Documenting the Blues

The University of Mississippi became internationally known for documenting and preserving African American blues culture through Living Blues, the Blues Archive, recordings, radio, and teaching. Living Blues, the first American magazine devoted exclusively to the blues, was founded in Chicago in 1970 by seven young enthusiasts. Amy van Singel and Jim O’Neal became its owners and publishers in 1971 and operated it until its transfer to the University of Mississippi in 1983. Bruce Iglauer went on to form Alligator Records, and Paul Garon wrote books including Blues and the Poetic Spirit and biographies of Memphis Minnie and Peetie Wheatstraw. Living Blues became a journal of record for the African American blues tradition, emphasizing lengthy first-person narratives by living blues artists and coverage of local blues activity around the country, including Mississippi. The Center for the Study of Southern Culture, established at the University in 1977, acquired the magazine in 1983 under director Dr. William R. Ferris, who had written his doctoral dissertation on Delta blues traditions and contributed to Living Blues. O’Neal and van Singel moved from Chicago to Oxford after the transfer; in 1980 they had cofounded the Rooster Blvues record label, and O’Neal later started the Stackhouse label and helped establish the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival in Clarksdale. In 1983 the Center launched its Southern Culture label to document Mississippi blues, gospel, and folk music. Living Blues was later edited by Peter Lee, David Nelson, Scott Barretta, and Brett J. Bonner, and Ferris, Nelson, and Barretta also hosted the University-produced radio show Highway 61, which began a long run on Mississippi Public Broadcasting in 1984. Ferris was instrumental in establishing the University’s Blues Archive, which opened in 1984 with the Living Blues and B.B. King collections among its first major components; he arranged for King to contribute his large record collection and for O’Neal and van Singel to donate records, photos, subject files, and memorabilia. Other major holdings included the Trumpet Records Collection and the Sheldon Harris Collection. Housed at the J. D. Williams Library and led by archivists Suzanne Flandreau, Edward Komara, and Greg Johnson, the Archive has aided thousands of researchers. The University also offered blues courses taught by Ferris, Peter Aschoff, Adam Gussow, David Evans, and others, and in 2003 began hosting Blues Today: A Living Blues Symposium.

University, Mississippi · United States