This Week’s Featured Marker:

Mose Allison {module_photogallery,20720,5,,5,80,,true}

Jazz and blues pianist, vocalist and songwriter Mose Allison returned to his home state in the middle of February, and was celebrated with a Mississippi’s Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and a Blues Trail marker in his hometown of Tippo. Allison also performed a free concert—sponsored by various non-profits, including the Mississippi Arts Commission—at Delta State University, which relocated the show to a larger venue because of public demand.

The prestigious Governor’s Award, a special project of the Mississippi Arts Commission, is given out annually to native or longtime Mississippians who have made extensive commitments to the arts. Blues and jazz artists who have received these awards include Pinetop Perkins, Honeyboy Edwards, Super Chikan (both as a musician and folk artist), Little Milton, Cassandra Wilson, Milt Hinton, Bo Diddley, Sam Carr, Sam Myers, B.B. King, Otha Turner, Charlie Musselwhite, and Dorothy Moore.

Following the marker ceremony, which was held near the former site of the Allison’s filling station and store, a reception was held in nearby Charleston, where Allison attended high school. The program included a performance of folk songs by Allison’s sister-in-law and his cousins; a presentation of the key to the city of Charleston; a speech by Robert Khayat, the former chancellor of the University of Mississippi; and the reading of a proclamation in honor of Allison presented in the Mississippi State Legislature.

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