#william ferris

[milkandheavysugar]

Author/Poet Alice Walker in New Haven, Connecticut (1977), photo by William R. Ferris

[dirtylowdown2]

Black Delta Religion

'This film was made from b/w Super 8mm footage that William Ferris gathered in rural Mississippi in 1968. The film includes footage from rural church services and a full immersion baptism.'

[killerbeesting]

William Ferris, James “Son” Thomas, musician and sculptor, Leland, Mississippi, 1968

[justwalkiingthedog]

Folklore as a political act: William Ferris on preserving Mississippi Delta blues | CBC Radio

Folklorist William Ferris talks about recording and capturing the memories of musicians in the American South in the '60s and '70s.

added value link ... http://americanroutes.wwno.org/archives/show/1102/Blues-Jukes-Jazz-Streets-with-Bill-Ferris-and-Doreen-Ketchens?fbclid=IwAR3JCIXJy8vh5stURd6V29MaygxFf0XbDDK0pzcIiDfloDaLYuempBWQaqg

[ruhevoll]

http://digital.livingblues.com/publication/?i=529878&article_id=3201831&view=articleBrowser&ver=html5#{%22issue_id%22:529878,%22view%22:%22articleBrowser%22,%22article_id%22:%223201831%22} 

[dustedmagazine]

Various Artists—Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris (Dust to Digital)

Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by Bill Ferris by Various Artists

Spare a moment to praise Dust-to-Digital. For the better part of two decades the label has swum against the economic and cultural tides. At a time when the general population has lost interest in records as things and the music industry has undergone its worst shrinkage since the Great Depression, D-t-D has succeeded by assembling gorgeously packaged boxed sets and book/CD combos such as Goodbye, Babylon, Opika Pende, Greek Rhapsody and …I Listen to the Wind that Obliterates my Traces. These collections use handsomely reproduced images, scrupulously researched texts, and respectfully cleaned up 78s or field recordings that allow the listener to experience the richness of an earlier century’s culture and consider what it has to say about our own time. This last point is especially valuable when know-nothing nativism is on the rise around the world, and it’s worth considering in relation to Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris. 

Voices of Mississippi is a typically beautiful D-t-D object. It comprises one hardcover book, 3 CDs of blues and gospel music and stories collected by folklorist William Ferris and a DVD of films Ferris made between 1972 and 80, all packaged in a cloth-bound box with an unforgettable image of folk artist and blues musician James “Son Ford” Thomas on the cover. If you are a vinyl hound, you can purchase a single LP of tunes cherry-picked from the blues and gospel discs, and if you are a documentary film buff the DVD separately, but to get the full immersive effect you need to spring for the box. This is a document of a life devoted to celebrating lives and uplifting the best of a culture that’s too easy to be known only through its most odious and self-hating manifestations.  

Ferris’ recordings are from the 1960s through the 1980s. The blues disc was done mostly in homes and stores, the gospel set in churches, and the stories wherever people sat down with Ferris and his tape recorder. You’ll find a few well-known names; Mississippi Fred McDowell plays some splendid slide guitar on his own and accompanying others; author Alex Haley advocates for the beauty of southern rural culture and B.B. King tells you about his guitar’s name; Allen Ginsberg talks with James “Son Ford” Thomas about improvisation. But it’s the experience of seeing and hearing the folks you don’t know yet that will win you over to Haley and Ferris’ love for the ways and the language of rural Mississippi. Whether it’s Reverend Smith and family of Leland MS or Scott Dunbar of Camp Shelbey MS singing a long yarn about liquoring up his girlfriend’s parents in order to get some undisturbed courting time, you’ll hear how folk forms allow people to express their stories and passions.  The short film “Green Valley Grandparents” shows the love and meaning that grow from a social program that connects older folks on fixed incomes with impaired children. In 2018 we need stories like these, and Voices of Mississippi makes it possible to drink deep, faith-restoring draughts.  

Bill Meyer

[musicofourheart]

State of the Blues - Jeff Dunas

State of the Blues – Jeff Dunas

I picked up a copy of a new magazine to me, American Photo (March/April 2015) yesterday. The issue focuses on music photographers of then and now.

I just can’t get enough of music photography books. State of the Blues by photographer Jeff Dunas is an incredible portrait study of the artists who define the blues.

A hardcover book and paperback of the same title (1998) published by Aperture…

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