Having visited the Mississippi Delta multiple times in the last couple of years, I have a much richer appreciation of the music and the culture that grew from there. Recently my Borders bookstore closed, and before it did, I stocked up on music books. The one I am reading now is the Muddy Waters biography by Robert Gordon, Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters. I have been into the blues since the 60s when a Rolling Stones album credited McKinley Morganfield and I went on a pre-computer search to find out who that was...Muddy’s real name, ya know. “Can’t Be Satisfied” is an especially wonderful read now that I have felt the land, I just have so much more understanding. So much has changed in our society in the last 100 years, that is driven home by this wonderfully written book also.
Photo Credit: James MinchinToday we take you east on MS-16 from Issaquena County, Muddy’s birthplace, to the town of Philadelphia, MS, Marty Stuart’s hometown. He has been on a mission to preserve the changing landscape, and the music that shaped him. There is a new biopic of him; Marty Stuart In Philadelphia, Mississippi, that you can watch on Hulu. There is a short teaser of it here. This documentary sets up the making of last year’s Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions CD, and gives us an insight into Marty’s upbringing and front porch picking as a framework for the track his career has taken.
Here is Marty with guitar guru Kenny Vaughan and the rest of the Fabulous Superlatives with the very first song from the very first Marty Stuart show on RFD.
- Jessie Scott