May is Music Month in the great state of Mississippi and we have so much going on this month, you won’t soon forget that Mississippi is the true birthplace of America’s music. From Rock & Roll and Blues to Country Music and Jazz, Mississippi houses decades upon decades of America’s music legends and artists.
To honor this truly amazing month in Mississippi, we’ve got some musically inspired facts and fun tid bits some of you may not have known. We hope it inspires a trip to the great state during May to experience firsthand the authentic past and present of some of America’s music legends and new musical talent springing from our state.
- “The Father of Country Music," Jimmie Rodgers found fame in the late 1920s and was the first inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
- Malaco Records, a legendary recording studio in Jackson, opened in 1967 and is considered “The Last Soul Company.” It is the last independently owned and operated record label of its kind in the world, having released some of the biggest classic R & B, Southern soul, gospel and blues songs to hit the Billboard charts.
- The University of Mississippi Blues Archive in Oxford contains the world's largest collection of Blues music.
- Mary Wilson of the Supremes was born in Greenville, Mississippi, and was the only member to remain with the group from their 1959 beginnings as the Primettes to their breakup in 1977.
- Jimmy Buffet, singer of tropical music was actually born in Pascagoula, Mississippi, not Margaritaville.
- Faith Hill was born Audrey Faith Perry in Ridgeland, Mississippi and recorded her first album, “Take Me as I Am” in 1993.
- The Mississippi Delta is the birthplace of the Blues, which preceded the birth of Jazz, the only other original American art form.
- Peavey Electronics, in Meridian, is the world's largest manufacturer of musical amplification equipment.