Mississippi Blues Night with Willie Farmer and Ryan Lee Crosby

Crosstown Arts presents Mississippi Blues Night with Willie Farmer and Ryan Lee Crosby The Green Room at Crosstown Arts SATURDAY, June 20, 2026 Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 PM Tickets: $20 in advance (plus fees) | $25 at the door purchase TICKETS HERE Though the Mississippi Delta’s Willie Farmer and Rhode Island’s Ryan Lee Crosby come from different backgrounds, they are each dedicated to performing Mississippi blues music. Farmer — a Big Legal Mess and Music Maker Foundation artist from Duck Hill, MS — focuses on Delta- and Memphis-style blues while Crosby performs the stomping North Mississippi and the haunting Bentonia, MS blues. (Skip James is from Bentonia, MS.) The Memphis Flyer terms Farmer‘s last recording a “great album.” Though Crosby is a yankee, he has spent considerable time in Memphis and Mississippi and is mentored by GRAMMY Award nominee and juke joint proprietor Jimmy “Duck” Holmes.  Willie Farmer is living proof that Mississippi continues to produce deep blues. The 65-year-old guitarist is neither a soul modernist nor a revivalist, but a small-town auto mechanic who’s never shaken his love for old-school legends like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Lightnin’ Hopkins. A lifelong resident of tiny Duck Hill, located in the hills east of the Delta, Farmer grew up on his family’s farm. He picked up the acoustic guitar in his early teens, and after saving money from picking cotton, he bought his first electric instrument. He began performing at school events and local gatherings, learning blues and R&B by tuning into a powerful Nashville radio station. In his early twenties, he joined a loose-knit band that played juke joints around the area, including Duck Hill, Grenada, Kilmichael, and deep into the Delta in Greenwood and Charleston. But he eventually grew weary of the rowdy club scene, where “people liked to fight like crazy.” In 2003, Farmer helped found the Grassroots Blues Festival, held in a meadow outside Duck Hill. The annual event connected him with downhome blues artists from across Mississippi, including Willie King and Leo Welch. Farmer’s first serious studio effort came with “The Man From the Hill” (2019, Big Legal Mess), recorded over several sessions at Bruce Watson’s Memphis-based Delta-Sonic Sound. Working in a North Mississippi Hill Country vein, the album features Jimbo Mathus and drummer George Sluppick, with Farmer also exploring gospel harmonies alongside Memphis’ Barnes Brothers. For the past thirty years, he’s operated his own auto repair shop, but he hopes the success of the album and touring opportunities will let him finally step away from the garage. The Memphis Flyer called the record a “great album,” highlighting his playing as full of “rough-hewn strength and deep sensitivity,” while Relix Magazine noted that it “showcases Farmer’s gritty blues approach as he honors longtime influences like Lightnin’ Hopkins and Howlin’ Wolf.” In his upcoming album At the Blue Front, Ryan Lee Cr...