Calhoun County produced a notable blues heritage through musicians including Leo “Bud” Welch and John “Ace” Cannon. Welch, a Sabougla native born on March 22, 1932, grew up on the family farm in a relatively isolated county known for logging and lumber work, which he also did for decades. A fan of the Grand Ole Opry, he began performing guitar in his early teens with his younger brother Arlanda and cousin L.C. Welch, played over Grenada’s WNAG at 18 with Alford Harris and Walter Farmer, and after settling in Bruce performed again with his brother and cousin, often opening for touring acts at George Chandler’s Blue Angel Ballroom in the African American section of town known as “the quarters.” Welch recalled appearances there by Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and Magic Sam, and the club remained popular for decades under later owners including James Parker, with performers including Little Milton, Bobby Rush, and Delta artists such as Little Bill Wallace. Other local blues venues included Robert Bean’s Arcade and Leroy Daniel’s Violin behind the E.L. Bruce Company sawmill, the basis for Bruce’s founding in 1928. During much of the 1960s Welch played solo at houseparties, in the 1970s formed Leo Welch and the Rising Souls, and in 1975 began playing regularly with gospel groups including his own Sabougla Voices, the Skuna Valley Male Chorus, and the Spiritualaires. In the early 1980s he began hosting the video-based television program Black Gospel on Bruce’s local W07BN. His return to blues followed a 2013 performance at the 50th birthday party of Calhoun City native Vencie Varnado, who became his manager, booked him locally and overseas, and arranged a recording contract with Oxford’s Big Legal Mess label, leading to international acclaim in 2014. Cannon, born in Grenada on May 5, 1934, to parents with Calhoun County roots, moved as a child to Memphis, began playing saxophone with country groups at 12, worked as a session musician behind Sun rockabilly artists including Billy Lee Riley and Jerry Lee Lewis, later joined Bill Black’s Combo, and was influenced by Earl Bostic and by blues and R&B bands in West Memphis, including one led by Willie Mitchell, his future producer at Hi Records. At Hi Records he had multiple hit singles and recorded more than twenty albums; his 1976 single “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain” was nominated for a GRAMMY for Best Country Instrumental Performance, and in 1985 he appeared on the Sun Records reunion album “The Class of ’55” with Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Roy Orbison. After moving to Calhoun City in 1988, he was honored through multiple Ace Cannon Festival events and continued performing actively.