Living Blues
Hosts First Blues Symposium
E-mail address: blues@olemiss.edu

     Blues enthusiasts from around the globe gathered at the University of Mississippi, home of Living Blues, on February 21-22 to take part in "The Blues Today: A Living Blues Symposium." The symposium incorporated a number of special events, each of which offered unique perspectives on the genre and attested to the depth and breadth of blues and its extraordinary influences on American culture. Noted author, jazz scholar, and critic Stanley Crouch delivered the Early Wright memorial keynote address. 
     The most emphatic declaration of the blues’ vitality was made on stage by three of the genre’s essential contemporary performers: Bobby Rush, Little Milton, and Willie King. Each played a set at an Oxford club—Little Milton’s was his first performance in the city since he played at an all-white Ole Miss fraternity house before the University’s integration 40 years ago. Jackson, Mississippi, attorney, club-owner, and patron of the blues, Isaac K. Byrd Jr., sponsored the concert. 
     A panel discussion the following day devoted to "Blues Music Today," moderated by Living Blues cofounder Jim O’Neal, covered the range of musical perspectives from Little Milton, to King’s downhome "struggling blues," and the glamorous soul blues of Bobby Rush. Also participating was Memphis-based blues retailer Malcolm Anthony and blues scholar Lea Gilmore. (Gilmore’s 2002 Keeping the Blues Alive Award-winning Web site devoted to women in blues history can be viewed at: www.p-dub.com/thang.) Discussion centered on a number of important topics on the current blues scene, such as the negative connotations blues stirs in some minds and the epidemic of bootleg recordings.

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