“People keep asking me where the blues started, and all I can say is that when I was a boy, we always was singing in the fields. Not real singing, you know, just hollerin’, but we made up our songs about things that was happening to us at the time…that’s where the blues started.” – Son House, 1965

Blues music was born in Mississippi, came of age in Chicago, and went on to inspire generations of rock and rollers, ranging from the British invasion of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to contemporary groups, such as The Black Keys. As America’s unique contribution to the world of music, the blues took root in the fertile soil of the Mississippi Delta, a flood plain covering 7,000 square miles between the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers. Early blues greats in the Delta pioneered the strong rhythmic style of music, accenting the raw emotions of the lyrics by squeezing chords out of a guitar with a bottleneck or metal slide.

The captivating masks and images in A Cast of Blues tell the story of the hopes, sorrows, and triumphs of the men and women who lived and breathed the blues in Mississippi. The exhibition is fully accessible to all visitors, featuring braille labels and educational materials, as well as a music playlist for gallery use and a closed-captioned film about the Cast of Blues project. In addition, visitors are encouraged to touch the resin-cast masks. Says McConnell-Dickerson, “As a sculptural and visual art experience, feeling the life-made casts of these individuals and their facial expressions transfers their experiences directly to our fingertips.” The exhibition is also accompanied by a 90-minute documentary film, M for Mississippi: A Roadtrip through the Birthplace of the Blues.

ABOUT EUSA

ExhibitsUSA (EUSA) is a traveling exhibition program managed by Mid-America Arts Alliance.