{ Vicksburg }
Blues
Keeping The
Alive
Meet Shirley Waring. By way of Jackson, Mississippi, Southern California, and New Orleans, she’s made Vicksburg, Mississippi, her home for the last twenty-five years. A commercial real estate broker and developer, she also leads the Vicksburg Heritage League and the Vicksburg Blues Society. Dedicated to preserving and promoting the Blues, Waring is a passionate catalyst in reviving Vicksburg’s rich Blues cultural heritage. Celebrating “Mississippi, Birthplace of America’s Music” is all about bringing Vicksburg back to the forefront of Blues. It was alluring back then, and it’s alive and thriving now. Nestled at the foot of the Mississippi Delta on Highway 61, Vicksburg has a rich history of Mississippi Blues. The city’s early role in the Blues legacy is documented on the Mississippi Blues Trail markers throughout Vicksburg: “Willie Dixon, called ‘the poet laureate of the blues,’ was born in Vicksburg on July 1, 1915. As a songwriter, producer, arranger, and bass player, Dixon shaped the sound of Chicago blues in the 1950s and ‘60s with songs such as “Seventh Son,” “Little Red Rooster,” “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “My Babe,” and “Wang Dang Doodle.” Dixon traced many of his works to poems and songs he heard or wrote as a youth in Vicksburg. “Willie Dixon, born at 1631 Crawford Street, defined the blues as ‘the facts of life.’ Dixon developed his ear for language and music in Vicksburg by listening to his mother Daisy’s poetry, singing spirituals at Spring Hill Baptist Church, and savoring the blues of pianist Little Brother Montgomery. He learned harmony singing from Theo Phelps, leader of the Union Jubilee Singers, and sang with the quintet on a weekly WQBC radio program broadcast from the Vicksburg Hotel in the 1930s. Dixon also brokered his songs to other WQBC performers. As a teenager, he often left town in search of work during the Depression, loading freight, chopping wood, or shoveling coal, among other jobs, and was once arrested for hoboing in Clarksdale, Mississippi. In 1936, he moved to Chicago and pursued a brief boxing career. But he continued to sing and write songs, and learned to play a homemade onestring bass.” Dixon had an impressive career at Chess Records. (For more about the Mississippi Blues Trail visit www.msbluestrail.org.) The Vicksburg Heritage League promotes entertainment in Vicksburg; and through her work with the league, Waring has produced Arts & Entertainment Guides promoting Bluffs & Bayous { March 2012 { Page 39