Rollin' On The River

Ike Turner, "The Father Of Rock And Roll," met Annie Mae Bullock in 1956 and soon they were married.

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Ike had previously been in a rhythm and blues group, The Kings Of Rhythm, who had one major hit song, "Rocket 88." Annie Mae changed her name to Tina and Ike added her to the band along with some backup singers. The group was soon renamed The Ike And Tina Turner Revue.

Tina left Ike in 1976 after enduring years of Ike's emotional, physical and drug abuse.

Tina's ensuing solo career staggered until the 1983 Grammy Award winning hit, "Private Dancer" and co-starring in the third Mad Max movie, "Beyond Thunderdome," (1985) opposite Mel Gibson.

Ike and Tina Turner were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1991.

Mississippi has produced more than its fair share of acclaimed musicians and has produced a musical style named after one of features of the Mississippi River found in the state, "Delta Blues."

The Delta Blues follow a classic three-line, twelve-bar blues pattern, and typically features a guitar, often fretted with a bottleneck, and sometimes a harmonica. The lyrics and vocal stylings are what set the style apart, and is best described as, "Nothing but a good man singing about feeling bad."

Ike Turner, born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, is in good company with other Mississippi-born musicians such as LeAnn Rimes (Jackson, Mississippi), Lance Bass (Laurel, Mississippi), Conway Twitty (Friars Point, Mississippi), John Lee Hooker (Clarksdale, Mississippi), B.B. King (Indianola, Mississippi), Jimmie Rodgers (Meridian, Mississippi), Bo Diddley (McComb, Mississippi) and Elvis Presley (Tupelo, Mississippi).

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Way Down Around Vicksburg, Around Louisiana Way

The Mississippi River is one of the longest rivers in the world at 2350 miles, but only falls 1475 feet from its headwaters in Minnesota to where it empties in to the Gulf Of Mexico.

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Due to its short fall (the altitude difference from a river's beginning to its end), the Mississippi River is an easily navigable river. The river has few natural obstructions, such as waterfalls or rapids, to vessels whose keel is not far below the waterline.

In 1811, the first Mississippi River steamboat, the "New Orleans" plied the waters of the Mighty Mississippi between St. Paul and New Orleans. The steamboat revolutionized commerce on the Mississippi River by dramatically increasing the amount of cargo that could be shipped. Today, 400 million tons of goods are transported annually.

Mention of a Mississippi River steamboat is customarily accompanied by reference to Mark Twain and his writings about life on the Mississippi and his career as a steamboat pilot.

The Mississippi Queen is one of a trio of steamboats operated by The Delta Queen Steamboat company that continue to ferry passengers from St. Paul, Minnesota, and New Orleans, Louisana, and back again.

A 9-foot shipping channel is maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Minneapolis, Minnesota. A 45 foot channel from Baton Rouge past New Orleans to Head of Passes allows ocean-going vessels access to ports as far upstream as Baton Rouge.

Quoting from Mark Twain's book, "Life on the Mississippi," "The military engineers have taken upon their shoulders the job of making the Mississippi over again - a job transcended in size by only the original job of creating it."

In 1969, Leslie West and former Cream producer Felix Pappalardi formed Mountain. The name was in reference to West's girth. His weight at the time is estimated to have been around 300 pounds.

Mountain made their fourth live performance ever at Woodstock.

Pappalardi was shot and killed by his wife in 1983.

Leslie West, once known as "The Great Fatsby," began experiencing weight-related health problems, and has since lost over 100 pounds.

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On Your Way Down To The Gulf Of Mexico

The Mississippi River has been a central part of North American civilization for at least 5,000 years.

Evidence of some of these early inhabitants can still be witnessed today in the form of burial mounds and effigy mounds built along the river as part of their religious beliefs.

Most history textbooks credit Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto with discovering the Mississippi River in 1541. Of course this is an aberration due to chronic vanity suffered by the "Paleface."

Ironically, De Soto died on the banks of the Mississippi River, succumbing to a fever in 1542.

Today, while it is the nation's most heavily trafficked river, it is cited that more than 18 million people in 50 cities rely on the Mississippi River for daily water supply.

Mud from the Mississippi River is also used for covering baseballs, to reduce glare and so they are not slippery for the pitchers.

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The Mississippi River Don't Look So Wide

The Mississippi River watershed is the third largest in the world, covering approximately 1,837,000 square miles, or 40% of the United States.

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The Mississippi River itself measures 2,350 miles, but with the added length of its largest tributary, the Missouri River, the Mississippi-Missouri is the world's fourth longest river at 3,741 miles behind the Yangtze (3,915 miles), the Amazon (4,007 miles) and the Nile (4,145 miles).

Along the course of the Mississippi River, its speed and width vary greatly resulting in four distinct characteristics according to the landscape: gorges and valleys, braided river, meandering river and floodplains.

At an average speed of 1.2 mph, a raindrop that falls in the river's headwaters at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, would take 90 days to complete the journey to the Gulf Of Mexico.

Though Conway Twitty sings that "The Mississippi River, Lord, is one mile," it reaches its widest at nearly 1 mile wide near Alton, Illinois. It still makes for a formidable crossing as it reaches a depth of 200 feet as it passes New Orleans, which is more in the vicinity of where a Mississippi man would need to cross to get to Louisiana.

We'll give him the benefit of the doubt that the love in his Mississippi heart will be enough to get him through shipping lanes, the 436,000 tons of sediment carried daily by the river, floating debris and quick moving currents to reach the loving arms of his Louisiana woman.

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I'm Gonna Sit Right Here Until I Die

Winding through the nation's heartland, the Mississippi River is the largest and longest river of the North American continent.

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The headwaters of the Mississippi River are found at Minnesota's Lake Itasca and are fed by hundreds of tributaries along its 2350 mile course before it empties into the Gulf Of Mexico.

The river has played host to civilizations dating as far back as 5,000 years and is the lifeline of the Mississippi River Valley ecosystem.

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