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Mississippi - A birthplace of the Blues

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Subway Lounge
  • Subway Lounge
    Subway Lounge
  • Honeyboy Edwards
    Honeyboy Edwards
  • The Peavine Railroad
    The Peavine Railroad
  • Birthplace of the Blues
    Birthplace of the Blues
  • Scott Baretta at Queen of Hearts Marker ceremony
    Scott Baretta at Queen of Hearts trail marker
  • Senator Horne at Queen of Hearts trail marker
    Senator Horne at Queen of Hearts trail marker
  • Senator Horne & Chellie B. at Queen of Hearts trail marker
    Senator Horne & Chellie B. Lewis at Queen of Hearts trail marker
  • Alex Thomas at Queen of Hearts trail marker
    Alex Thomas at Queen of Hearts trail marker
  • Queen of Hearts trail marker
    Bobby Rush and friends at Queen of Hearts trail marker
  • Jack Owens trail marker ceremony
    Jack Owens trail marker ceremony
  • Jack Owens trail marker ceremony
    Jack Owens trail marker ceremony
  • Jack Owens
    Jack Owens
  • Bobby Rush trail marker
    Bobby Rush trail marker
  • Club Ebony trail marker
    Club Ebony trail marker
  • Trumpet Records trail marker
    Trumpet Records trail marker
  • Alamo Theatre trail marker
    Alamo Theatre trail marker
  • Chellie Lewis and Senator Horne at Queen of Hearts trail marker
    Chellie Lewis and Senator Horne at Queen of Hearts trail marker
  • Queen of Hearts trail marker
    Queen of Hearts trail marker
  • Queen of Hearts trail marker
    Queen of Hearts trail marker - famous faces
  • Malaco Records trail marker
    Malaco Records trail marker
  • Malaco Records
    Malaco Records
  • Blue Front cafe trail marker
    Blue Front cafe trail marker (Jimmy 'Duck' Holmes performing)
  • Little Milton trail marker
    Little Milton trail marker
  • Little Milton Campbell trail marker ceremony
    Little Milton Campbell trail marker ceremony
  • Little Milton Campbell trail marker ceremony
    Little Milton Campbell trail marker - Dr. Edgar Smith of the Mississippi Blues Commission
  • Little Milton's brother John Campbell
    Little Milton's brother John Campbell
  • Little Milton's trail marker ceremony
    Little Milton's trail marker ceremony
  • Little Milton's trail marker ceremony
    Little Milton's trail marker ceremony
  • Little Milton's widow Pat Campbell and brother John Campbell
    Little Milton's widow Pat Campbell and brother John Campbell
  • Little Milton's trail marker ceremony
    Dr. Edgar Smith and wife at the Little Milton trail marker ceremony

