Her name is Msesippi. Just Msesippi.
She’s the creative dynamo at the front of Hampton-based band Tornado Bait and she's known for her creative costuming and paper-bag-wearing fans she endearingly calls Bag Heads. She founded and organizes Hampton for the Holidays, a variety show at the Hampton History Museum featuring musical acts, acrobats, comedians and magicians, among others.
Last May, she started work as a DJ, becoming the newest personality at Williamsburg classic rock and pop station WMBG. And like her other projects, she brings a DIY spirit, care and close attention to detail.
“I just tell the truth,” Msesippi said. “I may not know what I’m doing, but at least I’m showing other people you’re not the only one out there, we’ll all be OK.”
Msesippi pulls into the station 90 minutes early on a cold November morning to prepare to cover for Greg Martin. She’s a fill-in host, stepping in when other DJs are out.
Live at 8 a.m., she takes a final look at the day’s playlist, checking traffic and getting updated on last night’s sports scores. But Msesippi has been plotting out the show in her head for a day or more.
Msesippi spends a lot of time thinking about what songs play and in what sequence. For her, the set list has to mean something.
“I was in on Monday, so I went ahead and copied Wednesday’s songs down and then I take them home and kind of look at them,” Msesippi said. “I could let them ride. I care too much, I can’t let them ride.”
Msesippi’s intentionality carries over from her music career. Looking for the deeper meaning is how she processes trauma and hardship.
“I think I actually am so tragically sad or tormented sometimes that this is kind of how I get through it,” she said.
Msesippi is a survivor. She’s survived assault, divorces and a recent battle with thyroid cancer. But looking back, she thinks about her good luck as much as, if not more than, the bad.
“I want people to know they can do it, but I also don’t want people to think they have to be misfortunate to be heard,” Msesippi said.
Msesippi grew up in a Virginia Beach Navy family. She was the youngest of three siblings, and describes her teenage self as enthralled by rock music and art more generally.
Her dad was out to sea for most of her first 10 years. When he was placed on shore duty, her punk rock sensibilities and rebelliousness conflicted with her military-minded father.
“My dad was livid, though, about the rock and roll, the Guns N’ Roses, this and that,” she said. “I was a trope and he couldn’t handle that.”
Msesippi was often asked to leave the house during holidays, spending them with neighbors and friends instead. She was misdiagnosed with various mental health conditions and learned later in life she had ADHD. She left home at 12.
"The tough childhood that I had was really my teenage years; it was stuff that I put on myself, wanting to fight the system and do it on my own.”
Msesippi found a home in the southside punk scene, at times sleeping on rooftops or bandmates’ couches. She picked up the name Msesippi as a young bassist, a play off her nicknames Missy and Ms. E.
“I was never a mega-partier, so it was like ‘oh, there’s Ms. E. Sippi with her little Coca-Cola or whatever,” she said.
Msesippi made it her government name after her 2019 divorce; just Msesippi. It confuses police on the rare occasion she gets pulled over, and has led to some issues with government and bank paperwork. Sometimes, organizations list her as Msesippi Unknown because their computer systems require at least two names. In pure Msesippi fashion, she made it into a joke.
“I was like, ‘Oh great, changed my name to be somebody and now I’m just Ms. Unknown,” she said.
Msesippi played in several groups as a young performer. Her first gig was as a part of the long-standing Norfolk punk band the Strap-Ons, originally the Pimps. She still credits Idle Edsel of the band for keeping her safe from the harder side of the scene.
“I think they knew how toxic the rock and roll world was and wanted to shadow or protect me from that to some extent,” Msesippi said. “A lot of terrible things happened to me, but boy, they sure didn’t happen to me when I was sleeping on his couch.”
In 2001, while in her early 20s, she moved to Ohio with her now-ex-husband. She met a woman who would change her life: musician Linda Whisman, her former mother-in-law, whom she now lovingly calls her out-law.
“The greatest woman I ever met in my life,” Msesippi said. “Everything I do to this day is based after that woman.”
Whisman was the matriarch of a musical family. You couldn't step through her foyer without being handed an instrument and invited to play.
“I found out that I enjoyed singing because they let me," Msesippi said, "they didn’t control me”
She picked up the Appalachian bluegrass and country music that underpins her band, Tornado Bait, which plays what's been sometimes called “grunge-grass.” She started the band in 2015 after moving to Hampton in 2011.
“It can get kitschy at times, but we’re also going through some major changes,” she said. “The old stuff was definitely twangy; it’s just a woman having a happy nervous breakdown.”
Their performances are heavy and high-energy. Msesippi belts songs while playing a guitar or washboard, clad in homemade costumes.
The band loves when the audience gets involved, digging into suitcases of her “baggage” that she brings. One is called the “Trunk of Funk,” full of small percussion instruments.
Some fans decorate paper bags that were first introduced to help a bandmate overcome stage insecurity. Msesippi’s kept many, each themed based on the holiday or event at which they played.
“I don’t want to be one-of-a-kind; I want to be one with my kind and I want my kind to make other people that are not our kind feel welcome and that there’s room for everybody at the table,” she said. “I’ve been at so many tables, thank God they’ve made room for me.”
Tornado Bait opened doors Msesippi didn’t realize she would ever step through.
She played the Steampunk Festival at the Hampton History Museum in 2016, where she met Seamus McGrann. He became a big supporter and invited them back for shows, including the museum’s Christmas Market. The holidays, at the time, were stressful times for her.
“And I really liked it, I felt like I had something to give for Christmas, finally,” she said.
After two years at the market, she asked in 2018 to organize a holiday special without the commercial element. It’s since become a tradition for the museum and Msesippi, to her surprise.
Now, she’s got a home and garage teeming with Christmas supplies for the show which she wouldn’t have any other way. And like with radio, she’s always working ahead to make sure the next year’s show is packed with meaning.
“You could have never told me I’d do Christmas,” she said. “I did Christmas because it was so uncomfortable for me, I had to find something to give that got me out of it.”
A cast of different performers and characters makes the show a warm and campy time. They did an online special during the pandemic, which Msesippi said one attendee called “regrettably entertaining.” She took that as high praise.
“I love that,” Msesippi said. “Sometimes you’ve got to say something so dumb that people forget what their problem is.”
Msesippi is constantly surprised by how many people come together to make it happen, often on a whim. It’s hosted by artist K’Bana Blaq. Former 13NewsNow anchor Joe Flanagan read the original storybook this year, written by Mike Holtzclaw, who also plays Santa. The storybook was illustrated by Avery Tingen, who volunteered after briefly meeting Msesippi at an outing in the fall.
“It brings the best out of everybody,” Msesippi said. “I feel like I’ve made my mother proud; I feel like I’ve made a show that Iggy Pop and my mom can go to and that’s all I ever wanted.”
