W.C. Handy

The W.C. Handy Music Festival is returning to the Shoals. Music fans will join together by the thousands for the biggest tourism event in North Alabama.

One of the first things that visitors to downtown Florence may notice is a statue at the entrance to Wilson Park. WC Handy welcomes visitors to the park holding his trumpet high. November marks the 150th anniversary of Handy’s birth. He was a man whose determination pulled him up from homelessness to being recognized as the "Father of the Blues."

Music fans in Lauderdale and Colbert counties will join together this and next week to celebrate the legacy of W.C. Handy. The 41st annual W.C. Handy Music Festival continues until Sunday, July 30.

Say “the blues,” and Mississippi might come to mind. But Alabama has just as much heritage when it comes to this musical form, and for the past 20 years,…

A federal judge says a pending lawsuit over Alabama's voter identification law will go to trial in the fall of next year.U.S. District Judge L. Scott…