The Coldwater area nurtured a remarkable range of African American musical talent, including blues, soul, gospel, and ballad singers and instrumentalists whose work reached far beyond this small Mississippi community. From the 1960s to the early 1980s, hill country bluesman R. L. Burnside lived in the area and made his first recordings there in 1967 for folklorist George Mitchell with harmonica player W.C. Veasey; Mitchell also recorded Burnside’s friend Jesse Vortis, and Vortis, Ulysee “Red” Ramsey, and Johnny Woods later recorded locally with Burnside. In 1978 Alan Lomax’s team filmed Burnside at his home in nearby Independence, and Burnside’s informal gatherings often included his wife Alice Mae, several of their children, and guitarist Stonewall Mays. The Burton family also produced notable musicians who moved north to Chicago: bassist and singer Aron Burton, sent there in 1955 by his mother after the murder of Emmett Till, performed with major blues artists, while his brother Larry Burton later gained attention with Albert Collins’ Icebreakers and also worked with Albert King and Jimmy Johnson; both recorded on their own and together, while other family members also pursued music. Big Time Sarah Streeter became a prominent Chicago blues singer after moving away as a child, beginning her club career at fourteen, joining Sunnyland Slim in 1976, touring in Europe, and recording for Delmark and other labels while advocating for greater visibility for female blues artists. Soul vocalist Bill Coday, who had begun performing in Arkansas before moving to Chicago in the early 1960s, recorded there and scored a national R&B hit in 1971 with “Get Your Lie Straight,” later recording for Ecko Records. Blind ballad singer Al Hibbler, a native of Tyro, sang with Jay McShann’s orchestra and then spent eight years with Duke Ellington before his 1955 recording of “Unchained Melody” reached No. 3 on the pop charts. Other local musicians included Stonewall Mays, Son Hibbler, and Joe Townsend, underscoring how much musical talent emerged from Coldwater and its surroundings.