OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — Living Blues magazine is celebrating 40 years in the business.
The magazine devoted to covering the African-American blues tradition has been owned by the University of Mississippi since 1983, but it got its start in Chicago, where Jim O'Neal and other blues lovers borrowed $300 to publish the first issue.
Living Blues is the country's oldest magazine dedicated to the genre and has an international distribution and circulation of more than 25,000. Among those gracing past covers were B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland and Honeyboy Edwards.
Current editor Brett Bonner attributes the magazine's longevity to a formula from which it rarely strays: allowing the artists to describe how their culture drives the music.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
Photo Caption: In this Sept. 1 photo, students walk past the Mississippi Blues Trail marker at the University of Mississippi campus commemorating the Living Blues magazine in Oxford, Miss. Living Blues is celebrating 40 years in the business. The magazine devoted to covering the African-American blues tradition has been owned by the University of Mississippi since 1983, but it got its start in Chicago, where Jim O'Neal and other blues lovers borrowed $300 to publish the first issue. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
The magazine devoted to covering the African-American blues tradition has been owned by the University of Mississippi since 1983, but it got its start in Chicago, where Jim O'Neal and other blues lovers borrowed $300 to publish the first issue.
Living Blues is the country's oldest magazine dedicated to the genre and has an international distribution and circulation of more than 25,000. Among those gracing past covers were B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland and Honeyboy Edwards.
Current editor Brett Bonner attributes the magazine's longevity to a formula from which it rarely strays: allowing the artists to describe how their culture drives the music.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
Photo Caption: In this Sept. 1 photo, students walk past the Mississippi Blues Trail marker at the University of Mississippi campus commemorating the Living Blues magazine in Oxford, Miss. Living Blues is celebrating 40 years in the business. The magazine devoted to covering the African-American blues tradition has been owned by the University of Mississippi since 1983, but it got its start in Chicago, where Jim O'Neal and other blues lovers borrowed $300 to publish the first issue. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
