Mississippi Blues Trail - Black Prairie Blues
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The roots of blues and gospel music run deep in the African
American culture of the Black Prairie region. Among the performers
born near Macon here in Noxubee County, Eddy Clearwater, Carey
Bell, and Jesse Fortune went on to achieve renown in Chicago blues,
while Brother Joe May moved to East St. Louis and starred as a
gospel singer. In Prairie Point near the Mississippi-Alabama state
line, Willie King kindled a new blues movement as the political
prophet of the juke joints./
African American music in Noxubee County dates back to
antebellum days when slaves sang spirituals and work songs on local
cotton plantations. Slaves who learned banjo or fiddle also served
as entertainers at white social affairs. This musical legacy
carried over into the 20th century, when African American family
string bands featuring fiddle, guitar, and mandolin performed for
both white and black audiences. Such bands included the Duck
Brothers (Charlie, Albert, and Vandy Duck), the Salt and Pepper
Shakers (Perie, Doc, and Preston Spiller), and the Nickersons
(featuring fiddler Booger Nickerson).
Another Macon fiddler, Houston H. Harrington (1924 -1972),
guided his family, including sons Joe and Vernon Harrington and
nephew Eddy “Clearwater” Harrington, towards careers in
the blues after they relocated to Chicago in the early 1950s.
Harrington, a part-time preacher and inventor, used a portable
disc-cutting machine to make recordings in Macon. In Chicago he
produced records by Clearwater and others for his Atomic-H label.
Clearwater, born east of Macon in 1935, went on to entertain
audiences around the world with a flamboyant blues and rock 'n'
roll act.
Harmonica virtuoso Carey Bell, a Macon native whose real surname
was also Harrington, likewise attained worldwide fame after moving
to Chicago. Bell (1936 -2007) played with Muddy Waters and Willie
Dixon, among others, and fathered a brood of blues musicians,
including renowned guitarist Lurrie Bell and harmonica protege
Steve Bell. Vocalist Jesse Fortune, born near Macon in 1930, also
embarked on a lengthy blues career in Chicago in the 1950s. In the
gospel field, Brother Joe May (1912 -1972) and Robert Blair (1927
-2001) built successful careers after leaving Macon.
Although professional musical opportunities were scant, blues
singers continued to play house parties and juke joints around
Macon, Brooksville, Shuqualak, Mashulaville, and Prairie Point. Big
Joe Williams (1903 -1982), one of the most prominent blues artists
from the Black Prairies, came from Crawford to perform in Noxubee
County at times. Williams and fellow bluesman John Wesley
“Mr. Shortstuff” Macon (c. 1923 -1973) died in Macon,
and guitarist Elijah Brown, another friend of Williams, was born
here. Willie King (born in the Grass Hill area in 1943) later led a
revival of the local blues tradition and drew widespread acclaim
for his political “struggling songs,” an outgrowth of
his civil rights activities in Alabama. In Brooksville, performers
active on the local music scene have included Robert Earl Greathree
and Brown Sugar.
content © Mississippi Blues Commission
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