Hattiesburg's newest mural features musical legends. What you need to know

Ever since Blind Roosevelt Graves and his brother took a train from McComb to Hattiesburg in 1936, the Hub City has arguably been the center of a new style of music, later named rock 'n' roll. A lot of people don't know that.

Mayor Toby Barker said along with Graves, there are other musicians who have made a significant impact on the music world who have ties to the city.

"For some time, I have wanted a mural on the side of the Community Arts Center dedicated to the musicians who had roots in Hattiesburg," Barker said. "As we did our research, we came up with a list of nearly 20 individual artists/musicians who fit that criteria."

The mural, titled "Jam Session," features eight of those musicians. The others will be added in subsequent murals. The mural was created by Jackson-based artist Reshonda Perryman, whose mural "Jxn Icons/City with Soul," captured the spirits of legendary Jacksonians Medgar Evers, Eudora Welty, Thalia Mara and David Banner.

"I was in Jackson one day at the Capitol and walked over by the Civil Rights Museum and looked across the mall there and saw a mural of 'Jxn Icons' and actually loved the style," Barker said. "(Perryman) actually crushed it."

Perryman created the mural in 21 days under the watchful eyes of passersby and people who work in the arts center, she said. They offered her water or shouted greetings as she painted the smoothed brick surface 15 feet above them.

"This has been a very peaceful, a very smooth experience," Perryman said. "Mural work is hard work. But this one was a breeze."

Mississippi is known as the birthplace of American music. Hattiesburg took that music to a new level by producing the first-known recordings of rock 'n' roll music featuring the Graves brothers and their Mississippi Jook Band.

"Their songs 'Barbecue Bust' and 'Dangerous Woman' featured fully formed rock 'n' roll guitar riffs and a stomping rock 'n' roll beat," author Jim Miller wrote in "The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll."

That was in 1936. Fellow Mississippian Elvis Presley was a toddler then. Buddy Holly had yet to be born. Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, from Forest, was 10 years away from recording a song that later became a hit for Elvis, "That's All Right, Mama."

These and other early rock musicians have the Mississippi Jook Band to thank for planting the seeds of rock 'n' roll, allowing a new wave of artists to taste the fruit of a vine that had matured over time.

Since then, Hattiesburg has been home to a number of music makers who have made their marks on the world, including Jimmy Buffett, Greg "Fingers" Taylor, Vasti Jackson, Tommie "T-Bone" Pruitt and many, many more.

Click here to learn more about the featured musicians.

A mural featuring these Hattiesburg artists was unveiled Tuesday afternoon at the former Hattiesburg American building, now the city's Community Arts Center at 825 North Main St.

Also featured on the mural are Graves, Craig Wiseman, Tom “Bones” Malone and Mississippi Matilda.

"Jam Session" by Jackson artist Reshonda Perryman pays tribute to musicians with ties to Hattiesburg. It is the first mural in a new musician series and the 51st of 100 murals the city is hoping to add over time, under the direction of the Hattiesburg Alliance for Public Art.

For more information about "Jam Session" and other public art in Hattiesburg, visit hburgart.com.

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