George Smith was born on April 22, 1924 in Helena, Arkansas, but was raised in Cairo, Illinois. At four Smith was already taking harp lessons from his mother, a guitar player, and a somewhat stern taskmaster -- it was a case of get it right or else. In his early teens, he started hoboing around the towns in the South and later joined Early Woods, a country band with Early Woods on fiddle and Curtis Gould on spoons. He also worked with a gospel group in Mississippi called the Jackson Jubilee Singers. 

[Things seldom go as my conscious mind plans for them to and trying harder won’t help me. Instead of a deepening “dharma time,” I find myself examining my music background which stretches back to the 1960s and even the late 1950s. Go figure. Or, is this the dharma-of-music in me that I am finding. Suddenly, dharma seems to be everywhere. Perhaps I am just letting go of being so formal and may find myself walking through that door of formality and going outside the box.]

For example, consider the effect on me of the music of Aaron Neville.

Jim Dulzo is one of Ann Arbor and Detroit’s favorite DJs. Dulzo is also a very skilled writer, and did music reviews for the Ann Arbor Sun, and many other publications.

Sylvia Blake Bynum was born on November 7, 1884 in Cary, North Carolina to John Addison Blake and Mintia Hooker Blake. She married Oliver Bynum in January of 1918 in Portsmouth, Virginia. He passed away in 1929.