Television Program Summaries  

The Mississippi: River of Song is a musical journey down the Mississippi, filmed and recorded on location in more than 30 towns and cities.  The series follows the river from northern Minnesota to New Orleans to discover the music that flourishes in the heartland of America.  More than 45 artists and groups are profiled, resulting in a complex and dynamic portrait of music and the American community. Narrated by independent folk-rock musician Ani DiFranco, the series uses performances and interviews to tell the story of American music in the artists’ own words.

Part One:  Americans Old and New
Northern Minnesota to Douds, Iowa
Airing on PBS Wednesday January 6 at 10:00 PM, EST

Americans Old and New (part 1 of 4) is the kick-off fof the Smithsonian’s musical journey down the Mississippi.  Featured performances include an Ojibwe powwow in northern Minnesota, Twin Cities rock bands Soul Asylum and Babes in Toyland, Wisconsin polka, and Iowa folksinger Greg Brown.  Narrated by folk-rock musician Ani DiFranco.

The program begins with an Ojibwe powwow near the river’s headwaters in northern Minnesota, travels through the urban sounds of the Twin Cities, and wends its way south to sample Wisconsin polka and Iowa jazz and folk music. The most musically varied section of the series, Part One gives a taste of the myriad flavors of the contemporary American melting pot.  There is music from early settlers in the region--Native Americans, Scandinavians, and Germans, and from more recent arrivals--the Laotian Hmong and Mexican communities. There are contemporary urban sounds, from the rock bands Soul Asylum and Babes in Toyland, Twin Cities folk legend John Koerner, and Sounds of Blackness. The program concludes with Dixieland jazz in Davenport and singer/songwriter Greg Brown in Iowa City.  As the Mississippi grows from a stream that one can step across to a majestic expanse of water dotted with riverboats and barges, the music shows the breadth and variety of cultures that have developed along its banks.

Part Two:  Midwestern Crossroads
Galena, Illinois to Ste. Genevieve, Missouri
Airing on PBS Wednesday January 13 at 10:00 PM, EST

Midwestern Crossroads  (part 2 of 4) continues the Smithsonian’s musical journey down the Mississippi, with a focus on the mid-river region around St. Louis. continues the Smithsonian’s musical journey down the Mississippi, with a focus on the mid-river region around St. Louis.  Featured performances include river balladeer John Hartford, the Bob Lewis Family bluegrass band, St. Louis r&b veteran Fontella Bass, and the alternative country band The Bottle Rockets.  Narrated by folk-rock musician Ani DiFranco.

The program opens with songwriter and river pilot John Hartford on the riverboat Twilight, follows the Bob Lewis Family bluegrass band to a rural Illinois festival, explores gospel and r&b in St. Louis, and concludes with the alternative country band The Bottle Rockets in the river town of Festus, Missouri.  In the center of the country, communities have deep roots, fed by the constant flow of commerce along the river.  St. Louis was a historic trading center, where goods that traveled up the river were put on trains to the coasts, and where people from all over the country came together, overlapping and interacting.  This is where north and south meet, the rougher, rural styles coming face to face with big city sophistication.  Hillbilly and blues are honed and polished into bluegrass, rock 'n' roll, and soul music.

Part Three: Southern Fusion
La Center, Kentucky to Jackson, Mississippi
Airing on PBS Wednesday January 20 at 10:00 PM, EST

Southern Fusion (part 3 of 4) brings the Smithsonian’s musical journey down the Mississippi into the heart of blues and gospel country.  Featured performers include Arkansas rockabilly artist Sonny Burgess, Band drummer Levon Helm, blues great Little Milton, and the gospel Mississippi Mass Choir. Narrated by folk-rock musician Ani DiFranco.

The program begins with a white gospel quartet in a small Kentucky town and ends with the 100-voice Mississippi Mass Choir in Jackson; in between, the journey encounters the roots of rockabilly, Memphis soul, and the Mississippi Delta blues.  Entering the deep south, one can feel the music getting wilder.  Memphis was the crucible that forged the sounds of rockabilly and soul, and it remains a recording center where the Memphis Horns and Ann Peebles record.  In the Mississippi Delta, music is deeply rooted in the soil, and guitarist Robert Lockwood, Band drummer Levon Helm, and harmonica legend James Cotton headline the King Biscuit Blues Festival.  Big Jack Johnson takes us into a backroad juke joint in the heart of blues country, and Little Milton comes home to Greenville to play.  Gospel is at its most heartfelt and powerful, whether in small country churches or climbing the national charts with the Mississippi Mass Choir.

Part Four: Louisiana, Where Music is King
Natchez, Mississippi to Delacroix Island
Airing on PBS Wednesday January 27 at 10:00 PM, EST

Louisiana, Where Music is King (part 4 of 4), the final leg of the Smithsonian’s musical journey down the Mississippi, lingers in Louisiana to savor the wild flavors of America’s most musical state.  Featured performances include Gov. Jimmie “You Are My Sunshine” Davis, Cajun great D. L. Menard, zydeco phenom Geno Delafose, and New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas.  Narrated by folk-rock musician Ani DiFranco.

The program begins with country music in north Louisiana, travels through the Cajun and zydeco bayous, and arrives in New Orleans, where there is music around every corner.  The country-blues fusion of north Louisiana spawned former governor Jimmie Davis, famous for his hit “You Are My Sunshine,” which he performs at his 98th birthday party in a duet with Merle Haggard. Further south, the journey enters the bayous, where country and blues come together with French styles, in the potent dance rhythms of Cajun (D. L. Menard) and zydeco (Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie).  Then, New Orleans is almost a world unto itself, with its old French culture and its Caribbean orientation. There is the vibrant street life of a tropical port, the rhumba-influenced second-line rhythms of r&b stalwarts Irma Thomas (the “soul queen” of New Orleans), Eddie Bo, and Henry Butler.  Several generations of jazz horns keep the brass band sound alive.  The hour concludes with a wistful touch of the vanishing Spanish culture on the Gulf islands beyond New Orleans.

Check your local listings to confirm broadcast schedule.

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