This
Saturday, July 10, at 1 p.m. in the Delta Blues Museum
classroom, Peter Guralnick will discuss his writing on
blues (his first interview was with Howlin' Wolf) and
Sam Cooke, the Clarksdale-born music legend, with Marc
Smirnoff, editor of the Oxford American magazine. This
event is free and open to the public. Guralnick will be
available to sign books after the talk.
This event is part of the Oxford American's "The Most
Southern Weekend on Earth" celebration of its "Best of
the South" issue, featuring events in and around Clarksdale
July 9-10 and live music at Ground Zero Blues Club, Clarksdale,
MS. For more information, go to The
Oxford American.
Peter Guralnick has been writing about American music--blues,
country, soul, R&B, gospel, and rock-and-roll--for 45
years. His mastery of the facts and his deep feeling for
the heart of popular music is unsurpassed. So is his gift
for portraiture, whether he's producing snapshots of blues
and country musicians in Feel Like Going Home and Lost
Highway, or taking a more panoramic approach in Sweet
Soul Music, a history of soul music. His two-volume biography
of Elvis--Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love--separated
the man and his music from tabloid myths. Now Guralnick
has pulled off a similar success with the authoritative,
epic Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke.
"A friend of mine went to the Newport Folk Festival and
came back with a bunch of records. Among them were a couple
of blues records . . . I never heard anything like it.
It just hit me, it just totally grabbed me, and from that
point on, there was no turning around. I was totally into
the blues and it led me to every other kind of music,
gospel to country." -Peter Guralnick
The Delta Blues Museum is located at #1 Blues Alley in
downtown Clarksdale. The museum is open Monday through
Saturday, from 9 AM to 5 PM. For more information, call
the museum at 662-627-6820.
