|
"Cairo, Illinois is the most fascinating town in America."
No
other city in the United States sprawls the confluence of two great rivers, northern and southern culture, and unlimited potential
and broken dreams quite like Cairo, Illinois. With its strategic location at the merging of the Mississippi and Ohio
rivers, rail lines and interstate highway the town should rival a Pittsburgh or Portland in size and importance. The
reasons it doesn’t are as complex as the town itself - flooding and seep water, corruption, wide open vice, poorly conceived
real estate speculation, blatant racism, racial conflict and sometimes sheer bad luck all conspired to hold it back from greatness.
Indeed, Cairo has seemed snake bit through much of its storied history.
The
beginning of the end of its glory days came in the most protracted civil rights struggle in United States history from 1967
to 1973, a remarkable southern gothic melodrama in a northern state. African American boycotts of white businesses closed
them down, and the town’s fate was sealed. At times both sardonic and heartbreaking, Greetings From Cairo,
Illinois tells the whole story.
The
CD is a culmination of five years of research, hundreds of conversations and “countless hours of general hanging around
in the most fascinating town in America, bar none.” The project traces Cairo’s history from 1858 to the
present through the Civil War, lynchings, the blues years, civil rights struggles and spectacular decline. England is
joined by top musicians from southern Illinois, Los Angeles and Nashville including alt-country legend Jason Ringenberg of
Jason and the Scorchers, and Gnashville Sounds label mates Gutter Swans.
Two Excellent History Links:
|
| Will James Lynching 1909, Basis for Song Equal Opportunity Lynch Mob with Woodbox Gang |
|