  • Two Sisters Kitchen
    Two Sisters Kitchen - Jackson, MS.
  • Two Sisters Kitchen - Jackson, MS.
    Two Sisters Kitchen - Jackson, MS.
  • Peaches Restaurant
    Peaches Restaurant
  • Inside Peaches Restaurant
    Inside Peaches Restaurant
  • Alamo Theatre
    Alamo Theatre
  • Sam Myers tribute
    Sam Myers tribute
  • Medgar Evers home
    Medgar Evers plaque
  • Medgar Evers home
    Medgar Evers home - college class
  • Chellie Lewis getting an award
    Chellie Lewis (Queen of Hearts) getting an award
  • Queen of Hearts postings
    Queen of Hearts postings
  • Queen of Hearts menu
    Queen of Hearts menu
  • Bobby Rush
    Bobby Rush
  • Malaco Records
    Malaco Records
  • Tommy Couch of Malaco Records
    Tommy Couch of Malaco Records
  • Club Ebony
    Club Ebony, Indianola, MS. - now owned by BB King
  • Cast of Blues
    Henry Townsend of St. louis in 'Cast of Blues' at Delta State University
  • Big George Brock in 'Cast of Blues' at Delta State University
    Big George Brock in 'Cast of Blues' at Delta State University
  • 'Cast of Blues' at Delta State University
    The display of 'Cast of Blues' at Delta State University
  • Lone chair at Dockery Farm
    Lone chair at Dockery Farm (Home of Charley Patton)
  • Professor Luther 'Bad Bad' Brown at Dockery Farm
    Professor 'Bad Bad'
    Luther Brown at Dockery Farm
  • Dockery Farm
    Dockery Farm
  • Poor Monkey Lounge
    Poor Monkey Lounge - A true juke joint, Merigold, MS.
  • Poor Monkey Lounge - A true juke joint, Merigold, MS.
    Poor Monkey Lounge - A true juke joint, Merigold, MS.
  • At Ground Zero, Clarksdale, MS.
    At Ground Zero blues club, Clarksdale, MS.
  • Ground Zero blues club :: Clarksdale, MS.
  • Music on the streets of Clarksdale, MS.
    Music on the streets of Clarksdale, MS.
  • Delta Amusement Cafe
    Delta Amusement Cafe :: Clarksdale, MS.
  • Delta Blues Museum :: Clarksdale, MS.
    Delta Blues Museum :: Clarksdale, MS.
  • 'Mr. Tater' performing on the streets of Clarksdale, MS.
    'Mr. Tater' performing on the streets of Clarksdale, MS.
  • 'Mr. Tater' performing on the streets of Clarksdale, MS.
    'Mr. Tater' performing on the streets of Clarksdale, MS.
  • Deak Harp performing on the streets of Clarksdale, MS.
    Deak Harp performing on the streets of Clarksdale, MS.
  • Deak Harp in Clarksdale
    Deak Harp in Clarksdale
  • Monkeys riding dogs :: Juke Joint fest, Clarksdale, MS.
  • Monkeys riding dogs :: Juke Joint fest, Clarksdale, MS.
    Monkeys riding dogs :: Juke Joint fest, Clarksdale, MS.
  • Music in front of Cat Head, Clarksdale, MS.
    Music in front of Cat Head, Clarksdale, MS.
  • Downtown Clarksdale
    Downtown Clarksdale
  • Honeyboy Edwards :: Juke Joint Fest
    Honeyboy Edwards :: Juke Joint Fest
  • Michael Frank :: Juke Joint Fest
  • Dedicated fans brave the rain :: Juke Joint Fest
    Dedicated music fans brave the rain :: Juke Joint Fest
  • Homemade Jamz Band in Ground Zero, Clarksdale, MS.
    Homemade Jamz Band in Ground Zero, Clarksdale, MS.
  • Homemade Jamz Band in Ground Zero, Clarksdale, MS.
    Homemade Jamz Band in Ground Zero, Clarksdale, MS.
  • T Model Ford performing :: Clarksdale, MS.
    T Model Ford performing :: Clarksdale, MS.

Subway Lounge
 
 
If you ever want to trace the history of American music, your travels along this journey will inevitably lead you down south, deep into the small towns of Mississippi. This is where so much of the music evolved. Blues has its deepest roots in the work songs of the West African slaves in the South. During their back-breaking work in the fields of the Southern plantation owners, they developed a "call and response" way of singing to give rhythm to the drudgery of their servitude. These "field hollers" served as a basis of all blues music that was to follow. Mississippi has embraced its culture of blues heritage.

Today this wealth of music history is in the capable hands of the agency known as the Mississippi Blues Commission. The Mississippi Blues Commission was organized in October 2003 by gubernatorial decree and was legally re-constituted in 2004 by the State Legislature. Senate Bill 2082 officially established the Mississippi Blues Commission and declared that the Commission will develop a plan to promote authentic Mississippi Blues music and Blues culture for purposes of economic development. Today Mississippi is steadily growing in popularity as a destination point, with 30 million annual visitors.

