The Land Where the Blues Began

Abstract

Mississippi summers are hot. When you pick up a camera you are instantly drenched with sweat from the exertion. Three thousand watts of quartz light and two hundred people crammed into a little church add to the effect. It was the first day's shoot and I was nervous; they weren't getting audio in the recording van and already the deacon was starting the revival. My collaborator, folklorist Worth Long, had briefed me on the order of the service and what to expect. I thought over what he said as I waited. The two men in the front row were seekers who expected to accept religion; the preaching, singing, and praying would focus on them. If all went well, they would cross over to the mourner's bench which faced the congregation. "Tape's rolling." Director Alan Lomax' voice came across the intercom. I swung the Ikegami HL-77 onto my shoulder and looked across the room to Ludwig Goon who would be shooting concurrently with a TKP-45. He smiled and gestured thumbs up as the congregation eased into the galvanizing moan of a lining hymn. Things moved fast for the next three hours. Alan coordinated the coverage by intercom from the van where he would watch both monitors. Much of the interaction consisted of rapid alternation between song leader and congregation or preacher and congregation, so each camera fed a separate recorder for greatest flexibility in editing. The experience was more intense that I had expected. There was poetry in the songs and sermon, tender community support of the parishioners in trance, and the resolution of an essential conflict of group membership when the two seekers cross over. I was swept into the excitement; the camera became part of me, the heat ceased to be noticeable, and I moved as part of the congregation. This revival service was the start of a month of shooting that would culminate in a one-hour program for PBS, THE LAND WHERE THE BLUES BEGAN.

Mississippi River Valley: The Course of American Civilization

“…Charles Brockden Brown (1804;repr. New York, 1968), [31][32]Audubon,Mississippi River Journal,21. 14.…”

“…15. Walker,Mississippi Valley,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]Foster,Mississippi Valley, autumn are relatively mild, but summers in the upper valley are hot and humid, with the heavy, late afternoon thundershowers that characterize the Mississippi Valley in general. 16 John James Audubon sailed the upper Mississippi by both keelboat and steamboat.…”

“…One hunter told Audubon he owed the gators "a Grudge for killing an excellent hunting Dog." 32 Despite being surrounded by a diverse ecosystem with exotic flora and fauna he had never before witnessed, John James Audubon remained fascinated by the lowly catfish. Common throughout the entire extent of the Mississippi River Valley, catfish somehow possessed a mystique rivaling the bald eagle and alligator.…”

“…The fertile plains of Texas; the vast basin of the Mississippi, from its frozen northern springs to the sultry borders of the Gulf; from the woody ridges of the Alleghanies to the bare peaks of the Rocky Mountains-a region of savannahs and forests, suncracked deserts, and grassy prairies, watered by a thousand rivers, ranged by a thousand warlike tribes, passed beneath the scepter of the Sultan of Versailles; and all by virtue of a feeble human voice, inaudible at half a mile. 32 Returning north, La Salle worked feverishly to continue to build his fur-trading empire. Convinced the founding of a city near the river's mouth was a first priority, he sailed by way of the Atlantic for the gulf in 1684 with four hundred men.…”

“…Henderson,Party Politics in the Continental Congress,369,409 (qtn. ); Allen,Confederation Congress,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][75][76] Union, they will in a very few years be seised and settled in an irregular manner, and perhaps at no less expence to the Inhabitants of the Old states. Considering these circumstances, the advantage of regular settlements, of lessening the public debt and military expences on the frontier, and of keeping, by such settlements, that Country more effectually connected with the Union, Congress have been induced to adopt measures to establish Government, etc.…”