Friday, April 15, 2011
Storm destroys Malac
Storm destroys Malaco Records In Jackson, MS
JACKSON, MS (WLBT) -By Howard Ballou - bio | email | twitter
A piece of Mississippi history was virtually blown away by Friday's destructive storms. Internationally acclaimed Malaco Records on Northside Drive in Jackson was almost reduced to rubble and now the owners are wondering whether they will rebuild after 44 years.
It was 3 years ago this month that Malaco Records was honored with an official marker recognizing it as a Jackson landmark along the Mississippi Blues Trail. The company was founded in 1962 and located on Northside Drive in 1967.
Now, that marker is almost the only thing left standing. A powerful tornado shredded two of the three buildings in the compound. Wolf Stephenson, one of Malaco's founders, was inside with about 15 employees, winding down for the weekend.
Stephenson said, "We started seeing limbs and debris flying through the air and decided we better take cover."
Luckily, says Stephenson, everywhere they took cover remained structurally intact and miraculously, no one was injured. The company, however, was decimated. A room that housed masters of recordings by world famous artists like Dorothy Moore of Misty Blue fame. Record keeping and royalty offices looked like they had been struck by a wrecking ball.
Stephenson said, "The ladies that were in there went up to the front of the coffee room in the front of it and made it through okay. We were lucky."
Stephenson says the warehouse can probably be saved. As for the rest of Malaco Records:
"Well, the buildings are old. It's a real tricky question as to whether or not it's worth rebuilding.", said Stephenson.
So, the independent record label that has provided the world with down home music for decades, now finds itself singing the blues.
Stephenson lamented, "Well, it's just a...it is a very sad feeling to see 44 years of work; 44 years of my life out here gone in 15 seconds, but we'll clean up; come back to cry another day."
Malaco Records destroyed by tornado in Mississippi « Oregon Music News
What's left of Malaco.
Malaco, Amaerica’s top African-American Blues/Gospel/Soul label was destroyed by a tornado today in Jackson Mississippi. Reports are sketchy, but one source said that no one was hurt.
Malaco is home to Bobby Blue Bland, Z.Z. Hill, Little Milton, Denise LaSalle, Johnnie Taylor and many others.
Their legendary 1970s house band included Carson Whitsett on keyboards, Larry Addison on second keyboard; James Robertson on drums, Ray Griffin on bass, and Dino Zimmerman on guitar. A steady stream of strong material flowed from key songwriters such as George Jackson, Larry Addison, Rich Cason, and Jimmy Lewis.
Malaco purchased the gospel division of Savoy Records in 1986, making it the number one African-American Gospel company in North America.
Details as they are available.
This is the tornado that did it.
Thacker Mountain Radio - Saturday Night, 7 PM
Author: Martha Hall Foose – A Southerly Course
Author: Teresa Nicholas – Burying Daddy
Music: Mack Allen Smith and Jamie Isonhood
Music: Johnny Rawls
In the highly anticipated follow-up to her James Beard Award-winning, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, Martha Hall Foose continues her conversation with readers with her new book, A Southerly Course, Recipes and Stories From Closer to Home (Clarkson Potter). The new book charts an even more intimate course in Martha’s life, and reflects how foodways in the South have changed and continue to change. Readers will find recipes for tried-and-true classics, like Skillet Fried Corn and Chocolate Chiffon Pie, as well as dishes that are surprising and new, like Peanut Chicken and Sweet Pickle Braised Pork Shoulder. No matter the inspiration, all of the recipes have one thing in common: each comes with a story.
Martha Hall Foose was born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, attended the famed pastry school École Lenôtre in France. She returned to Mississippi and opened Bottletree Bakery in Oxford and Mockingbird Bakery in Greenwood.
Teresa Nicholas was born and raised in Yazoo City. She worked in book publishing in New York for twenty-five years. A freelance writer since 2002, she has contributed to Delta magazine, Mississippi magazine and NPR’s Opinion Page. She is also a travel writer for Fodor’s in Mexico and Guatemala. She lives in Yazoo City and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with her husband, the writer Gerard Helferich. Buryin’ Daddy is her first book. It is a memoir that describes the troubled relationship Nicholas had growing up with her father. After his death, she returns to Mississippi and with the aid of her mother, embarks on a journey of discovery about her dad that forces her to appreciate him a whole new light.
Rockabilly singer Mack Allen Smith was born in 1938 in Carroll County. During his career, Smith has recorded over 150 songs, released a series of records and toured this country and England with his band, the Flames. One of their live performances is captured on the CD, “Mack Allen Smith – Live on Halloween” which was recorded at the Country Music Palace in Vaiden, Mississippi. Smith is also the author of two books, a novel Honky Tonk Addict, and a memoir, Looking Back One Last Time.
Jamie Isonhood grew up in the Yazoo City area and was playing piano by age five. Over the years he has played solo as well as with bands, such as with the Mack Allen Smith Band. In 1989, Isonhood appeared in the movie, Miss Firecracker, and wrote the film’s theme song. His most recent CD, is I Played My Blues in Memphis.
