Tupelo group, Homemade Jamz to perform
JACKSON – The legacy of Mississippi’s influence on the world’s musical spectrum will finally be recognized tonight when a Mississippi Blues Trail Marker will be unveiled at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. The unveiling will be followed by a musical showcase featuring three of Mississippi’s top artists including Jimbo Mathus, Shannon McNally and the Tupelo-based family group The Homemade Jamz Blues Band.
The unveiling of the marker will take place at the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles and the musical program will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. at the Clive Davis Theater.
The unveiling and performances are a part of “Grammy Week,” a preamble to the Grammy Awards ceremony scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 13.
Representatives from the Mississippi Development Authority said Mississippi blues, country, gospel, soul and rock ‘n’ roll artists are at the center of American popular music and those contributions are apparent in the number of Mississippians who have been recognized by The Recording Academy with Grammy Awards, Grammy Hall Of Fame inductions and Lifetime Achievement Awards.
The Grammy Awards were first presented in 1959, a time when blues was being eclipsed in the charts by R&B music.
During the first decade of the Grammy Awards, several Mississippi blues artists were nominated in the Best R&B Performance category, and the first to receive this award was Mississippi native B. B. King for his 1970 breakthrough hit, “The Thrill Is Gone.”
King was born in Itta Bena, and as a child later moved to Kilmichael to live with his grandmother. It was in Kilmichael that King said he made his first guitar out of wire, bricks and wood.
On Thursday, Feb. 10, this year’s “Mississippi Music Celebration at The Grammy Museum” will celebrate that unparalleled musical legacy and specifically honor Mississippi’s pivotal role in the establishment of blues music and that genre’s influence across the music industry.
“Mississippi’s influence on America’s music stretches from coast to coast – and beyond,” said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. “Trace the lineage of music in this country, and you’ll find the roots here in Mississippi. We’ve been blessed with a long, rich history of musical traditions that have expanded to a worldwide audience.”
“As the birthplace of America’s music, Mississippi’s influence can be heard everywhere,” noted Bob Santelli, executive director of The Grammy Museum. “We’re thrilled to showcase Mississippi’s blues heritage for the second year in a row here at The Grammy Museum. The artists participating in Mississippi Night perfectly highlight the tremendous range of Mississippi’s musical legacy.”
Grammy historians said the blues gained more prominence with the creation of the award for Best Ethnic Or Traditional Folk Recording in 1970, which another Mississippi native, Muddy Waters, received for six of his albums between 1971 and 1980.
A Best Traditional Blues category was established in 1982, and between 1983 and 2008, B. B. King won the award 10 times.
King also received awards in Best Pop Instrumental Performance, Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals and Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
Other Mississippi-born artists who received Grammy Awards in the Best Traditional Blues category include: John Lee Hooker, who received three, Ike Turner, Otis Rush, Willie Dixon, Henry Townsend, Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins and David “Honeyboy” Edwards.
In 1995, Roebuck “Pops” Staples received an award in the Best Contemporary Blues category, which was established in 1988.
Staples was honored in December 2010 with a Mississippi Blues Trail Marker at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Winona, Miss.
The Recording Academy has also retroactively acknowledged the role of Mississippi music with several inductions into the Grammy Hall Of Fame which was established in 1973, which honors recordings of historical significance.
The dozens of songs featuring Mississippi natives include pioneer recordings by Charley Patton, The Mississippi Sheiks and Jimmie Rodgers, early electric blues classics by Howlin’ Wolf and John Lee Hooker and soul anthems by Sam Cooke, Rufus Thomas and Ike and Tina Turner.
Mississippians who have received The Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award include B. B. King, Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Sam Cooke, Bo Diddley, David “Honeyboy” Edwards, Muddy Waters, Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins, the Pops Staples-led Staple Singers and opera diva Leontyne Price.
“Mississippi music is more than just a historical fact,” said Jon Hornyak, Sr. Executive Director of The Recording Academy Memphis Chapter. “The state is giving birth to more American music every day in a renaissance that spans genres and geography, from Biloxi to Clarksdale to the North Mississippi hill country.”
The Mississippi Blues Trail is a museum without walls taking visitors on a musical history journey through Mississippi. The trail started with the first official marker in Holly Ridge, the resting place of the blues guitarist Charley Patton, and now boasts more than 120 markers.
The Grammy Museum marker is the ninth out-of-state marker. Other out-of-state markers are located in Chicago; Memphis; Muscle Shoals, Alabama; Ferriday, Louisiana; Helena, Arkansas; Rockland, Maine; Grafton, Wisconsin; and Tallahassee, Florida.
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