OCTOBER 6 & 7, 2014 GREETINGS FROM DELTA STATE WELCOME PRESIDENT WILLIAM N. LAFORGE TO THE Welcome to Delta State University — the jewel of the Mississippi Delta region with a INTERNATIONAL rich heritage of culture and accomplishment. Delta State proudly provides a superb college education and environment for its students. We offer a wide array of educational, cultural, and athletic activities. Our university plays a key role in the leadership and development of the Mississippi Delta and of the State CONFERENCE of Mississippi through a variety of partnerships with businesses, local governments, and community organizations. We are a university of champions — in the classroom with talented faculty who focus on student instruction and mentoring; through award-winning degree programs in business, arts ON THE BLUES and sciences, nursing, and education; with unique, cutting-edge programs such as aviation, geospatial studies, and the Delta Music Institute; in intercollegiate athletics where we proudly hosted by Delta State University boast national and conference championships in many sports; and with a full package of extracurricular activities and a college experience that help prepare our students for careers in an ever-changing, global economy. Delta State University’s inaugural International Conference on the Blues consists of two days of intense academic and scholarly activity, and includes a variety of musical performances to ensure authenticity and a direct connection to the demographics surrounding the “Home of the Delta Blues.” Topics of interest to scholars and enthusiasts include the African American musical tradition and its influence on American music and culture, the Blues musical genre, folklore, history, and language. The conference program includes academic papers and presentations, solicited from young and emerging scholars, and Blues performances to add appeal for all audiences. Delta State University’s International Conference on the Blues is a key component of the International Delta Blues Project, which also includes the development of a blues studies curriculum over the next year or so and the creation of a Blues Leadership Business Incubator, which will align with GRAMMY Museum Mississippi, opening in 2015. Delta State University’s vision of becoming the academic center for the blues — where scholars, musicians, industry gurus, historians, demographers, and tourists come to the “Blues Mecca” — is gaining traction. We hope you will engage in as many of the program events as possible. This is your conference, and it is our hope that you find it meaningful. Enjoy the conference! Very best regards, William N. LaForge President WELCOME TO THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE BLUES hosted by Delta State University Please wear INTERNET ACCESS: your name The Blues Conference wireless badge at all network will be enabled from events. Sunday, October 5 at 12:00 PM to Tuesday, October 7 at 9:00 PM It will serve as and will be available in the DMI your ticket to and the H.L. Nowell Union. all conference WIRELESS NETWORK SSID: activities. BluesConference REMEMBER to fill out our conference survey at the Verizon Information and Interactive Blues Engagement (VIIBE) Station, and we will give you a free souvenir show poster. IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS DSU Switchboard: (662) 846-3000 Bologna Performing Arts Center: (662) 846-4625 University Police: (662) 846-4155 Cleveland Taxi Service: (662) 719-5943 Barnes & Noble Bookstore: (662) 846-4640 Mississippi Grounds: (662) 545-4528 1 FULL CONFERENCE The International Conference on the Blues is funded in SCHEDULE part by a grant from the Robert M. Hearin Foundation. REGISTRATION BREAK 1:45–2:00 pm 8:15 am–4:00 pm | DMI Lobby The registration and CD/book tables will be open PAPER SESSION: from 8:15–4:00. Musicians and writers are invited Language & Perspective to bring items to sell. 2:00–2:50 | DMI 201 Dr. Dorothy Zeisler-Vralsted: “Back Water Blues” OPENING SESSION and 1927 Mississippi River Flood Narratives 8:30–9:50 am | DMI Studio A A reconsideration of the 1927 Mississippi River Flood from Meet and Mingle: Coffee and Pastries. the perspective of the Blues that were produced during this Welcome from President LaForge period. This flood narrative, unique to the African American Greetings from President LaForge, conference chairs, community, is another lens into the historical memory and and representatives from the GRAMMY Museum reveals the intersection of race and class and the Mississippi River, contributing to an identity that contrasted sharply PLENARY SESSION with other surrounding communities. 