News Roundup

~~LA Times: Ike and Tina Turner are rollin', rollin' in retrospective set: The pop world has focused for so long on the remarkably sensual energy and excitement of Ike & Tina Turner's old live show that it is often easy to forget the duo also made some dynamic records. But even if you have wanted to go back and check up on the pair's records from the 1960s and 1970s, it was difficult to know which "best of" collection to buy because the Turners recorded for so many labels. Time Life has finally put together what it bills as Ike & Tina's "first-ever complete career retrospective." Released just weeks before Ike's death Dec. 12, at age 76, the three-disc boxed set includes tunes from each of the Turners' most noteworthy label affiliations. The results are mixed, but the highlights of "The Ike & Tina Turner Story 1960-1975," mostly taken from their early days on Sue Records, offer astonishingly raw slices of soul music; music often as frenetic as Tina's hip-shaking moves onstage. (Read the Full Story Here)

~~This is an update on Columbus area music in 2007.

~~JFP: The Crossroads 'Round Midnight: The Tommy Johnson Story - "One of my absolute favorite “Southern” movies, “O Brother Where Art Thou?,” portrays characters based on both Greek mythology and actual Southern personalities. When Everett, Pete and Delmar run into a bluesman who has just sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads, they invite him along for the ride. Many people speculate that the character is based on Robert Johnson, but his name is Tommy Johnson in the movie. What you might not know is that there actually was a Tommy Johnson, and he was the first one to sign on that dotted line." (Read the Full Story Here)

Howlin Wolf Festival

Columbus Commercial Dispatch: The festival honoring great blues legend Chester “Howlin' Wolf” Burnett is set for Saturday, June 10 at Waverly Waters in Columbus, and will feature plenty of entertainment and barbeque. The event should help finish raising the remaining funds needed to purchase the Howlin' Wolf marker for the Mississippi Blues Trail. Entertainment will feature Daniel “Slick” Ballinger, 19th Street Red, Big Joe Shelton and Flathead Ford. (Full Story)

In other news, Howlin Wolf and others are featured on the "The American Folk-Blues Festival: The British Tours" DVD reviewed by the LA Times.

News Roundup

"South Mississippi residents will be treated to a free symphony concert Thursday night at the Long Beach harbor. The American Wind Symphony Orchestra, based in Pennsylvania, will perform the "Waterfront Concert," a gift to the Coast from Beaufort, S.C. (full story). 5/22/07

NAACP rocks the vote in Laurel with Mississippi Fats, Young and Dumb, Burn Boy Entertainment and others (full story). 5/21/07

Natchez Festival of Music welcomes UK/NYC jazz violinist David Shenton (full story). 5/20/07

The Delta Democrat Times editorializes that the Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival should be moved to downtown Greenville from rural Washington County (full editorial). 5/18/07

Carson Whitsett, a Jackson native and legendary Hammond B3 organ players, passed away in Nashville on May 8. "Whitsett was part of the rhythm section at Malaco that played on hits by Dorothy Moore (Misty Blue), Johnny Taylor and Bobby Bland. Whitsett moved to Nashville in the mid-1980s where he performed as a session musician and producer, working with such stars as Paul Simon, Tony Joe White, B.B. King and Little Milton. He worked for several years as [Kathy] Mattea's keyboard player (full story)". 05/16/2007

It was a good day in Columbus for music at the Market Street Festival 2007. "The MSF music committee worked hard for a varied mix - gospel, jazz, old-time, blues, Celtic and acoustic, as well as classic, Christian, southern and hard rock." Acts included Swing Shift, Johnny Coleman, Caleb Childs, The Temptations Review featuring Dennis Edwards, Ruby Jane Smith, Big Joe Shelton, AM/FM and CatDaddys, and Brice Miller (full story). 5/10/07