Tupelo

The tupelo /ˈtuːpᵻloʊ/, black gum, or pepperidge tree, genus Nyssa /ˈnɪsə/, is a small genus of trees with alternate, simple leaves. It is usually included in the subfamily Nyssoideae of the dogwood family, Cornaceae, but is placed by some authorities in the family Nyssaceae.

Most Nyssa species are highly tolerant of wet soils and flooding, and some need such environments as habitat. Some of the species are native to eastern North America from southeastern Canada through the Eastern United States to Mexico and Central America. Other species are found in eastern and southeastern Asia from China south through Indochina to Java and southwest to the Himalayas.

Names

The genus name Nyssa refers to a Greek water nymph. The name tupelo, one of the common names used for Nyssa, is of Native American origin, coming from the Creek words ito 'tree' and opilwa 'swamp'; it was in use by the mid-18th century.

The city of Tupelo, Mississippi, is named for this tree.

Species

Seven to ten species of Nyssa are recognized:

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian alternative rock band that was formed in Melbourne in 1983 by lead singer Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and guitarist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throughout its career and presently consists of Cave, violinist and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn P. Casey and keyboardist Conway Savage (all four from Australia), keyboard/percussion player Barry Adamson and guitarist George Vjestica (both from the United Kingdom), and drummers Thomas Wydler (Switzerland) and Jim Sclavunos (United States). The band has released fifteen studio albums and completed numerous international tours.

The band was founded after the demise of Cave and Harvey's former group the Birthday Party, the members of which met at a boarding school in Victoria, Australia. Deviating from the noise rock roots of their contemporaries, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have produced alternative rock that has been influenced by various genres, such as punk rock, gothic rock, no wave and blues. Their early material—From Her to Eternity (1984), The Firstborn Is Dead (1985), Your Funeral... My Trial (1986) and Tender Prey (1988)—primarily featured a post-punk sound. The band has progressively incorporated other songwriting elements; for example, the 2008 release Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! experimented with garage rock, also an influence of the side project Grinderman. Synthesizers and minimal guitar work feature prominently on their newest album, Push the Sky Away (2013), recorded after the departure of Harvey in 2009.

Nick Cave

Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, composer and occasional film actor. He is best known as the frontman of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1983, a group known for its diverse output and ever-evolving line-up. Prior to this, he fronted the Birthday Party, one of the most extreme and confrontational post-punk bands of the early 1980s. In 2006, he formed the garage rock band Grinderman, releasing its debut album the following year.

Referred to as rock music's "Prince of Darkness", Cave's music is generally characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences, and lyrical obsessions with death, religion, love and violence.NME described him as "the grand lord of gothic lushness".

Cave has also worked as a composer for films, often in collaboration with fellow Australian musician Warren Ellis. Their films together include The Proposition (2005, based on a screenplay by Cave), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), The Road (2009) and Lawless (2012). Cave is the subject and co-writer of the semi-fictional "day in the life" documentary 20,000 Days on Earth (2014).

Tupelo, Mississippi

Tupelo /ˈtuːpəloʊ/ is the county seat and the largest city of Lee County, Mississippi. The seventh-largest city in the state, it is situated in Northeast Mississippi, between Memphis, Tennessee, and Birmingham, Alabama. It is accessed by Interstate 22 As of the 2010 census, the population was 34,546, with the surrounding counties of Lee, Pontotoc and Itawamba supporting a population of 139,671

Tupelo was the first city to gain electrification under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's program of the Tennessee Valley Authority construction of facilities during the Great Depression. The city is also the birthplace of singer Elvis Presley.

History

European colonization

Indigenous peoples lived in the area for thousands of years. The historic Chickasaw and Choctaw, both Muskogean-speaking peoples of the Southeast, occupied this area long before European encounter.

French and British colonists traded with these indigenous peoples and tried to make alliances with them. The French established towns in Mississippi mostly on the Gulf Coast. At times, the European powers came into armed conflict. On May 26, 1736 the Battle of Ackia was fought near the site of the present Tupelo; British and Chickasaw soldiers repelled a French and Choctaw attack on the then-Chickasaw village of Ackia. The French, under Louisiana governor Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, had sought to link Louisiana with Acadia and the other northern colonies of New France.

John Lee

John Lee may refer to:

Politics and government