Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Back to Mississippi!
We love doing Market Street Festival for our friends at CableOne. It’s a great event that draws huge crowds of very fun people. The bands are always excellent, the food is a delightful slice of the South, and this year even the hotel knocked the ball out of the park.
CableOne put us up in a jacuzzi suite with a widescreen, and it was roomy and sumptuous. Just the place to recover from a ten hour drive.
We did shows at 10, noon and 2 on Saturday the 2nd and the crowds were wonderful. For some reason, the festival had rearranged the locations of several things, much farther away from our stage than any previous year (this was my eighth) but we pulled in enough for all the seats and lots of standing room.
Despite all this, the local paper barely mentioned it even though the festival itself dominated the front page. Apparently there is some kind of unhealthy media rivalry going on between the various agencies in Columbus. Figures I guess. Being the most popular festival in the area, there would be a few power plays involved.
Anyway, like I touched on in my post about Market Street last year, even though I have never lived there, Mississippi is in my blood. My mother was born and raised in Jackson, and we visited often. My aunt and several cousins live in Wesson. Most years, that’s where we have Thanksgiving.
I recently learned something from Mom’s past that’s pretty funny. When she was attending Jackson High, there was a sock hop that her friends were going to, and they asked her along. The school had hired a garage band from Tupelo High. Average copy tunes from the era, but a pretty decent band. Her friends wanted to meet the band during a break, and Mom remembers thinking the lead singer came off a little full of himself. But she did think that Elvis was a catchy name.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Market Street Festival – Columbus, Mississippi!
I’m craving boiled peanuts. Must be Market Street Festival time!
Every April my mind drifts to Mississippi, and to a town that seems to have adopted me. My first visit was for Discovery Networks, representing Animal Planet for CableOne. They were just launching new Discovery product, and my show made a great reason to sign up for cable.
The response was so big that CableOne has invited me back year after year, and this one’s going to be bigger than ever. We’ve got a bigger tent so everyone can actually fit inside, and the festival itself just keeps getting more acclaim as one of the very best local festivals in the entire South.
This year’s dates are May 2-3. A band will play Friday night and Saturday is the big street festival, followed by another great band jamming into the evening. I’ll be doing three shows outside CableOne’s location on May 3.
Columbus is a great college town located on the Tombigbee river, a lush landscape filled with heritage and history. The festival boasts some of the best food from the area, plus booths with all kinds of interesting things that I only seem to see at this particular event. The entertainment is always excellent, and I’m very pleased to play my part in that.
The folks at CableOne have become like family to me, and it’s great to be invited back to the big party. They pulled off a genuine miracle a couple of years ago after a tornado hit the town, getting cable and high speed internet back online in a huge undertaking. This bunch is really top notch.
My entire fascination with snakes began in Mississippi, in my great-grandmother’s back yard in Jackson. That little Speckled King snake really created a cascade effect.
So if you’re in the Columbus area be sure to catch the show, but if you’re in Memphis, or Tupelo, or maybe Jackson or Birmingham – why not load up the family and make the trip? I guarantee – you’ll love it.
Snake Encounters 