From McComb to the Grammy Center: Mississippi's Musical Roots Take Stage at DSU

There are good reasons why Mississippi can rightly claim it's the "Birthplace of America's Music." That sobriquet will surely be cited on March 7 when the Grammy Museum celebrates 10 years on the campus of Delta State University in Cleveland. This state has sent forth so many individual musicians, singers and songwriters, some genuinely known worldwide, some known only around the proverbial corner, that placing the "other Grammy" museum in this state was indeed proper and just and right. State natives Elvis Presley of Rock, B.B. King of the Blues and Jimmie Rodgers of Country are recognized across the globe as fathers or at least present when their genres of music were born. Then there are many Mississippi natives like Steve Blailock, Castro Coleman, Kent (aka "Omar the Howler") Dykes and Dan Tyler, all natives of my hometown of McComb, who are perhaps less known in the grand scheme, but have made prominent marks in the entertainment industry to help validate the Grammy's presence in this state.

I could start from where I grew up on White and West streets in McComb, go south to Blailock's home on Louisiana Avenue, then make my way slightly southeast to where Dykes grew up on Venable Street, which is where the Grammy-winner Coleman -- "Mister Sipp" -- lives today. To reach where Tyler was raised, leave my old homestead and go two blocks east on White, cross Laurel and go almost to Burke, and your journey's complete. All of that might seem quite a distance but one may have ridden only three miles total to reach each one's boyhood footprint: four locations, four stars.

Mr. Blailock was 69 when he died in 2013. He had taught himself the guitar and performed throughout Nashville and the New Orleans jazz scene. The blues-rocker Dykes is a bonafide Texas legend after five decades there. Tyler is a lawyer, author and musician who has written many hits for such Nashville luminaries as Kenny Rogers, Eddie Rabbit and the Oak Ridge Boys.

Coleman is the only one in the group who has his own statue and Mississippi Blues Trail marker in McComb. The statue is near the brilliantly restored (by Jamey Hewitt, also a splendid musician) Palace Theatre on Main where Mr. Sipp performed his first public concert. The statue was erected in 2023 to honor the Blues Trail's youngest living musician, then 48.

In December 2025 he told the Jackson Advocate's Brinda F. Willis, "I want to be a motivator for the kids here in McComb and throughout the state. I want kids to know that you don't have to move to New York or California to be recognized for the work they do … you don't have to leave Pike County."

The success of this foursome contributes to the fabric that has evolved into the state's much-lauded artistic quilt. The richness of their musical talents is their gift to the world.

So, while Presley, King and Rodgers helped to create monumental genres of music, these four musically world-prominent men who grew up within blocks of each other help explain why the only affiliate of the Grammy Museum outside Los Angeles is located in Mississippi.

It goes without saying that their hometown is also the cradle of a genuine blockbuster star, one named Ellas Bates McDaniel, born in McComb on Dec. 30, 1928, and performing worldwide as Bo Diddley, further authenticating this state as the "birthplace" of America's music.

The Coral Reefers band of the late Mississippi-born superstar of sea, sun and sandals, Jimmy Buffett, will headline the superlative event at DSU's Bologna Performing Arts Center.

---Mac Gordon is a native of McComb. He is a retired newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.