Cheap Mississippi - River of Song, Part 3 (Video) (Ani DiFranco, Ani Difranco) Price

Kentucky yields the venerable white gospel fervor of the Boundless Love Quartet, while Arkansas is home base for rockabilly survivor Sonny Burgess, a contemporary of better-known, Sun Records legends Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis himself. It's in Memphis that the series crosses into the acknowledged homelands for Southern music, contrasting the deep R&B pedigree of soul shouter and veteran disk jockey Rufus Thomas, and fellow Memphians Ann Peebles and the Memphis Horns, with the enduring street traditions of rhyming games, drill teams, and street dancing.

Approaching the Delta, we glimpse Robert Lockwood Jr., a direct link to the seminal country blues titan, Robert Johnson, and a spirited meeting between the Band's drummer and grizzled singer, Levon Helm, and the late James Cotton, an avatar of blues harmonica. The endurance of the Delta influence is underscored by Jack Johnson and the Jelly Roll Kings and Johnnie Billington, while another soul-blues veteran, Little Milton, and the enraptured black gospel of the Mississippi Mass Choir are also featured.

Alternative folk icon Ani DiFranco provides ebullient, sympathetic narration to a series rich in the anecdotal insights of the various musicians. --Sam Sutherland