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Fate? Karma? Purgatory? Help me put a good spin on this.

My wife and I are heading out to Clarksdale, Mississippi for the Juke Joint Festival which is primarily a blues festival for local delta and hill country blues acts. It is a ton of fun.

We are staying with some old friends in a nearby town. They have graciously invited us to a music series hosted by local country music singer and songwriter Steve Azar. The event occurs every couple of months and features a meal by a prominent local chef (featured in Southern Living, Garden and Gun, etc) as well as cocktails and a casual performance and interview with other songwriters and musicians. It is a small group and the guests interact with the guest musicians. The tickets are fairly pricey and our friends have insisted on buying our tickets.

Other than their love of country music our musical tastes are similar to our friend's. They are going with us to the blues festival. They are also into Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, etc.

The guest musician/songwriter is named Anthony Smith. I'd never heard of him. Apparently he has written songs for some big names in the country music world as has the host, Steve Azar.

Now, I don't hate country music per se. But I have a hard time with contemporary pop country. Here is a video of Anthony Smith's:

https://youtu.be/sbNVTh2QA7k

It is going to be a long night. Fortunately the music will be acoustic. Just the guest with his guitar. I suspect the food will be great and there will be plenty of booze. And I guess it will be interesting to get some insight into the singer/songwriter world even if it is pop country.

I just think it is funny that the one type of music I can hardly stand is what is being featured. I'd prefer hip-hop or rap to pop country ;-)
n80
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

I'm insulted that they called what ever it is the "Juke joint festival".
blindjim
3,092 posts
 

MS? not bad. home of Kevin Moore (Keb Mo), Paul Thorn, and Morgan freeman. maybe you'll run into one of them. lol

one thing about musicians that make a living writing and playing music, most of them are pretty good.

I've been to a few festivals and had no idea of who these folks were or what their catalogs were, but nearly everyone of them knew how to perform and capture an audience, one way or another.

it might be a good idea to see the list of who is performing and check out some of their stuff in advance.

familiarity may add soemthing to the overall mix.

I used to like both kinds of music.

country.

and Western.

but I hate most of what they call Country today. its just Rap songs about country themes. as soon as I hear hands clapping I skip the song.

given the ticket prices are lofty too, the crowd should be a bit more mature. if so, that should be a plus.

set aside any expectations and see if you find out things end up being better than you may have thought going in.

enjoy!
jbrrp1
423 posts
 
I feel your pain!  My tastes fall pretty much the same, and I would not look forward to it, but relaxing and seeing another slice of life has its merits.  Do you have access to some gummy bears?  That might not hurt....
n80 OP
2,116 posts
 
@orpheus10 The dinner with the 'country' musician is different from the Juke Joint Festival which is almost entirely local blues musicians a fair number of whom are relatives of Junior Kimbrough and RL Burnside which is cool. Some of it is hard core delta blues as in one old guy with a guitar and that is what I like the most. 

@blindjim : Mississippi is a treasure chest of great musicians and writers. Sam Cooke was from Clarksdale. BB King was from nearby Indianola. The friends we are visiting helped do some engineering work for the BB King museum and got to meet him several times before he died. Of course most of the famous blues musicians were from Mississippi or Arkansas.

Elvis was from Mississippi.

Jimmy Buffett

Ike Turner

A slew of country and jazz music singers.

Leontyne Price (opera).

For a state so small, so poor and so backwards its contribution to literature and music is unparalleled. Rock and roll started in Mississippi.

@jbrrp1 I'll have a flask.
whart's avatar
whart
3,037 posts
 
Literature too. The South is famous for writers.
There’s a story, perhaps apocryphal, about a record business exec visiting a road house down south and hearing this marvelous performer. He approached the artist after a set and said, I’m with X label, I’d like to talk about signing you. To which the artist responded, "all that stuff goes through my agent in NY."
I’m fascinated by the stories of the blues revival and those (mostly young) people who collected 78s seeking the out the surviving legends. Some of the stories are great and have been collected in various books about Son House, Skip James, etc.
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