"Powerhouse"

Last night at the "Welty" reception, Hunter Holmes entertained us with some classic Mississippi blues music. Eudora Welty was interested in, and enjoyed, this type of music, and music figures prominently in some of her works. In fact, "Powerhouse",originally published in A Curtain of Green, is the story of a Fats Waller-like blues pianist and his band, performing for an all-white audience in 1930s Mississippi.

Here's a quote from "Powerhouse":

"Then he took hold of the piano, as if he saw it for the first time in his life, and tested it for strength,hit it down in the bass, played an octave with his elbow, lifted the top, looked inside, and leaned against it with all his might. He sat down and played it for a few minutes with outrageous force and got it under his power--a bass deep and coarse as a sea net--then produced something glimmering and fragile, and smiled."