This Bill also enables the Commission to accept and expend grant funds and gives permission to purchase and erect Mississippi Blues Trail historical markers with the assistance of the Mississippi Department of Transportation.  That Blues Trail marker effort led to this Media Tour, bringing in travel writers in from all over the country, for Trail Markers #66 to #68 - Jack Owens, Queen of Hearts & Owner Chellie B. Lewis, and Little Milton Campbell. At the Jack Owens trail marker unveiling, neighbor Larry Allen guided the tour and gave some insight on Jack, like "he liked his moonshine". Bobby Rush and Dorothy Moore both made appearances at the Queen of Hearts. For Little Milton's trail marker ceremony, his widow Pat flew in from Vegas, and his brother John was also on hand to say a few words. Also on hand was Dr. Edgar Smith of the Mississippi Blues Commission, who brought one of his first LP's, a Little Milton album titled "Grit's Ain't Groceries", and played a track for the crowd's enjoyment. Eventually many of these trail markers will even have GPS to help you locate them, as they can be just a little 'off the beaten path'. For now you can visit their website at www.msbluestrails.com for a full featured trip planner!

'Bad Bad' Luther Brown of Delta State University acted as tour guide. Also known as Dr. Luther Brown, director of the Center for Delta Culture at Delta State University, he has called the Mississippi Delta the “birthplace of American culture which owes its roots to the Delta land and the people who lived here.” Delta State holds workshops for the MS. Delta, and has had more than 300 applicants vying for 80 seats. Dr. Brown's plans included a stop at the legendary 'Poor Monkeys' in Merigold, MS. Poor Monkey's is actually ran by a man named Willie Seaberry,  nicknamed 'Monkey' early in life by his mother ('I was always getting into things'). Besides running - and living in - one of the last remaining Juke Joints,  Monkey is also famed for his frequent costume changes throughout the evening.

Dr. Brown then guided us to a visit at Dockery Farms plantation. Dockery Farms, which sits in near the banks of the Sunflower river, was the home of Charley Patton. "You might say, it all started right here," said B.B. King, standing near the Dockery Farms Seed House while narrating the documentary film 'Good Morning Blues'. Dockery farms was almost demolished if not for a Swedish motorcycle club that staged a protest to save the plantation.

From the Dockery website (http://www.dockeryfarms.org/index.html) - "By the 1920's Dockery Farms had grown to a community of several thousand workers and it was home to a number of Blues pioneers, among them Henry Sloan, Charley Patton, Willie Brown, Tommy Johnson, and Roebuck "Pop" Staples. It was at Dockery that these musicians lived and learned from one another. They played in the boarding houses and commissary at Dockery, and in the juke joints of neighboring towns where they were joined by Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Howlin' Wolf. They left Dockery on the plantation's Pea Vine Railroad and traveled north to record. Their songs would influence the development of popular music all over the world."

The 'Crossroads' of blues legend are believed to be somewhere in the Mississippi Delta. Some experts believe that the true crossroads exist just across from the Dockery Farms, maybe a half mile or so. Robert Johnson would have passed through this particular crossroads when he visited Charley Patton. The 'sold my soul at the Crossroads' legend had a mysterious appeal to many as it supposedly endowed you with superhuman talents, although at a steep price - the cost of your soul.  Tommy Johnson was reportedly to have sold his soul (an account disputed by his daughter), and Peetie Wheatstraw claimed to be 'thrown out of hell'. The 1927 book Folklore of the Mississppi Delta even had a chapter devoted on how to 'sell your soul'.

It was due to this precarious place between good and evil that caused that tension between the bluesman and the minister, and the term 'Devil's Music'.

