"Mississippi, My Home": Songwriting, Identity and Everyday Aesthetics in the African-American Tradition

Abstract

This article focuses on the analysis of ‘Mississippi, My Home’, a blues composition by African-American singer Lavelle White, which posits key issues about the meanings of home, identity, and everyday aesthetics. Presented as a true story, the song deals with the idea of returning home to Mississippi. It represents everyday life in a plantation through the bond between the narrator and her mother while picking cotton. Therefore, it approaches the listener to an aesthetic of everyday life that combined blues, work songs, and spirituals. Drawing on a personal interview with the artist, as well as on other sources, we will analyse the song as part of a broader interest in the musical discourse of blues. Exploring the song’s text and context, the aim is to reach a complex understanding about the ways in which biography and fiction intertwine with each other in the creative act of songwriting and musical performance.