An Audio/Visual Love Letter Called M FOR MiSSiSSiPPi

"I'm backed by the river and i'm fronted by the grave."
-Red Paden, owner of Red's Lounge, Clarksdale

Broke and Hungry Records’ Chief Jeff Konkel and his pal Roger Stolle, of Clarksdale's Cathead Art and Music just released their new documentary M For Mississippi to rave reviews, mine included. M For Mississippi is the best and most essential blues documentary since my all time fave Deep Blues. 


M for Mississippi isn't some soul less academic search for the history of the blues; it's the blues as it's happening now. Part road trip, part buddy film, M for M manages to be just as hilarious as it is poignant, moving, and educational. Not content to put together some dry dull (Cue Ben Stein/Eeyore voice over: This is the blues. This is where it came from. This is the poverty in Mississippi. Then everybody moved to Chicago and lived happily ever after …) film our hosts hopped in the van themselves with brilliant cameraman/filmmaker Damien Blaylock and recording engineer Bill Abel (who has a studio set up in the back of his Volvo wagon) to roll around the state and survey today's blues scene for a pulse check. Attention world: It ain't dead. Not by half. 


Of course it all depends on how you define the blues. Is it some dude slinging a guitar behind his head and wankin' weedleyweedley Chicago-style pyrotechnics with his teeth at a casino in Clarksdale? If that's your thing, I guess. Ain't mine. Ain't Stolle and Konkel's idea of blues either. M For Mississippi delivers a small taste of what's left of Mississippi's non-corporate blues scene. For me, and for these film makers, the blues is Mr. Tater The Music Maker, a street musician so incredibly idiosyncratic he verges on living blues folk art. It's notorious eighty-something year old ladies man and Fat Possum Records’ legend T-Model Ford. It's the seventy-eight year old Mississippi Marvel who hides his identity so as not to cause a rift in his church by playing the devil's music or Pat Thomas, a blues man with a beautiful and haunting voice who also happens to be a folk artist working in collage and, like his father blues man Son Thomas in clay. And it's Jimmy "Duck" Holmes who operates the Blue Front Cafe, one of Mississippi's last real juke joints, and who carries the torch of Skip James and Jack Owens' high lonesome Bentonia Mississippi sound. 


Whatever it is it's raw and powerful and done with pure honest soul. These artists and others in the film just do their thing and would be doing it whether Konkel and Stolle recorded them and put 'em in a movie or not. Yeah, they can be and are entertaining but that ain't the reason they play. They play because they live it and live for it. What they do has more in common with punk rock than whatever it is that claims to be punk rock today. 


M For Mississippi is a visually gorgeous film that is at once thoughtful and funny, hi-tech and low-down. This film is an audio/visual music geek’s love letter to the native music of Mississippi and America that I proudly declare to be a fine matching bookend to, if not part two of Deep Blues. Thanks to Jeff Konkel and Roger Stolle and, most of all to the artists involved, the story continues.

"Look what you can get if you don't clown.
But if you clown you don't get a dog gone thing."
-Mr. T-Model Ford

There is also a fine soundtrack available, too. Actually there will be two soundtracks. The tracklisting for the first soundtrack is as follows:

1. M for Mississippi - Big George Brock

2. The wolves are howling - Wesley Jefferson Blues Band

3. Ain't it alright - R.L. Boyce and Lightnin' Malcolm

4. I'm a bluesman - Terry 'Harmonica' Bean

5. Slow down, slow down - Jimmy 'Duck' Holmes

6. Black Mattie's face - The Mississippi Marvel and Lightnin' Malcolm

7. Hip shakin' woman - T-Model Ford and Stud

8. Give it all to me baby - Cadillac John Nolden and Bill Abel

9. The woman I love - Pat Thomas ((((mp3))))

10. Bring it on home - Robert Bilbo Walker Band

11. Rosalee - L.C. Ulmer
The second volume will be out in the spring. It will feature more songs recorded during the filming. Twelve tracks in all, including an unreleased solo-harp version of the theme song.
You can buy the M For Mississippi DVD + the soundtrack + free shipping anywhere in the world for only forth dollars direct from Broke and Hungry right HERE.
You can buy the Deep Blues dvd from Amazon right HERE.
M For Mississippi Trailers

WE JUKE UP iN HERE! - Jeff and Roger's Excellent Adventure in Mississippi Continues...

Jeff Konkel of Broke and Hungry Records and Roger Stolle of Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art are joining forces again to film another documentary on the Mississippi blues scene, this one titled We Juke Up In Here. After the great job they did on M For Mississippi 2008's documentary and soundtrack  I can't wait to see it.
For more information, contact:

Jeff Konkel at jeff@brokeandhungryrecords.com
Roger Stolle at roger@cathead.biz

(CLARKSDALE, MS) – The creative team behind the award-winning 2008 blues movie M For Mississippi have reunited for a new film celebrating the Delta’s down-home blues tradition. The new film, We Juke Up In Here: Mississippi’s Juke Joint Culture at the Crossroads, is slated for an April 2012 release but is now available for pre-order at the film’s official web site: www.wejukeupinhere.com.

We Juke Up In Here follows producers Jeff Konkel of Broke & Hungry Records and Roger Stolle of Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art as they explore what remains of Mississippi’s once-thriving juke joint culture. The film is told largely from the vantage point of Red Paden, proprietor of the legendary Red’s Lounge in historic Clarksdale, Mississippi. Paden, a true Delta character and jack-of-all-trades, has been running his blues and beer joint for more than 30 years – providing one of the region’s most reliable live blues venues and an authentic stage for a cavalcade of veteran blues performers, both legendary and obscure.

