David Evans on the Roots and Evolution of Mississippi Hill Country Blues (Part One)
David Evans and the Sound of the Mississippi Hill Country. David Evans, an ethnomusicologist, musician and foremost expert on Hill Country blues, began documenting the region’s musicians in 1969, recording artists and community music traditions through the 1970s and into the early ’80s. A professor emeritus at the University of Memphis, Evans produced records by R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and Jessie Mae Hemphill through the university’s High Water label, helping bring their music to audiences beyond northern Mississippi. He is the author of Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues (1982), a foundational study of the genre, and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2023.
