May 29, 2020
Otha Turner was a music legend from Mississippi Hill Country and one of the last remaining fife players in the fife and drum blues music tradition. When he passed in 2003 at the age of 94, that tradition and his legacy were left in the hands of his 12-year-old granddaughter Shardé Thomas and someone more unlikely—Nashville attorney Bill Ramsey. Their bond led to the preservation of an all-but-forgotten African American music tradition and to one of Nashville’s most unique and meaningful parties-- Ode to Otha.