#scottbarretta

Scott Barretta returning to Natchez

He will talk about Charles Evers’ Blues Legacy

 NATCHEZ, Miss. – Blues historian Scott Barretta is returning to Natchez to talk about “Charles Evers’ Blues Legacy” in recognition of Black History Month. He will speak at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27, 2023, at Historic Natchez Foundation, 108 S. Commerce St.

Barretta will present the same lecture at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28, in Dumas Hall, Room 107, at the Lorman campus of Alcorn State University. Both events are free to the public. They are sponsored by the Southwest Mississippi Center for Culture & Learning at Alcorn State University.

“Charles Evers is deservedly best known for his contributions to the civil rights movement and his political engagement in the state, but I also think it’s important to recognize him as a pioneer in cultural tourism,” said Barretta. “Notably,” he added, “the annual Medgar Evers Homecoming Celebration concert featuring B.B. King and other blues greats, which brought in people from across the country, predated the Mississippi Delta Blues Festival by five years.”

Teresa Busby, the center’s executive director, said Barretta’s talk will address the impact Evers had on the public visibility of the blues in Mississippi. Busby said the presentation will also address Evers’ work as a DJ in Philadelphia, Miss., in the 1950s; a nightclub owner in Chicago and Mississippi; and as the owner for many years of a blues-oriented radio station in Jackson.

The first major show held by Evers occurred in 1973 at the Mississippi Fairgrounds in Jackson, Barretta said.  Evers recalled he had first visited this site when it was a makeshift jail where hundreds of civil rights activists were locked up, Barretta said.

“Now black and white can walk in there together for an evening of singing and dancing,” Evers noted on the first event. “That’s the way Medgar would have wanted it and he died trying to make that kind of joy possible.”

In 1969, Charles Evers became the first African American mayor in Mississippi since the Reconstruction era when he was elected as mayor of Fayette.

Barretta’s last visit to Natchez occurred in October 2022 when he presented a talk on “Natchez’s Rich Blues Tradition.” A resident of Greenwood, Barretta is well known as the host of the MPB radio show “Highway 61.” He is a writer and researcher for the Mississippi Blues Trail. He also teaches sociology courses about music at the University of Mississippi.

By ROSCOE BARNES

Special to The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ – Blues historian Scott Barretta is coming to Natchez to talk about the blues.

Specifically, he will talk about the key people in the city’s blues history in a presentation at 1 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 8, at the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture.

The free event is a “Coffee and Culture” initiative that is sponsored by the Southwest Mississippi Center for Culture & Learning at Alcorn State University, according to Teresa A. Busby, the center’s executive director.

Barretta’s talk, “Natchez’s Rich Blues Tradition,” will focus on musicians, including Papa George Lightfoot, Scott Dunbar, Hezekiah Early and the Ealey brothers, as well as songs about the Rhythm Club fire of1940.

Walter Barnes, the musician who died in the 1940 fire that killed more than 200 people, will also be mentioned, according to Barretta. The legacy of the fire, Barretta said, “was particularly important in terms of the songs that were written in the wake of that terrible tragedy.”

Barretta noted “Barnes himself was very interesting beyond his musicianship, as he was one of the leading journalists for African American entertainment at the time.”

Note: Online version of this story can be viewed on The Natchez Democrat website. See it here.

Barretta is a resident of Greenwood. He is widely known as the host the MPB radio show “Highway 61.” In addition to being a writer and researcher for the Mississippi Blues Trail, he teaches sociology courses about music at the University of Mississippi.

The music connoisseur said he looks forward to a return visit to Natchez, which he first visited in 1999 when he came to Mississippi to edit Living Blues magazine.

“I spent the most time there in 2009-10 when I conducted oral histories of local musicians, including Hezekiah Early and YZ Ealey, for the Mississippi Arts Commission and then wrote up articles on many of the artists for a special Natchez issue of Living Blues,” he said.

Barretta said he helped write and research multiple Mississippi Blues Trail markers in the Natchez area.  “I’m really looking forward to speaking about the artists there, particularly as I’ve never presented these stories in Natchez,” he said.

Speaking of Natchez, Barretta said nothing is as dramatic in Mississippi’s landscape as the bluffs.

“I love how integrated the river is into the cityscape,” he said. “I timed my visit so I could go to the Blues and Soul Super Bowl there. Otherwise, as a historian, I enjoy the fact that so much of Natchez’s long history is evident, and that in recent years there’s been so much attention to the legacy of its African American residents.”

Mark your calendars!