When I'm not uploading quick-hit blues harp lessons to YouTube, I'm an associate professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS. I've published widely in the areas of American and African American literature, and I have three books to my name: MISTER SATAN'S APPRENTICE: A BLUES MEMOIR (1998), SEEMS LIKE MURDER HERE: SOUTHERN VIOLENCE AND THE BLUES TRADITION (2002), and the forthcoming JOURNEYMAN'S ROAD: MODERN BLUES LIVES FROM FAULKNER'S MISSISSIPPI TO POST-9/11 NEW YORK (2007). Between 1986 and 1998 I was the harmonica-playing half of Satan and Adam, a Harlem-based blues duo with three CDs on the Flying Fish and Rounder labels: HARLEM BLUES (1991), MOTHER MOJO (1993), and LIVING ON THE RIVER (1996).

About the KudzuRunner handle: I am an enthusiastic road racer and compete regularly in Memphis and N. Mississippi at distances from 5K to the marathon.