March 27, 2010 is the date set for the 18th Annual Port Gibson Main Street Heritage Festival.  The music will begin at approximately 1:00 p.m. after the High School Step Show competition on the Main Stage. Entertainment has always been a strong draw for the crowd and this year’s lineup will be no exception.

Southern soul singer Ms. Jody was born Vertie Joann Delapaz in Chicago Illinois but, at the age of two, moved with her family  to their home in Bay Springs, MS, about 65 miles southeast of Jackson. In 2005 her brother took Ms. Jody to her first blues show and watching Denise LaSalle perform inspired her to consider performing herself. In the Fall of that year she attended a local band’s CD release party and met William Day who quickly took her to Memphis where she was signed by Ecko Records and by March of 2006 she had released her first album, You’re My Angel.  Her first hit from that album was I Never Take A Day Off which has Ms. Jody’s country-inflected voice riffing over the very solid, soul-blues Ecko house band and the resulting sound was revolutionary. The deejays loved the song and Ms. Jody and since that time she’s released two more albums and is on a fast track to becoming one of Southern Soul’s premier performers.

The Perry family, from Tupelo, MS,  have three children and they are the youngest Blues band in America and the youngest Blues music award nominees ever! Guitar playing brothers Ryan (age 17) and Kyle (age 15) along with sister Taya (age 11) on drums make up the group Homemade Jamz Blues Band and they are receiving national attention from their first two albums Pay Me No Mind and I Got Blues For You. Their father, songwriter/ manager, Renaud Perry, at that time a police officer in Tupelo, persuaded Robert Stolle of Clarksdale’s famous Ground Zero Blues Club to let the group audition and he was so wowed by their performance that he booked them immediately and the group has been around the country ever since. They have appeared on National Public Radio, The Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning and the Mo’Nique Show in October of last year. Their style is very old Chicago/Mississippi Delta blues for a group this young and their sound is winning them awards and fans. B.B. King said “In my 82 years, I’ve never seen something so musically remarkable.”

Followers of true R&B music know the name Johnnie Taylor, who was admired, mimicked, and loved at his death in May of 2000. Many singers have tried to be and sound like Johnnie but there is only one real deal, his son Floyd Taylor. Born in Chicago his mother Mildred had Floyd singing in church by the age of five and with a band through high school. He worked day jobs at Chicago hospitals while honing his musical skills and performing in various clubs and theaters. In the early seventies, Floyd joined his father on several of Johnnie’s tours, occasionally taking front stage but primarily learning from the elder Taylor. Floyd has performed with many stars including Natalie Cole, Tavares’, the O’Jays, Pattie LaBelle, and Aretha Franklin to name a few. In 1998 Floyd was voted the 1998 Entertainer of the Year by the Chicago Blues Society. His CD Legacy, released in 2002 created a major buzz throughout the Chitlin Circuit one single after another as hits. The 2005 CD  No Doubt was cause for celebration for an artist that echoed the soulful sounds of Johnnie Taylor but was now fully developed into his own unique sound and style.

“The Heritage Festival stage will be filled with an extraordinary amount of talent this year” said event coordinator Edward Carter. “These groups represent a fine mix of rhythm and blues in their own special ways. I feel like they will draw a great crowd that will please everyone.” The Main Stage will be located on Market Street between the Matt Ross Administration Building and Mississippi Cultural Crossroads. There is no charge for admission.

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