10:00–10:50 am | DMI Studio A A conversation with GRAMMY award winner Alvin Nina Bochkareva: Intermediality of the Blues Youngblood Hart and Blues scholar Scott Barretta A translation of the songs in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest MONDAY, OCTOBERMONDAY, 6, 2014 Eye into Russian PAPER SESSION: Interpretation 11:00–11:50 am | DMI 201 PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT Andrew Owen: Purposeful Vowel Modification & DISCUSSION in the Vocal Style of Charley Patton 2:00–2:50 pm | DMI Studio B An analysis of the ways that Charley Patton modified the Will Jacks: Selling Authenticity in the American South sounds of words to achieve particular musical effects. Julia Simon: Sharecropping, Agency and PAPER SESSION: Time in the Blues: Fattening Frogs for Snakes Social Commentary & Identity An exploration of the relationship between time as it is 3:00–3:50 pm | DMI 201 represented in the blues both musically and lyrically, and Dr. Michael Rauhut: The Sound of a Silent Revolt: in sharecropping contracts in the Jim Crow Delta. Analysis Blues and Socialism in East Germany prior to the Fall of T-Bone Walker’s “T-Bone Shuffle” and Bumblebee of the Wall Slim’s “Fattening Frogs for Snakes” reveals complex This paper exemplifies how the meaning of the blues had understandings of time shaped by labor relations in been shaped by political circumstances in East Germany the post-Reconstruction South. prior to the Fall of the Wall in 1989. Dr. Erin Bauer: The Legacy of Lead Belly: PAPER SESSION: Tin Pan Alley Song Choice as Working-Class Association 11:00–11:50 am | DMI 202 in Ry Cooder’s Chicken Skin Music Dr. Sundar Subramanian: “Wild Women Don’t Have As demonstrated by meaningful song choices, Ry Cooder’s the Blues”: Form, Syntax, and Rhetoric in the Music sociological considerations of the working-class experience of the “Blues Queens” of the 1920s distance him from the creative exploitations of subsequent Musical analysis: how did the sound of 1920s classic city world music practices. blues work with the lyrics to articulate distinct and resistant subjectivities of African-American women? PAPER SESSION: Diverse Influences Russell O’Rourke: Writing the Blues on Tin Pan Alley 3:00–3:50 | DMI 202 This presentation demonstrates the musical methods by Alan Shapiro: Why Do the Blues Make which Tin Pan Alley composers evoked the blues in their Us Feel So Good? songs, with focus on music by George Gershwin, Ray The singer wails “Nobody loves me,” but we’re uplifted. In Henderson, and Harold Arlen. the blues, complaint is given form. This was explained by the poet Eli Siegel, founder of the philosophy Aesthetic Realism: “All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the LUNCH & KEYNOTE ADDRESS 12:00–1:45 pm | DMI Studio A making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves.” In the blues, pain and pleasure are one. Bob Santelli, GRAMMY Mississippi Introduced by Rolando Herts, Director of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning. Catered by Sweets BBQ Kitchen 2 Dr. April Prince: Talking about the South in Song: PAPER SESSION: Community & Education From the Rural Blues to Commercial Country 1:40–2:55 pm | DMI 202 Commercial and folk music of the late 19th and early 20th Svetlana Polyakova and Elena Gritsenko: centuries began solidifying certain notions of Southern Using the Blues to Raise Cross-Cultural Awareness cultural identity. From those far away composing in Tin Pan The aim of this paper is to consider the development Alley, to the rural bluesman of the Delta, to the Old Time and implementation of blues materials in a special pickers of Appalachia, perceptions of Southernness often cross-cultural course for Russian students. The Telebridge collided and diverged in powerful ways. project, “Studying America with the Blues,” is a new project between the Department of English Language JUKE JOINT ON THE STAGE and Intercultural communication of Perm State University, 4:00–5:30 pm | DMI Studio A Russia and Delta State University, scheduled to be launched Featuring the Blues Doctors, Chicken & in September 2014. Dumpling, Bob Long, Phillip Carter, and others to be announced. PAPER SESSION: Performance 1:40–2:55 pm | Studio A DINE AROUND TOWN 5:30–7:15 pm Dr. Bret Pimentel: Blues for the Classically Trained Suggestions provided by the Cleveland/Bolivar Chamber This presentation seeks to bridge the gap between of Commerce; reservations recommended. traditional Western music theory and the harmonic, melodic, and formal underpinnings of the blues, providing PERFORMANCE & REMARKS a framework for further discussion. 7:30 pm | DMI Studio A Dr. Josh Armstrong: Blue Steel: The Influence of Alvin Youngblood Hart LIVE African Drumming on the Creation of the Steel Drum GRAMMY Museum / Delta State University This presentation on the influence of African drumming and Affiliate Announcement, Bob Santelli African culture on the creation of the modern steel drum Seating is limited. Registered conference members will also highlight the versatility of the steel drum through with name badges should be seated by 7:15. $5 General a performance by the DSU Steel Band, which will show admission sales will begin at 7:00. Free to DSU students traditional tunes as well as modern blues. with Okra Card. PHOTOGRAPHIC INSTALLATION 3:00–3:40 pm | DMI 201 Béatrice Chauvin: Reflective Shades Through 45 photographs sewn on a long piece of fabric, Reflective Shades shows the beauty, mysteries, and emotions that are found in the Mississippi Delta.