Guitarist Johnny Rawls was born in Columbia, Mississippi and raised in Purvis and Gulfport. Rawls’ CD, Red Cadillac, charted at #1 on the Living Blues chart. He was nominated for Best Male Soul Blues Artist and Best Soul Blues Album by the Blues Foundation. He won the Critics Award for Best Album of the Year by Living Blues Magazine. Ace of Spades was released in 2009 and charted at #4 and remained in the top 20 for three months. Johnny won Best Soul Blues Album of the Year and was nominated for Best Male Soul Blues Artist of the Year by the Blues Foundation. Recently, Johnny’s long career has been honored with a Blues Trail Marker located at the original site of the Hi Hat Club in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Rawl’s’ newest CD, Memphis Still Got Soul (Catfood Records) has just been released.
Join host Jim Dees and our house band, the Yalobushwhackers this Thursday, April 14 at 6PM at Off Square Books. You can hear the show locally Thursday on Rebel Radio (92.1 FM). Tune in to Mississippi Public Broadcasting every Saturday night at 7PM for Thacker Mountain Radio immediately following A Prairie Home Companion, or listen Saturday online.
The Associated Press
The Associated Press: Severe storms death toll rises to 7 in 2 states
Severe storms death toll rises to 7 in 2 states(AP) – 6 hours ago
TUSHKA, Okla. (AP) — Destructive storms that tore across the country's midsection left at least seven people dead after smashing uprooted trees into homes in Arkansas and ripping apart the only school in one tiny Oklahoma town, officials said Friday.
A tornado swept through Tushka in southeast Oklahoma town late Thursday, killing two sisters in their 70s, Salvation Army Capt. Ric Swartz said.
The tornado also injured at least 25 people as it ground through the town of 350 residents, said Gilbert Wilson, Atoka County's emergency management director. He said witnesses reported seeing two tornadoes that merged to form a single twister. The National Weather Service confirmed a single tornado hit the area.
Tushka Public School Principal Matt Simpson said the storm destroyed five school buildings and that the campus is littered with downed trees and bricks blown from the buildings. Students from kindergarten through 12th grade attend the school, which was empty when the storm hit.
Easton Crow, a junior, drove by after the storm and saw missing roofs, crushed vehicles and textbooks scattered everywhere.
"I'm heartbroken. This is where most of us grew up," Crow, 17, said. "I'm just in awe that in a few seconds memories that have been built were taken."
The school won't reopen for the rest of school year and officials must figure out where students will attend class, the principal said.
"I've been doing this for 10 years, but this is definitely new for me," Simpson said. "It means a lot of challenges I wasn't expecting."
Gov. Mary Fallin planned to travel to the stricken town later Friday.
Emergency crews are clearing storm debris from the town's roads to survivors can return home and officials can assess the damage, Wilson said.
Jim Sarris, 43, returned to his home in Tushka on Friday morning to find the back of his house blown away and debris littering his property. He found his 1986 high school letter jacket a few hundred feet away.
"I had to crawl through (the house) to get a pair of pants."
An Atoka Trailer Manufacturing plant was destroyed by the storm. The owner, Ryan Eaves, said it would cost millions of dollars to rebuild the plant where some 60 employees assembled trailers that haul heavy equipment.
"Twenty-four hours ago this was an 80-thousand square foot heavy manufacturing facility, at the moment it's a pile of rubble," Eaves said. "This building was a shining bright spot for the community. To think it could be overtaken like this is overwhelming."
He said he would shift work to another factory three miles away.
High winds associated with the same storm system killed five people across Arkansas early Friday.
In Garland County, a 24-year-old man and his 18-month-old daughter were killed when lightning struck a tree, which then fell on their mobile home on Pistol Circle. The victims were crushed in their bed. As the sun rose Friday, one side of the mobile home was torn away, and the tree still rested on a mattress.
Neighbor Melissa Wright, who lives in a mobile home across the street with her mother and daughter, said her mother was outside and saw the lightning strike.
"I have a 3-year-old girl, and that's my worst fear," she said. "You don't think that when you're lying in your bed, something like this could happen to you."
In Bald Knob, a 6-year-old boy was killed when a huge tree fell crushed his home at about 2:30 a.m. Police Chief Tim Sanford said the tree was between 6 and 8 feet in diameter and it took more than two hours to get a truck big enough to lift it so they could reach the child.
"It was a very large, old tree," Sanford said. "This is very, very tragic."
Sanford said the boy's parents and a sibling were rescued with minor injuries. The chief said the tree appeared to have been blown down by straight-line winds.
In eastern Arkansas, strong winds knocked a trailer from its moorings in the little community of Colt, killing a woman inside.
St. Francis County Sheriff Bobby May said a strong downburst of wind apparently got under the double-wide mobile home where Lardelah Anderson, 64, and her husband lived, flipping it onto its roof. Jesse Anderson, 65, was taken to the Regional Medical Center at Memphis, Tenn., where he underwent surgery Friday morning, May said.
In Scott in Pulaski County, a man was killed when a tree fell on his recreational vehicle. Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Carl Minden identified the victim as James Lofts, 56.
As the sun rose Friday, the storms were moving across Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Associated Press writers Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Sarah Eddington in Crystal Springs, Ark., and Ken Miller and Rochelle Hines in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.