Sixty of the 169 cyanotypes from the MacKenzie Album, showing views, boats, dams, and bridges on the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and St. Louis from 1883-1891.

Although many bluesmen began leaving the Magnolia State in the early twentieth century to pursue fortune and fame up north, many others stayed home. These musicians remained rooted to the traditions of their land, which came to define a distinctive playing style unique to Mississippi. They didn't simply play the blues, they lived it. Travel through the hallowed juke joints and cotton fields with author Roger Stolle as he recounts the history of Mississippi blues and the musicians who have kept it alive. Some of these bluesmen remain to carry on this proud legacy, while others have passed on, but Hidden History of Mississippi Blues ensures none will be forgotten.

Rhythm & blues emerged from the African American community in the late 1940s to become the driving force in American popular music over the next half-century. Although sometimes called “doo-wop,” “soul,” “funk,” “urban contemporary,” or “hip-hop,” R&B is actually an umbrella category that includes all of these styles and genres. It is in fact a modern-day incarnation of a musical tradition that stretches back to nineteenth-century America, and even further to African beginnings. The New Blue Music: Changes in Rhythm & Blues, 1950-1999 traces the development of R&B from 1950 to 1999 by closely analyzing the top twenty-five songs of each decade. The music of artists as wide-ranging as Louis Jordan; John Lee Hooker; Ray Charles; James Brown; Earth, Wind & Fire; Michael Jackson; Public Enemy; Mariah Carey; and Usher takes center stage as the author illustrates how R&B has not only retained its traditional core style, but has also experienced a “re-Africanization” over time. By investigating musical elements of form, style, and content in R&B—and offering numerous musical examples—the book shows the connection between R&B and other forms of American popular and religious music, such as spirituals, ragtime, blues, jazz, country, gospel, and rock 'n' roll. With this evidence in hand, the author hypothesizes the existence of an even larger musical “super-genre” which he labels “The New Blue Music.”

"The New All-too-True-Blue History of Mississippi" is a creative history of Mississippi (or an "alternative" history, if you will). Events that are covered include, but are not limited to: TIME IMMEMORIAL -- Plaquemine Cultures, Mud Cats and Mud Pies 1540 to 1541 -- De Soto & the Female Lumberjacks 1716 -- Oldest Permanent Settlement on the Mississippi Founded 1817 - Statehood 1834 -- Slaves Returned to Africa 1863 - Siege of Vicksburg 1884 -- Shoes on the Wrong Feet 1898 -- Root Beer Invented 1903 -- "Teddy" Waits for Bigger Game 1940s - John Lomax Recordings 1945 -- "Black Boy" 1955 -- "Bo Diddley" 1956 -- Elvis and Ed 1962 - Battle of Oxford 1967 -- "In the Heat of the Knights in White Hoods" 1967 -- "Ode to Billie Joe" 1969 - Hurricane Camille 1977 -- "Margaritaville" 1996 -- "A Time to Kill" (Movie) 1996 -- "Ghosts of Mississippi" 2000 -- "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" 2005 -- Katrina & the Waves 2005 -- Klansman Konvicted Most of the events have explanatory images to help you visualize the history lessons.