Newly appointed board works to bring music museum to Cleveland

By Mark Stowers
Photography by Jordan Thomas

Mississippi just got another step closer to having its own GRAMMY museum. With the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, and the B.B. King Museum in Indianola, a GRAMMY museum could be the ideal thing to create real tourism synergy in the area, according to Judson Thigpen, executive director of the Cleveland/Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce. The first major step towards making a GRAMMY museum a reality in Cleveland took place recently with the establishment of a board of directors for the museum.

The 18-member board will be led by Thigpen, who currently serves as the interim chair of the board. The group met in late November and talked briefly about the status of the project, and to review proposed bylaws. “Once the by-laws are passed, we will move forward with a strategic plan, a fundraising campaign and the design of the building,” says Thigpen.

The corporate name of the organization in charge of the museum is the Cleveland Music Foundation Inc. The Foundation has applied for a 501c3 non-profit status.

According to the GRAMMY website, www.GRAMMY.org, the GRAMMY is the recording industry’s most prestigious award, presented annually by The Recording Academy. A GRAMMY is awarded by The Recording Academy’s voting membership to honor excellence in the recording arts and sciences. It is truly a peer honor, awarded by and to artists and technical professionals for artistic or technical achievement, not sales or chart positions.

The GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles explores and celebrates the enduring legacies of all forms of music: the creative process, the art and technology of the recording process, and the history of the GRAMMY Awards, the premier recognition of recorded music accomplishment.

So why a GRAMMY museum in Cleveland? “There is no doubt that Mississippi is the birthplace of American Music,” says Allan Hammons of Hammons & Associates in Greenwood. “That’s exactly what we told the GRAMMY folks in Los Angeles. Without Mississippi, there would be no American music. We gave the world Jimmy Rogers, the father of country music, B.B. King, the king of the Blues, and Elvis Presley, the king of Rock ‘n Roll.”

Thigpen says that the Chamber is working to focus on the area’s heritage, and music is a major part of that. In keeping with the Mississippi Arts Commission and Mississippi Development Authority’s Creative Mississippi initiative, Hammons pitched the idea of the museum to focus not only on Mississippi musicians, but also on the music industry as a whole in the state.

After a series of meetings with John Hornyak, senior executive director of the Memphis Recording Academy, and Bob Santellis, executive director of the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles, it became clear that having the nation’s only other GRAMMY museum in Mississippi would be a good idea.

Tricia Walker, director of the Delta Music Institute at Delta State University, and herself a GRAMMY winner, is thrilled about having a GRAMMY museum in Cleveland. “This is an important event for Cleveland, for the Delta and for Mississippi in general,” she says. Delta State now offers a Bachelor of Science in Music Industry Studies.

“Music and the GRAMMYs are big business,” says Walker. “American music is one of the country’s top exports. The GRAMMY Museum’s partnership with the DMI will give our students the opportunity to develop additional developmental and business skills.”

Board members for the Cleveland Music Foundation include Thigpen, Hornyak, Walker, Reuben Anderson (Phelps Dunbar, LLP, Jackson), Calvin Dye (Cleveland State Bank), Blake Wilson (MS Economic Council), Emily Havens (Chickasaw Council, BSA), Carol Puckett (Viking Hospitality Group), Jim Tims (Quality Steel Corporation), Wilma Wilbanks, Willie Simmons (MS State Senate), Lucy Janoush, Nan Sanders, Gary Gainspoletti (Alderman, City of Cleveland), John Hilpert (President, Delta State University), Will Hooker (Administrator, Bolivar County), Billy Nowell (Mayor, City of Cleveland), Paul Janoush (Alderman, City of Cleveland). DBJ

“Monday Night Football style” jingle written, recorded, and produced at the Delta Music Institute. Video directed by Jimmy Smith of DSU Athletics.

Written by Tricia Walker
Engineered by Mike Iacopelli
Performed by Barry Bays (bass/guitar), Brian Schilling (drums), Tricia Walker (keyboards), Stephen Chew (vocals), DMI summer campers and DSU football players (BGVs)

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/the-side/music/miss#ixzz0ixN3zGw2

WE’RE ROLLING
Moving forward in the Year of the Arts

“We’re rolling….”

Traditionally, these are the words a recording engineer utters when he’s about to begin to capture a musical performance in a recording session. Think of your favorite music, in whatever format it may be…LP, 45, eight-track, cassette, CD, mp3…have you ever wondered about the effort it took, both creatively and technically, to have that music reach you as a music lover?

