Bluesman Graces New Mississippi Bicentennial Statehood Stamp
September 5th, 2017 | by Rafael Alvarez
“Smell that sweet magnolia blooming….” —Bob Dylan The last time the United States Postal Service honored Mississippi statehood with a
About Rafael Alvarez
Rafael Alvarez Rafael Alvarez is a reporter, short story writer & screenwriter based in Baltimore. He has been visiting & writing about Mississippi since 1984. A former staff writer for HBO's "The Wire," his new book is a collection of short fiction called "Tales From the Holy Land."
Author Archives: Rafael Alvarez
Magnolia Vagabond No. 12: Mythical Mississippi
May 18th, 2016 | by Rafael Alvarez
“Watching Son House perform bottleneck guitar was akin to seeing a locomotive on a downhill run…” – Jas Obrecht, blues
The Great Magnolia Vagabond No. 11: Mississippi Meat Man
May 8th, 2016 | by Rafael Alvarez
I took some criticism for this bit of travelogue. Not for participating–after all, the Meat Man was giving away advice
Jazz Record Mart Closes: Storied Chicago Landmark Housed the Best Mississippi Had to Offer
May 7th, 2016 | by Rafael Alvarez
Bob Koester, 83, is the founder of one of the greatest one-two punches in American music: the Delmark Records label
Marc Ribot, Part Three: When Irony Wears Thin
March 28th, 2016 | by Rafael Alvarez
“The melancholic music of Negro American folk origin, the blues emerged slowly at the turn of the 19th century from
The Great Magnolia Vagabond: Buzzed Up In Oxford
March 16th, 2016 | by Rafael Alvarez
We were pulled over by about six police cars just outside downtown Oxford not long after a young woman on
Bonerama in Baltimore: New Orleans Jazz Festival North
January 11th, 2016 | by Rafael Alvarez
In the 1962 movie Kid Galahad, Elvis Presley belted it out like so. “A poor man wants the oyster, a rich
Marc Ribot, Way Down South: Part One
January 9th, 2016 | by Rafael Alvarez
Marc Ribot, the well-traveled guitarist best known for his work with Tom Waits and the Lounge Lizards, laments that he
Little Willie John: Blue Fever in Search of the Silver Screen
December 18th, 2015 | by Rafael Alvarez
“Sugarman done fly away, Sugarman done gone …” – Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon The confounding and brilliant novel Song
The Great Magnolia Vagabond: Rolling Fork/ 1997
December 8th, 2015 | by Rafael Alvarez
“Muddy’s actual birthplace [was not Rolling Fork but] to the west and north of there… Issaquena, pronounced “Essaquena,” the initial
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