The Blues left Dockery Farms and countless other places in the south, and have extended their hold throughout the world. From the delta, and the hills, many left from the platform of the Clarksdale Railway Station, and the blues headed north to Beale Street in Memphis. Unfortunately, many of Memphis' best Blues artists left the city when Mayor "Boss" Crump shut down Beale Street to stop the prostitution, gambling, and cocaine trades, effectively eliminating the musicians, and entertainers' jobs, as these businesses closed their doors. The Blues migrated to Chicago, where it became electrified, and onto Detroit. It was in these northern cities like Chicago and Detroit, during the later forties and early fifties, that Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, and Elmore James among others, played what was basically Mississippi Delta blues, backed by bass, drums, piano and occasionally harmonica, and began scoring national hits with blues songs. At about the same time, T-Bone Walker in Houston and B.B. King in Memphis were pioneering a style of guitar playing that combined jazz technique with the blues tonality and repertoire. You've heard the saying 'the Blues had a baby, and named it rock and roll'. It took the British Invasion of the 1960's to reacquaint America with it's own musical heritage, but there's been no turning back. The blues have strongly influenced almost all popular music including jazz, country, and rock and roll and continues to help shape music worldwide. The blues torch has been passed on to the next generation of Bluesmen and Women, and will always be a strong presence in the music world. It's just as Little Milton sang, "Hey, Hey, The Blues Are Allright"!

Some highlights include -

BB King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, MS.
BB actually worked there as a young man, when it was a true cotton mill. It is now the last standing all brick cotton mill in Mississippi. 2 different university architectural and planning classes spent time looking for the ideal location for this museum, and independently came up with the same exact location. BB wasn't actually born in Indianola, but in Berclair, MS. He spent much of his childhood in  Indianola, MS. playing on the street corner at age 17, where he ran an extension cord from a neighboring hardware store. "Before I was a superstar in the blues, I was a superstar on the plantation (on Mr. Johnson Barrett's plantation), because after years of picking cotton and pulling a plow, I was driving a tractor," he jokingly told NPR during a 1993 interview. After deciding that music was his true calling, BB headed for Memphis, and landed at WDIA Radio

WDIA was the 1st all black format radio station in the country. BB did a jingle for Pep-ti-kon that led to his popularity with the station. Many music legends got their start at WDIA, including B.B. King and Rufus Thomas. Even Elvis Presley was greatly influenced by the station. Nat D. Williams, a syndicated columnist and high school teacher, started "Tan Town Jubilee" in October 1948. This was the first radio program in the United States to specifically target black listeners, and WDIA soon became the number 2 station in Memphis. After a switch to all-black programming, WDIA was the city's top station. In June 1954 WDIA was licensed to increase its power to 50,000 watts. Its powerful signal reached down into the Mississippi Delta's dense African-American population and was heard from the Missouri bootheel to the Gulf coast. As a result WDIA was able to reach 10% of the African-American population in United States.

Malaco Records
Tommy Couch, Jr. of Malaco Records was in the studio when we dropped by unexpectedly, and graciously extended us a tour of the legendary Malaco Records. It's quite a place, you can almost feel the music that's been recorded within these walls. From the Malaco website - "After more than 30 years of making black music for black people, Malaco Records defines the state of contemporary southern rhythm and blues, soul, and gospel. "The Last Soul Company" started as a pocket-change enterprise in the early 1960s with college students Tommy Couch and Wolf Stephenson booking bands for fraternity dances at the University of Mississippi. After graduation, Tommy Couch opened shop in Jackson, Mississippi as Malaco Attractions with brother-in-law Mitchell Malouf (Malouf + Couch = Malaco). Wolf Stephenson joined them in promoting concerts by Herman's Hermits, the Who, the Animals, and others. In 1967 the company opened a recording studio in a building that remains the home of Malaco Records". (http://malaco.com/Catalog/list.php)

The Juke Joint Festival
Held in Clarksdale, Mississippi,this annual event celebrates the richness of the local music talent, yet brings in artists from all over. It's not unusual to see spontaneous musical magic happening around town, for example Watermelon Slim strolling into Red's - a legendary Clarksdale juke joint - and just tearing the house down. And where else can you see monkeys riding dogs? Read our 2008 Juke Joint Journey, with Arthur Williams

The Delta Blues Museum
Since 1999, the Delta Blues Museum has been housed in the historic Clarksdale freight depot, built in 1918 for the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad. The building was designated a Mississippi Landmark Property in 1996. The former freight area- about five thousand square feet of ground floor space – is devoted to permanent and traveling exhibits.

