View of the Hopson Plantation and Shackup Inn
For the past seven years in April, Clarksdale, Miss. hosts the Juke Joint Festival. This year, I went down there with a few friends to experience some of the great blues and food. Here are my notes: I headed out of Kansas City towards Springfield, Mo., to pick up my best friend and runnin’ partner, Paul Garrison. Next stop Little Rock, Ark., where Jimmy Cleavland was waiting at the airport after flying in from Minneapolis, Minn. The three of us started our trek to where the blues began, the Mississippi Delta. Crossing the Mississippi River bridge at Helena, Ark. (home of the Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival) the flat fertile delta cotton land reminded us quickly of what hardships birthed the blues in the early 1900’s. Highway 49 quickly crosses Highway 61 south to Clarksdale, home of the Juke Joint Festival, Hambone Festival, Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival, Sam Cooke, Ike Turner, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Morgan Freeman (The water must be special in Clarksdale).
Unique instrument played by Bill Abel
The Juke Joint Festival celebrates the arrival of Spring in the Delta by combining the family fun of a small-town fair with
Super Chikan playing at the Juke Joint Festival
international tourist appeal of a big-time blues festival. The actual festival is on Saturday starting at 9am, no blues music until 10am with other events: canoe carving, a 5K run, arts & crafts and food.
Thursday night, Paul, Jimmy and Biff Kummer from Bowling Green, Kentucky and I hooked up with some old college pals. We headed for Ground Zero, a blues club owned by Morgan Freeman. It’s Clarksdale’s largest juke joint; a tourist mecca compared to places like Red’s Lounge, an authentic Mississippi juke joint. Ground Zero has live blues music every Wednesday through Saturday.
Friday and Saturday included visits to Cat Head Delta Blues and Folk Art, Inc., the Delta Blues Museum, Hambone Art Gallery (owned by artist and blues musician Stan Street). Hambone houses a framed Runnin’ Shoes poster. Hopson Plantation, Shack Up Inn and Sarah’s Kitchen where Honeyboy Edwards was performing, Bluesberry Cafe where we heard Watermelon Slim, and Robin Rogers Band. Just across Yazoo Street from Tricia’s Italian Restaurant & Pie Hole, presenting Big Red & the Soulbenders. [The Mississippi Blues Trail provides a calendar of blues events at place like Tricia's].
Other bluesmen who grabbed our attention included:
Pat Thomas at the Cat Head Store
- Robert “Wolfman” Belfour
- Pat Thomas
- Jimmy Duck Holmes
- Adam Gussow
- Terry “Harmonica” Bean
- Cadillac John and Bill Abel
- Blind Mississippi Morris
- Super Chikan
- Tullie Brae and the Medicine Man Revue
- T-Model Ford
- Big George Brock & the Houserockers (with Charine Wagner)
- The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
- Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcolm
Lindsay Shannon in front of the WROX Radio sign
Whew! Wait…I’m not done. I almost forgot that we placed bets on Robinson’s Racing Pigs and laughed and laughed at Monkey’s Riding Dogs, and the Turkey & Duck call contest. We drank lots of cold beer, sipped whiskey, ate ribs and sampled some fine gumbo. Hey, if you’re gonna drive all the way to Clarksdale, Miss., you have to do it all!
…and just to think folks, Lindsay did this all with one finger!