Jimmie Rodgers Festival – Music History Showcase

The Jimmie Rodgers Festival, in partnership with The MAX, on Monday evening will present its Music History Seminar, “From Bluegrass to Blues,” featuring singer, composer and record producer Paul Burch and music historian and writer Scott Barretta.

The Nashville-based Burch, a cultural historian as well as musician, is known for blending country, blues, bluegrass and other American music traditions. He will bring special expertise on Meridian’s “Singing Brakeman,” and will perform some of his own favorites. In the fall, Burch will release his first novel, Meridian Rising, described as a “fictional historical tale” inspired by the life of Jimmie Rodgers, blending verified facts with imagined events.

Barretta, an adjunct professor at the University of Mississippi, is a leading “blues journalism” figure, previously serving as editor of the Ole Miss-based Living Bluesmagazine and as columnist for The Clarion-Ledger. He has hosted a blues program on Mississippi Public Radio and helped create the Mississippi Blues Trail, featuring more than 180 historical markers across the state and as far away as France and Norway.