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Article: Blood, soil, and the blues: the particular truth of the North Mississippi Allstars.(CULTURE)
- Article from:
- Sojourners Magazine
- Article date:
- July 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Sojourners. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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There are two axioms in life of which I am sure. One is derived from the gospel of John and the other from the late member of Congress Thomas "Tip" O'Neill. They are as follows: Truth is incarnate. And all politics are local. Applied to the arts, these lead to a corollary. Art that aspires to be universal must be supremely specific, detailed, and rooted in a particular place and time.
And that brings me to the art that speaks the universe from the particular red dirt of the North Mississippi hills. I'm not talking about Faulkner (though I could be). I'm talking about the North Mississippi Allstars, the center of a blues-rock cult that started down here in the ...