As a singer/songwriter/producer and longtime veteran of the music business, I understand that many people consider the recording process a technical, rather than creative one. As we move forward into the Year of the Arts: Crossroads of Creativity, I would propose, however, that the recording process happens at a true crossroads, in a collaborative effort uniquely blending art and science in order to achieve the desired vision and goal of an artist.

In the glory days of recording, from the 1940s through the 1970s, large sound stage studios in New York and Los Angeles captured magical moments with artists such as Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Kate Smith, and Nat King Cole. Studios in Detroit, Nashville, and Memphis produced the music of Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, and Elvis Presley. In addition to these artists whose names we know, countless musicians and audio engineers from these sessions whose identity is known only to audiophiles and record jacket junkies, were essential in giving us the music we love…the soundtrack of our lives. Studios make it possible for music to get to us.

Who could have known that when little Dolly Parton recorded some of her first music in a small studio in Lake Charles, Louisiana, that she would go on to become the megastar she is? Who could have known that Macon, Georgia would be put on the map because of the Allman Brothers (after they were first mesmerized, they say, by B.B. King performing in Nashville)? Or Lubbock, Texas, due to the recordings of Buddy Holly? Or Muscle Shoals Sound and Fame Studios in Alabama?

Mississippi has been identified as the Birthplace of America’s Music, and it would be almost impossible to dispute that fact. We proudly lay claim to the Father of Country Music, the King of the Blues, the King of Rock and Roll, and more Grammy™ winners per capita than any other state in the Union.

As the next generation of young musicians, singers, songwriters, and entertainers are working to hone their craft and “find their voice,” let me pose again the thematic question of this series of essays for the Year of the Arts:

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE HERE?

The Delta Music Institute on the campus of Delta State University is a recording arts and music industry program now in its fifth full year of operation. Approximately 50 students take courses in music business, audio engineering, songwriting, and other aspects of the music industry. The DMI, housed in what was previously Whitfield Gym, contains three exceptional recording studios. Studio A is a large format tracking room, large enough to hold a 150 piece choir or orchestra, and is one of the few studios of this scope in the eastern United States. Studio B is a digital room, versatile enough to record various types of ensembles and mix in 5.1 surround sound, and Studio C is a practical demo project studio. The DMI promotes two student ensembles…one R&B/Soul/Funk/Blues band called Ol’ Skool Revue, and one Classic Rock band called DeltaRoX.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE HERE? To further the educational mission of the DMI and Delta State, the DMI studios are made available to the public in order for our students to learn and practice the art and science of recording clients in a real world situation. Grammy™ award winning artists Keb’ Mo’, Ashley Cleveland, and Kathy Mattea have visited our facilities and worked with our students, and they stand amazed at what we have here. Combine the art of music and the technology of recording at the DMI with the history, mystique, and vibrant culture of the Mississippi Delta, and we’ve definitely got a ‘win-win’ situation in which to honor the past and embrace the future of music technology and the recording arts.

SO, DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE HERE? WE DO: The opportunity to capture for all time the music and the sound of what could be the next wave of great moments in American music. There is much to look forward to. Right here: Cleveland, Mississippi.

Everything’s in place…the red light is on….we’re rolling.

Tricia Walker
Director, Delta Music Institute
1/10/10

As a part of Delta State University’s Delta Music Institute grand opening weekend, an official ribbon cutting ceremony was held Sunday, March 9, at the front of the Whitfield Building on the campus.

Pictured are, from left, Malcolm White, executive director of the Mississippi Arts Commission, Hartley Peavey, founder and CEO of Meridian-based Peavey Electronics Corporation, Fred Carl, founder and CEO of Viking Range Corp., Tricia Walker, director of Delta Music Institute, Mary Peavey, Dr. John Hilpert, president of Delta State University; Eddie Willis (background) campus minister of Wesley Foundation; Bill Luckett of Rock River Foundation; Dr. L. Stacy Davidson, Jr., Board Member, Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning; and Judson Thigpen, executive director of Cleveland-Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce and president of DSU Foundation Board. Not pictured: Marsha Bryan, who with husband George are major donors to the Delta Music Institute.

The Delta Music Institute began with a generous donation by Fred Carl of the Viking Range Corporation in 2003. The focus of the DMI is to provide students with a broad and thorough education in the technological, business, and creative areas of the music industry.

Students in the DMI program pursue career aspirations through an innovative Interdisciplinary Studies degree, allowing them to combine two or three concentrations of study. The result is a broad entrepreneurial approach to the music and entertainment industries.

Mississippi Delta Blues Society of Indianola