The Delta Blues Museum Stage is adjacent to the museum classroom, which hosts a year-round music education program as well as lectures and symposia. The Delta Blues Museum Stage serves as the main venue for local festivals such as the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival in August and the Juke Joint Festival in April.

Other Mississippi points of interest -

The Farish St. District:
Jackson, MS. Home to the Alamo theater, and much more.
Clarksdale, MS: Ground Zero, Cat Head, BluesSource, Bluesberry Cafe, Red's, Riverside Motel, Delta Blues Museum.
Blue Front Cafe
:
Bentonia, MS. Owned by Jimmy 'Duck' Holmes, who performs there often.
The Shack Up Inn:
Clarksdale, MS. Lots of fun! Claims to be Mississippi's Oldest B & B est. 1998 (Bed & Beer)
The Hopson Plantation Commissary:
Clarksdale, MS. Little has changed since its glory days over fifty years ago.
Club Ebony:
Indianola, MS. Now owned by BB King, among the musicians who have played this juke since 1945 include Count Basie, Ray Charles, James Brown, Ike Turner, Little Milton, Bobby Bland, and Howling Wolf.

Other Mississippi music festivals -


See complete festival listing at www.blueshighway.org
Cat Head Mini Blues Fest (Clarksdale)
Robert Johnson Memorial Blues Festival (Crystal Springs)
BB King Homecoming (Indianola)
Highway 61 Blues Festival (Leland)
North Mississippi Hill Country Blues Festival (Potts Camp)
Grassroots Blues Festival (Duck Hill)
Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival (Clarksdale)
Howlin' Wolf Memorial Blues Festival (West Point)
Mississippi Delta Blues & Heritage Festival (Greenville)
Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival (Helena, AR)
Pinetop Perkins Homecoming (Clarksdale)

Mississippi Tourism Links -

Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau
visitmississippi.org
Mississippi Tourism Association
Mississippi Delta Tourism Association


Thanks goes out to Alex, Sandy and Leigh of the Mississippi Development Authority/Division of Tourism for this great journey through Mississippi's music culture. Make plans to visit Mississippi, and make your personal Blues experience a magical one! Tell them STLBlues sent you.


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LINKS OF INTEREST:
Poor Monkeys on ABC Good Morning America:  http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=4598823
Australian Blog: http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2009/04/15/po-monkeys-lounge-merigold-mississippi/
Southern Spaces Magazine:  http://www.southernspaces.org/contents/2006/brown/1a.htm

The Great Flood of 1927: an hour long film that has archival footage:  http://www.weather.com/multimedia/videoplayer.html?collection=257 This will load a player.  Scroll down the menu on the right to the Great Flood video for the show.

Alan Lomax's Land Where the Blues Began:  http://www.folkstreams.net/film,109  58 minutes of great footage for free!  Check out the gandy dancers and especially Lonnie Pritchford playing the diddley bow

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WANTED: BLUES FACTS, PHOTOS, RECORDS & REMINISCENCES
The research team for this Trail Marker project is led by Jim O'Neal and Scott Barretta. They are going to great lengths to gather new information and ensure that all facts are corroborated as much as possible. Even after markers are complete, they want the fact-finding process to continue for any future additions and/or corrections. If you have information on Mississippi blues singers, juke joints, recordings, radio shows, or historic sites, including written or taped reminiscences, or copies of photos, posters, and records that you would be willing to share, please contact: Jim O'Neal, Research Director Mississippi Blues Trail. e-mail: bluesoterica@aol.com phone: (816) 931-0383


 
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