The Originator Passes

Welcome to the first in an occasional blog series related to the mississippirecords.net project. We're a small musical collective based in London, and exist to promote sould, blues, americana and folk music artists in the UK. This blog will chart some of our general musical meanderings and going-s on.

First though, a word about Ellas Otha Bates, or Bo Diddley (see above), who passed away aged 79 today. He was a carpenter, a mechanic, a bandleader, a songwriter, a bluesman, a great man, a rock and roll hall of famer and the father of the hambone beat - "shave and a hair cut, two bits".

Second, just a word about mississippirecords.net. We're up and running as a web project and a focal point for some of the great unsigned artists in the UK, and we're hoping to expand just as fast as we can and bring you all some top tunes and artist info. We're doing ok for traffic, and we've had some weird things so far - the guestbook has turned up a couple of requests for strange Malian music (the Orchestre de Kayes), an ofer of a couple of free subscriptions, and the threat of a lawsuit from Australia, relating to this apparently famous "Orchestre de Kayes".....

Its taken a while to figure out, but it turns out there is a Mississippi Records in Portland, Oregon, who are specialists in world music! We will post their number up soon, but we've made clear on the landing page that we are UK based. Good luck then to those Portland 'ssipi boys, who have a keen cult following, and it appears a couple of hellhounds on their trail.......(!)