FERRIDAY — Local musicians will give their listeners a musical history lesson Saturday night.

The Arcade Theater at the Delta Music Museum will host a musical tribute to the Mississippi River delta at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Local scholar Lynette Tanner wrote the program in conjunction with musician Sylvia Johns-Ritchie specifically to coincide with the New Harmonies exhibit.

“It’s an educational experience while you’re having fun,” Tanner said.

This follows a similar program two years ago in which locals explored how plantation music influenced local Delta music.

“It was such a success when we did the program plantation lifestyle, we thought we would do it for the Delta as a whole,” Tanner said.

The program will not only include information about local delta musicians, but those who came from Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi as well.

“It’s going to explore who they were, where they were from and the impact the had on national music,” Tanner said.

“We’ll look at how delta musicians took this music to New York and Chicago, and how it became international through them.”

The musical exploration will include a listen to American Indian music from the region, and will look at the musical contributions from the French, German, English Spanish and African cultures that were transplanted into the region as well as blues and rock-and-roll.

Delta Music Museum Director Judith Bingham said the New Harmonies exhibit, which opened, has seen good traffic so far.

“We have had quite a few people come through and visit the exhibit, and quite a few people come to the musical events,” Bingham said.

The exhibit, which explores the development of American roots music and features many of the themes of Saturday’s program, will close Dec. 5.

There is no cost for admission for the exhibit or Saturday’s performance.

Musicians who will perform Saturday include Johns-Ritchie, Doug Delvecchio and the Rendezvous musicians, Willie Minor, Edrena Lyons, Bob Sasser and Lansing Brakenridge.