Norman Yandell of Long Beach has been fishing all of his life using the skills he learned from his step dad.

He recounts how he started making and selling his own brand of fishing lures called “Norm Bait.”

Yandell can be found most Saturdays at the Biloxi Maritime and Seafood Museum teaching folks how to make fishing nets. He recalls how the local firemen used to spend their spare time making nets.

Jerome Myles of Natchez began working in radio at a young age.  He recalls how a job shadowing program in high school led to a 30+ year career in broadcasting. He discusses the importance of “being yourself” on the air.

For over 27 years, Leo Welch has hosted a Gospel music TV show on WO7BN in Bruce, MS. He discusses his early career as a Blues musician and the switch to Gospel.

The Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corp. was established in 2006 to assist area Vietnamese-Americans after Hurricane Katrina.  Known as the CDC, they were called on once again to assist the Gulf Coast Vietnamese fishing community after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

Here is our gift to you, our loyal listeners: 30 minutes of our annual Roots Reunion Show recorded live Saturday, December 3rd at the historic Saenger Theater in downtown Hattiesburg. The show features traditional music from Mississippi and the surrounding area.  This month's show included bluegrass byour house band, The Patchwork String Band, the traditional music of Doug and Rhonda Webb, Irish folk singer Jim Flanagan, Jazz by Heather and the Monkey King, and more bluegrass by Delta Reign.  You can get a CD of the entire show FREE with your paid membership to the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage by going to http://www.usm.edu/oral-history/become-member .

Historic Mobile Street in downtown Hattiesburg was for many years the hottest strip for live music outside of Bourbon Street in New Orleans.  It was on Mobile Street in 1947 a young guitarist named Tommie Pruitt began a career that has lasted 64 years and counting.

Pruitt recalls learning to play on a homemade guitar and how his father earned money as a street musician.

Taken from an interview provided by the Mississippi Arts Commission's Folklife Archive.

In the early sixties, NASA decided to construct a rocket engine test facility in Hancock County.  

Lee Paul of Bay St. Louis was part of a team of engineers sent to test how the noise would affect the surrounding area. He recalls the massive horn they used and the community’s reaction to the tests. Paul also recounts how area wildlife inspired the names of some of the roads.

As a boy in Nesbit, Kenny Brown had a hard time learning to play the guitar.  That changed when blues legend, Mississippi Joe Callicott, moved next door.

Years later, Brown befriended another blues legend, R.L. Burnside. Brown recalls playing with Burnside and his first trip to a juke joint.

Brown also demonstrates the difference between the Hill Country blues of North Mississippi and the Delta blues. This interview courtesy of the Mississippi Arts Commission's Folklife Archive.

In 1894, a group of African American men from the Bay St Louis area formed the One Hundred Members Benevolent Debating Association. In 1922, the Association constructed a meeting hall as place to conduct fundraising events.  Known as the Hundred Men Hall, it became a regular stop for many of the greatest musical acts of the day.

Walter Biggins and Anna Kline are newly weds from Jackson brought together by a love of Mississippi foods and culture. They detail how an article Kline was writing on ways to prepare watermelon became an annual party. The couple also belong to a "Soup Club", a group of friends that meet regularly to share good food and conversation.