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HONORING MR. EDDIE COTTON, JR.

Speaker
T000193
Subject
T000193
Source
Congressional Record · original
Published
Monday, March 31, 2025

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Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 57 (Monday, March 31, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 57 (Monday, March 31, 2025)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E265] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] HONORING MR. EDDIE COTTON, JR. ______ HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON of mississippi in the house of representatives Monday, March 31, 2025 Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a torchbearer of the blues tradition, Mr. Eddie Cotton, Jr. Mr. Cotton exemplifies what can be achieved through hard work, dedication, and a desire to achieve success. Bluesman Eddie Cotton, Jr.'s music is rooted in the church. His father was a Pentecostal minister, shepherding the Christ Chapel Church of God in Christ, which he founde…

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Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 57 (Monday, March 31, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 57 (Monday, March 31, 2025)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E265] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] HONORING MR. EDDIE COTTON, JR. ______ HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON of mississippi in the house of representatives Monday, March 31, 2025 Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a torchbearer of the blues tradition, Mr. Eddie Cotton, Jr. Mr. Cotton exemplifies what can be achieved through hard work, dedication, and a desire to achieve success. Bluesman Eddie Cotton, Jr.'s music is rooted in the church. His father was a Pentecostal minister, shepherding the Christ Chapel Church of God in Christ, which he founded in Clinton, Mississippi, just west of Jackson. While music was central to church services, both his family and his congregation shunned secular music. Still, Cotton reflects, ``The deepest of the blues I've ever played is in church. . . . The style they play on is nothing but blues.'' When he was six, his father bought him his first electric guitar, and by age eight, the younger Cotton was an official member of the church band, eventually becoming the lead guitarist. At 18, he earned a full scholarship to study music theory at Jackson State University, where he learned music theory and discovered that the basic structures of blues were ingrained in his playing. After college, he became the minister of music at the family church while simultaneously playing with Mississippi bluesman King Edward Antoine, known in Jackson as ``The Blues Picking King.'' Cotton is a master of a genre called soul blues. Emerging in the 1960s, soul blues fuses the gritty guitar sound central to blues with the smoother, gospel-influenced vocal style of soul and R&B music. Soul blues is music meant to move the body and spirit, which is why Cotton describes his sound as ``hard-driving blues'' or ``juke joint blues.'' Eddie's musical career remains focused on two things: regular gigs for enthusiastic soul blues audiences and a continuing commitment to his home church in Clinton, where he serves as both church administrator and minister of music. Whatever the venue, Cotton's goal is always to find what his church calls ``the pocket,'' a place of spiritual transcendence where ``the music just pulsates in everybody's mind and heart.'' Now in his 50's, Eddie Cotton, Jr. is a blues master with a growing international fan base. He has opened for legends like Ike Turner and B.B. King, and in 2015, he took top honors at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. Eddie Cotton performed at the Richmond Folk Festival in 2017 and is among the favorites returning to celebrate the festival's 20th anniversary. He released his latest album, The Mirror, in March of 2024, just days after an electrifying set at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas. In July of 2024, he traveled to Las Vegas to perform at the National NAACP Convention, where he has frequently performed for the gathering's Mississippi Catfish and Blues Night over the past 15 years. Recently, Eddie received the 2025 Governor's Arts Award for Excellence in Music. Among his awards and accolades, he has a Mississippi Blues Trail marker in his hometown of Clinton. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Mr. Eddie Cotton, Jr. for his passion and unwavering dedication to the art of music. ____________________

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