Festival - facebook.com- 800-381-0662

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You Know She’s Worth It

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