Told through live music performances, character-driven interviews and rare on-camera blues experiences, viewers will be taken below the surface of the quasi-legal world of real Delta jukes while it’s still living and breathing.

The project reunites Konkel and Stolle with cinematographer Damien Blaylock and sound engineer Bill Abel who were instrumental in the success of the earlier film, M For Mississippi. Rounding out the production team is Lou Bopp who is providing both video and still photography.

We Juke Up In Here will be released as a deluxe box set featuring a DVD, a CD soundtrack and a glossy pullout booklet with multiple essays, notes and color photos. The DVD will include the feature-length documentary along with a treasure trove of bonus features including unreleased scenes, production stills, a promotional trailer, closed captioning, French and Italian subtitles and more. The DVD will be region-free and playable on DVD players worldwide. The box set will retail for $25 (US).

Customers who pre-order the film will receive the product weeks before its official release and will pay no shipping fee.

Pre-orders also provide the filmmakers with access to additional cash resources during the movie’s crucial production phase. “The early support of blues fans and documentary lovers allows us to make an even better film,” Konkel said. “Pre-order dollars enable us to involve even more blues artists in the movie and to incorporate additional shoots into our production schedule.”

The filmmakers also are benefiting from the invaluable financial support of several marketing sponsors.

The filmmakers’ principal sponsor and European partner is the Rootsway Roots & Blues Association (www.rootsandblues.org), a nonprofit organization from Parma, Italy. Founded in 2004, the group is dedicated to promoting rural and indigenous American and African-American musical art forms throughout northern Italy. Rootsway has brought several Mississippi blues performers to Italy in recent years.

Other sponsors include:

- Cat Head Vodka, Mississippi’s first legal distillery and a committed supporter of live music in general and blues music in particular.

- Lemuria Books, a Jackson, Mississippi-based institution and one of the finest independent bookstores in America. Lemuria houses thousands of literary titles and an impressive selection of Mississippi blues CDs .

- Nayati Dreams, a French company promoting American roots, folk and blues music in France and throughout Europe. Nayati Dreams partners with blues labels and also works to organize concerts and promote roots music through print and radio outreach.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that we simply couldn’t make this movie without the generous contribution of our sponsors,” Stolle said. “We’re incredibly grateful to the many individuals and organizations around the world who recognize the importance of Mississippi’s amazing blues heritage through their support of projects like this.”

Additional sponsorship opportunities remain for We Juke Up In Here. The film’s producers have developed numerous sponsorship levels, each with a corresponding marketing and product premiums. To inquire about sponsorships, e-mail the filmmakers at info@wejukeupinhere.com.

We Juke Up In Here is a joint production of Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art and Broke & Hungry Records.

M FOR MiSSiSSiPPi - The Soundtrack

The soundtrack to the raw blues documentary M FOR MiSSiSSiPPi is currently only available as part of a package that includes the DVD of M FOR MiSSiSSiPPi (signed by the film makers) as well as bumper stickers for principals Broke and Hungry Records and Cat Head Delta Folk Art (free shipping folks!) for a mere forty bucks.

The soundtrack will be released seperately in a few weeks.

Jeff Konkel of Broke and Hungry tells me "All of the songs on the soundtrack, with the exception of the title track by Big George Brock, were recorded on location during the filming. A second volume of music from the film is slated for release next spring."

The tracklisting for the this first soundtrack runs as follows:

1. M for Mississippi – Big George Brock & The Houserockers
2. The Wolves Are Howling – Wesley Jefferson Blues Band
3. Ain’t It Alright – R.L. Boyce & Lightnin’ Malcolm
4. I’m A Bluesman – Terry “Harmonica” Bean
5. Slow Down, Slow Down – Jimmy “Duck” Holmes
6. Black Mattie’s Face – The Mississippi Marvel & Lightnin’ Malcolm
7. Hip Shakin’ Woman – T-Model Ford & Stud
8. Give It All To Me Baby – “Cadillac” John Nolden & Bill Abel
9. The Woman I Love – Pat Thomas
10. Bring It On Home – The Robert “Bilbo” Walker Band
11. Rosalee – L.C. Ulmer

Keep in mind that all these tracks are previously unreleased and not available anywhere else.I know that all y'all reading this are gonna want the whole DVD/CD package. This set certainly rivals the (now o.o.p.) soundtrack for the essential Deep Blues documentary and makes a hell of a fine bookend for that film.

Your pal Konkel was kind enough to provide me with a MP3 of The Woman I Love by Pat Thomas. Mr. Thomas is the son of the late great James "Son" Thomas and Broke and Hungry will be issuing Pat's debut album in the spring.

Pat Thomas- The Woman I Love MP3

M FOR MiSSiSSiPPi: A Road Trip Through The Birthplace of The Blues

The new film M FOR Mississippi is now available and I cannot wait to get my hands on it! From what I've seen in the trailers it's gonna be a must see for fans of true hard blues. The film was built by Jeff Konkel of Broke and Hungry Records, Rodger of Cathead Delta Blues and Folkart in Clarksdale, filmmaker Damien Blaylock, and Kari Jones of Mudpuppy Records. This film stars Mr. Tater the Music Maker, Terry "Harmonica" Bean, Wesley "Junebug" Jefferson, Bill Abel, R.L. Boyce, Lightnin' Malcolm, Pat Thomas, T-Model Ford, The Mississippi Marvel, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, Cadillac John Nolden, Bilbo Walker, Robert Belfour, L.C. Ulmer. This film is a dream come true for those involved. For those of us who's taste in blues came alive with, and was happily soiled and sullied by, the film Deep Blues have just recieved an early Christmas present....and it's a pony!

M FOR MiSSiSSiPPi DVD and Soundtrack
can be ordered HERE.