Don’t try to box Bryce Mitchell in.
Mitchell, a musician and research professional, knows the stereotypes often associated with being from Mississippi. And while he understands why people are often painted with a wide brush, he doesn’t believe a person should be defined just by where they come from.
“I’ve seen so many people go through these different phases of acceptance of others that are so rooted in acceptance of themselves,” Mitchell told The Dispatch. “We grow up in these communities, especially people who are from here and grow up in these typical Mississippi communities. You start out in a box. And (whether or not) you stay there is kind of your thing.”
Born and raised in Louisville – one of those ‘typical’ Mississippi communities, Mitchell moved to Starkville in 2010 to attend MSU. What started as a home-away-from-home became home when his parents moved here in 2011.
“Louisville is one of those Mississippi towns where you don’t have the global community you have here,” Mitchell said. “… If I meet total strangers, say I’m traveling or something, I tell them I’m from Starkville.”
Always curious about life outside his small town, Mitchell found a community of likeminded people in Starkville, one centered around music, his favorite creative outlet.
He currently plays bass in Battle and The Wheelers, a four-piece cover band that’s been together for four years. He also performs as a solo artist, singing and playing guitar, at area festivals such as the popular DelFest.
“There’s something I really admire about people who can’t stop creating things, who can’t stop being original,” Mitchell said. “It’s fulfilling.”
A turning point
When Mitchell was in fifth grade, his older sister got a guitar with plans to take lessons, but she left for college before she ever started, leaving behind the guitar. Practicing soon became a ritual he often shared with his mother, herself a singer and pianist.
“That’s what I did every day, I went home and I played guitar and sang,” Mitchell said. “It was right when the chord websites were becoming really popular, and me and my mom could sit there and learn anything and I could be playing it in a couple of hours.”
Like many up-and-coming musicians with parents of a certain age, Mitchell’s first influences were the classic rock bands of the 1960s and ‘70s. He was gifted his grandparents’ old record player and had access to his dad’s record collection.
“I was listening to everything – Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, The Doors, all this stuff – in my room and I really liked it,” he said. “I wasn’t even really hearing this stuff on the radio yet but I had it there.”
When Mitchell was in high school, his older half-brother, Austin Hill, began attending college; first at East Mississippi Community College, then Mississippi State and, eventually, Northwest. Whenever Hill would come back to Louisville, he’d bring with him a new set of musical influences. But these artists didn’t come from England, Australia or the West Coast. They came from the South. They were from Mississippi.
“He gave me the piece of work that was a turning point for me … he gave me The North Mississippi All-Stars ‘Hernando’ album,” Mitchell said. “‘Keep the Devil Down,’” “‘Shake What Your Mama Gave You,’” and all that, and I loved it. I love Luther Dickinson.”
Dickinson, frontman for the All-Stars, has spent his career keeping a Mississippi legacy alive. Through Dickinson’s music, Mitchell discovered the Hill Country blues and began emulating the fingerpicking style that makes that genre unique.
“I could not wait to come to school (at MSU) because I was like, ‘I can’t wait to come to these shows,’” Mitchell said. “I couldn’t wait to get here. And when I did, it was awesome. I got in with people in the music community here, and what was really cool was that I never picked up on any sense of competition in this town. It’s very collaborative.”
Embracing ‘boring paperwork’
Mitchell, who graduated from Mississippi State with a bachelor’s in business administration in 2015, has been the business manager for I2AT – the university’s Institute for Imaging and Analytical Technologies – for the past three years. There, he handles accounting, customer service and grant management for a variety of institutional and industry partners who utilize the university’s research instrumentation, such as electron microscopes.
While many MSU graduates – particularly those both creatively and professionally minded – leave Starkville (and Mississippi) soon after graduation, Mitchell broke the mold and decided to stay.
“I just love living here because, No. 1, there’s never a shortage of new faces and new people to experience. It’s so easy to become cynical about humanity,” he said. “I love Mississippi. I love living here. I want to be with my family and my parents. My parents are going to get old and I’m going to take care of them.”
Always looking forward
As for the future, Mitchell is workshopping music for his next solo record, which he describes as “an acoustic album,” while incorporating lessons learned from his previous release, 2024’s intimate, “Holy Stone.”
“I’ve got a list of 10 or 12 songs I’ve written, and it’s like, ‘Would this fit?’ My last album, I spent a whole year and a half getting my songs tighter and ready, looking at every line. ‘Do I need to change this word? Do I need a bridge for this song?’ I really surprised myself at how easy it was for me to dedicate myself to it and stick to it, but also to be productive at it. It was working and it really wouldn’t have without all of that prework.”
Despite his small-town upbringing, which included more than his share of childhood trauma, Mitchell said he’s worked hard to not let his past define his future.
“The only thing I can really do is what I see all the best living things doing, and that is living in this world with as much harmony with other things and people as possible,” he said.
Philip Poe is sports editor.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
