M For Mississippi Film Premiere

If you're in the Clarksdale, Mississippi area this Saturday night, be sure to drop by the Delta Cinema to catch the worldwide premiere of M For Mississippi, a documentary film said to capture the "raw, raucous spirit of Mississippi's surviving blues scene." Subtitled "A Road Trip through the Birthplace of the Blues," M For Mississippi follows producers Roger Stolle of Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art and Jeff Konkel of Broke & Hungry Records as they travel across the state and visit a dozen of Mississippi's remaining blues artists.

"We planned this road-trip movie for two years," Roger Stolle says in an email to About.com Blues. "We avoided big concert stages and rock star narrators in favor of intimate house parties and rockin' Delta juke joints. The results speak for themselves." The 94-minute film was made by director Damien Blaylock and features such seminal contemporary Mississippi blues artists as James "T-Model" Ford, Robert "Wolfman" Belfour, Robert "Bilbo" Walker, and others. "We aimed to capture the essence of the Delta's blues survivors and show why the blues simply had to come from a place like Mississippi," writes Jeff Konkel.

The premiere screening of M For Mississippi will take place at 6:45 PM at the Delta Cinema on Saturday night, October 11, 2008. Prior to the film, blues guitarist Bill Abel and harp player "Cadillac" John Nolden will perform a short set at 6:00 PM at the theater. After the showing of the film, the world-famous Ground Zero Blues Club will light up the Delta night sky with performances from T-Model Ford, Bilbo Walker, and Wesley "Junebug" Jefferson. The Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival will be rocking on the other side of the river in Helena this weekend, a short jump away from Clarksdale if festival-goers want to catch the film and party at Ground Zero.

M For Mississippi will be released on DVD this fall, along with an accompanying CD soundtrack. Pre-orders for this important documentary are currently being taken through the film's official website. The DVD includes bonus features, including deleted and extended scenes, behind-the-scenes footage, and more. The film's Clarksdale premiere is being sponsored by the Delta Music Experience.

Photo courtesy Roger Stolle, Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art

Preview the film! Visit our M For Mississippi photo gallery