Population (2010) 2,819 Introduction Once a bustling port at the confluence of two of the biggest rivers in the US, Cairo (pronounced CARE-o) today is a shell of its former self. The reasons for its shocking decline aren’t too hard to figure out. History The
We're closing out flood month with an angry, foreboding song from TJ Colatrella with The Band's Garth Hudson. Mississippi Flood was recorded in 2011 at Levon Helm's barn in Woodstock, New York. The music video skillfully mixes film footage from the 1927 flood with TJ's vocals. Listen to more Songs here.
In 2006 four highly regarded bluegrass musicians (Tommy Drake, Chris Stockwell, Tim Corbett, and Kelly Davis) and a whole bunch of their friends got together to record a few new and traditional tunes. They called themselves Step Into the Blue and gave the CD the same name. One of the songs on this CD, Big
It's May, which means the Mississippi is rising and it's time for a month's worth of flood songs. We're going to kick it off with a classic from Bessie Smith: Backwater Blues. A lot of people associate this song with the 1927 flood, but it was actually recorded in February of 1927, several weeks before
Rosanne Cash has a fine new CD out--The River and the Thread--inspired in large part by a trip back to the family homeland in the Mississippi Delta. This song in particular, The Sunken Lands, speaks to life along the Mississippi River, focusing on the area around Dyess, Arkansas where the Cash family established itself during
The Song of the Month Department is kicking off the new year with a special theme: Remakes! During January, every Song of the Day post will feature the original version of a song plus an interesting remake. We'll start with a classic, Old Man River from the musical Showboat by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein. Below
