The Chronicle 
By: Carl Brinkley, Public Information Officer
Sunflower County School District

Born in Wyoming, Spencer Bohren never could have imagined that one day he would be called the “Ambassador of American Music.” Also, he never thought he would be the 2010 recipient of the “Keeping the Blues Alive” in Education Award from the Mississippi Blues Foundation. To those who love music, especially the kind he plays, they would say he has duly earned this praise for his style of music or artistic expression.

Spencer’s interpretation of blues through a musical- novel presentation is what landed him an invite to the Delta by the BB King Museum and the Delta Interpretive Center Visiting Artists in Schools Program. On January 14, 2011, at Moorhead Middle School, Spencer dazzled the students with “Dirt Road Blues.” Carol Jackson, Education Coordinator at the BB King Museum remarked, “It was our pleasure to bring an artist like Mr. Bohren to Delta schools, especially the ones that do not have a music program. It gives students a chance to see music from a different angle. The story telling through a song by Mr. Bohren was remarkable and served as a great learning experience about the blues.”

Spencer spoke briefly before he got started with his presentation at MMS, and said, “I come from a gospel singing family. Consequently, I was raised on gospel music. However, when I was 14 years old, I got my hands on some country blues by Mississippi John Hurt who was 70 years old at that time from Avon, Mississippi. And what I heard changed my life. It set me on fire for the blues. All I wanted to do after I heard the blues was discover the origins of this new music, which was outlawed during the time when I heard it.”

Way, way back when, what young Spencer heard was called “roots music.” Its unofficial name was the blues. Roots music refers to several styles or trends in music. “Blues are the root. The rest is the fruit,” stated Willie Dixon, the Poet Laureate of the Blues and the Father of Modern Chicago Blues.

At the end of the 19th century, primarily in the Deep South, the blues began in African American communities. It originated through spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants. It was a personal expression about the truth, tradition and experiences of the people living in that era of extreme poverty and oppression. Today, blues music is more than just a style of music. It is a way of life and a form of economic development in the state of Mississippi, especially the Mississippi Delta.

Spencer said, “Blues music has its roots from Africa. It came from every region of the world and covers every region, too. Country music, grassroots music, jazz, rap, cowboy music and Appalachian music started from the blues. And, without blues you would not have rock and roll, nor would you have soul music.”

During his quest to keep the blues alive, Spencer has played with notables like Muddy Waters and BB King and has performed before thousands of people. He has traveled to Europe over 100 times to share his musical presentation. Because of the positive influence of the blues, he wants everyone to know that something incredible happened in Mississippi a long time ago. And, it is still resonating over the entire world in the form of music. Blues has given him a life. Most importantly, he thinks it is a heritage that African Americans should be proud of and is worth keeping alive.

In his presentation, “Down the Dirt Road Blues,” which started as a cotton field song, Spencer, a true musician and story teller, used six guitars to show the MMS students the evolution of one song. That song has been played differently in different parts of the country as well as abroad. The story changed, the music changed and the song changed as different artists interpreted it their way. Spencer used banjos, a National Steel guitar and others to tell “Down the Dirt Road Blue” his way – a historical picture of the blues.

“Beale Street, in Memphis, became the first place where black folk and white folk music integrated. It was fun and scary. The integration of music caused some cultural barriers to come down. For their audience, a band from Kentucky called “Skillet Lickers” took “Down the Dirt Road Blues” and changed the song too. During that time, people were interested in making records and making more music for money. Sam Phillips, the record producer responsible for discovering Elvis, used white musicians that sounded like a black Chuck Berry to reintroduce the song for profit.

To this date, “Down the Dirt Road Blues” has traveled through culture lines, mountain ranges, bridges, and around the Delta, to Memphis, to Kentucky, to California and to England and back to the Delta. It is an American song that took a life of its own. Blues is more than music. It binds us together in ways we overlook and makes us better as humans,” said Spencer.