Kosciusko will have another feather in its cap on Friday afternoon as native son, Charlie Musselwhite’s, an internationally known blues harmonica specialist, Mississippi Blues Trail Marker is unveiled on the northside of the historic Downtown Square. Others featured on the marker, who will be in attendance, are Coot Harmon and Taft Jr. Hawthorne.

A reception will follow at the Mary Ricks Thornton Cultural Center and Musselwhite and his band will perform at the Family Night Concert at M&F; Bank Park at 6:30 p.m.

It is reported that Musselwhite began to play the harmonica at 13 in a family of musicians.

His mother, Ruth played piano and his father, Charlie, played the mandolin. He was born in Kosciusko on Jan. 31, 1944 and later on his family moved to Memphis (1957) where he became known as “Memphis Charlie” garnering the opportunity to pal around with the likes of Elvis Presley, Johnnie Cash, Jerry “The Killer” Lee Lewis, Gus Cannon, Will Shade and Furry Lewis.

Once Charlie cut his teeth in Memphis, Chicago beckoned around 1962 and he answered the call arriving on the Southside to become the “White Bluesman” we know today.

While hanging out in the Mecca of the Chicago jook joints, he met and was acquainted on and off stage with legends such as Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells.

Musselwhite’s career took another good turn when he moved to California putting his brand of blues out there for all of the “flower children” of the sixties to dig on. Eventually, Charlie settled in the Sonoma Valley where he resides today.

When you look at the tour schedule of this bluesman one would think it belongs to a twenty-year-old cat not a 65-year-old “road lizard.”

Additionally, this particular marker will also pay tribute to Taft Jr. Hawthorne, K.C. “Coot” Harmon and The Lowery Brothers Band; all are native to the Kosciusko, McAdams, Sallis, and Rocky Point communities.

According to oral history accounts:



Coot Harmon

K.C. “Coot” Harmon was born in Attala County, Kosciusko, Mississippi in 1939 to sharecroppers. At age 11, he taught himself to play an acoustic guitar that his mother, Miss Gertrude ordered from a Sears & Roebuck catalog.

Prior to getting a real guitar, Coot played on a homemade guitar that consisted of two strings of wire, some tin cans and a nail tacked into the side of the frame house he grew up in as a child.

He played original songs such as “I Born In the Country” while plowing in the fields after his grandfather, Mr. Levi Clark, who was able to purchase a small farm about six miles outside Kosciusko.

He never took a formal music lesson but learned to play from the radio.

After listening to John R. (John R. Pepper) on WDIA in Memphis he would create a song imitating his idols, Jimmy Reed, BB King, Howlin Wolf, and Muddy Waters. “Coot” ordered some of his first 45s such as “Rock Me Baby” from Randy’s Record Mart.

He also played with and learned from other guitar players from Sallis, Mississippi such as Woody Snow and Till McGrayer from the Maxwell Community in Leake County.

Coot soon realized that he could use singing and playing the guitar to court girls. He and his best friend “Fat Fuller” would often hang around together using Coot’s singing and playing to get dates with girls. He first sang at Palestine Missionary Baptist Church in the choir and then at socials on Saturday nights at git-togethers in Attala, Choctaw, Holmes, Leake and Madison County community.

In 1965, at age 19, Coot moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and became a factory worker, got married and started a family.

To get into the music business Coot signed on as the road manager and stand-in singer with the Travis Haddix Band for 21 years. Over the years Coot played with other bands in and around Cleveland, Ohio such as Black Ice and The Marvin Young Quartet.

In the past six years, he formed his own band, K.C. Harmon & The Unique Blues Band and can be heard at clubs and festivals in the Cleveland area. Coot is presently working on a new blues CD, It’s Strange What People Will Do.



Taft Jr. Hawthorne

Taft Jr. Hawthorne, the son of the Rev. William Taft Hawthorne, a Methodist Preacher and Christine Harris Hawthorne was born November 24, 1944, in Kosciusko.

Taft was the 10th child of 14 siblings. Taft started singing at the age 6; he loved performing in front of large crowds and pretending that he was singing in Hollywood.

When Taft sang as a little boy in church, everyone noted that his voice had “something special.”

In 1956, he realized that he not only wanted to sing gospel music but secular music was also calling. Doing this same year he began his musical career as part of a trio with two of his siblings; “The Harmony Kings,” they sang local talent shows and church and on other occasions they would travel to other cities to perform at church functions or parties.

Taft was given the name “The Sam Cooke of the South” because his voice resembled the soulful voice of the legendary Sam Cooke.

In 1968 he and his brother Neal recorded a single in Milwaukee, Wisconsin entitled “A Whole Lot of Loving,” of course this single never reached the hands or ears of the nations being that they didn’t have the funds to promote this album.

As time moved on, people began to hear Taft’s wonderful soulful voice and he earned the privilege of performing with Howlin’ Wolf in 1963 in Chicago and 1964 he performed with Freddie Riley.

In 1977-1980, he performed with a local group called the Sallis Southernaires singing on a local radio station every Sunday morning.

They performed statewide in churches and at benefit programs. In 1968, he had the privilege of performing with the legendary gospel icon, Inez Andrews in Milwaukee, Wisc.

In April 2008, Taft was asked to perform at a dedication honoring Sam Cooke in Clarksdale on “The Sam Cooke Walk of Fame.” This performance was an honor and longtime dream come true for Taft, because he truly admired the music of Cooke.

The Cooke family members enjoyed Taft’s performance so such that they asked him to perform in Memphis that same weekend.

Taft says he has plans to record another album within the next few years. Hats off to Mr. Taft Hawthorne, for sharing the blessing that he was given by God to uplift others and to put smiles on their faces through his wonderful songs.



The Lowery Brothers Band

The Lowery Brothers Band members, Fred Lowery, fiddle, father; Ezell Lowery, mandolin and fiddle, son; Tony Lowery, upright bass, son; Clarence Daniels, rhythm guitar, friend of the family; Lorance Elmore, lead guitar, cousin; Ned Floor, friend of the family; L.C. Allen-Guitar, friend of the family; Hubert Lee Allen-Guitar, friend of the family.

According to Delores Lowery Olive, daughter of Tony Lowery, “the Lowerys Brother Band mostly played for White folks swing dances down at Atwood Lake and socials in and around Kosciusko from 1930s to the late 1950s. They also played at Black folks back to school and May Day ceremonies during "Rocky Point" Church school dances and concerts in the West, Mississippi community just outside Kosciusko. They frequently played on the porch of Mr. Milton Williams for his birthday and Christmas.”