The Movie:

As the cradle of the blues, the Mississippi Delta is enveloped in an almost mystical allure seemingly at odds with its pervasive poverty, decay and vestiges of Jim Crow. I know. I was born in Clarksdale, a Delta town and home to some of the greatest pioneers in the history of blues, including Robert Johnson, Son House, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. From the hardscrabble existence of sharecropping came a unique brand of American music, one still thriving in the region, as evidenced by the documentary M for Mississippi: A Road Trip Through the Birthplace of the Blues.

In the spring of 2008, blues aficionados Roger Stolle and Jeff Konkel loaded into a van and spent a week traversing the back roads of the Delta to spotlight a dozen local blues artists. The doc boasts an endearing do-it-yourself vibe that befits a movie celebrating music that is stripped-down and t...Read the entire review