Monticello area native J. B. Lenoir (1929-1967) was a distinctive blues artist known for his high-pitched singing style, his 1955 hit “Mama, Talk to Your Daughter,” and his candid political critiques in song. Born on his family’s farm near Monticello on March 5, 1929, he learned guitar from his father, Devitt or Dewitt Lenoir Sr., and also played with his brother Dewitt Jr. as a youth. He left because of racial discrimination, began traveling to play music in his teens, lived in Gulfport and worked at the Splendid Cafe there in the 1940s, and later said he performed in New Orleans with Sonny Boy Williamson No. 2 and Elmore James. By 1949 he had settled in Chicago, where Big Bill Broonzy took him “as his son.” He performed with Memphis Minnie, Muddy Waters, and Little Walter, formed J. B. and his Bayou Boys with Sunnyland Slim on piano, and in 1950 made first recordings that included the topical “Korea Blues.” His 1954 release “Eisenhower Blues” caused controversy and was rerecorded as “Tax Paying Blues.” In the 1960s he recorded topical songs in Chicago addressing discrimination, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War, and in 1965-66 recorded political songs for European release, including “Shot on James Meredith,” “Alabama March,” “Born Dead,” “Vietnam Blues,” and “Down in Mississippi,” for producer Willie Dixon at the request of German promoters Horst Lippman and Fritz Rau. Lenoir and his Afro-American Blues Band performed some of these songs on a 1965 European tour, but the material was reportedly considered too controversial for release in the United States at the time and appeared on American labels only years later. He died on April 29, 1967, in Urbana, Illinois, from complications resulting from an auto accident. His music drew renewed attention in 2003 through the Wim Wenders documentary “The Soul of a Man,” and in 2011 he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. His cousin Byther Smith, whose mother was a sister of Dewitt Lenoir Sr., also became a Chicago blues recording artist noted for cutting-edge lyrics. Born near Monticello on April 17, 1932, Smith moved to Chicago in 1956 hoping to join Lenoir’s band as a bass player, though that never happened. He had first played guitar in a Memphis gospel group, worked as a drummer in Jackson, learned upright bass in a country band in Arizona, played bass or guitar with leading Chicago bluesmen including Otis Rush, Junior Wells, Fenton Robinson, and Sunnyland Slim, and made distinctive recordings with his own band. Although many of his songs treated standard blues themes, he also sometimes used political topics, and his most intense songs centered on death, violence, and personal tragedies.