But first, we prepared to leave Memphis.  This is a sad moment.  We’ve had such a great time here and have learned about the city, the music, and the food.  Breakfast was at Cockadoo’s again.  Rich indulged in the cathead biscuits again while I got the Shag.  There is no way that french toast, peanut butter and bananas can be fried together into such a scrumptious menu option.  I’ve got to find a way to make this one at home! Today we were not privy to any meetings and the place was quiet.  They only had the search our booth for someone’s phone clip.  We checked out of the hotel, but I noticed the parking wasn’t on the bill.  So I stopped by the front desk to see what happened and how to pay it.  The clerk looks at me and says, “Guess you got free parking.”  I asked if I can get out of the lot without pay and he says sure you can and have a nice day.

We took Hwy 61 out of Memphis and headed for Clarksdale.  This is Delta country.  Since the Mississippi River runs right through, and sometimes over, this beautiful flat land, it is all bottomland perfect for farming.  It was amazing to see so much green in January.  The grass is green as well as the fields that we passed.  The temperatures were in the 50s, but it rained almost the entire ride down 61. 

We stopped at the Blues Visitor’s Center in Tunica.  There, the ladies were helpful with suggestions for our trip down. Around the ceiling of the Visitor’s Center, there are examples of many guitar styles and several signed guitars from Blues legends.  We saw Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and, my personal favorite, Bonnie Raitt.  Back on the road, our next stop was the Clarksdale Visitor’s Center where we are told there is more information and helpful hints.  This is beginning to sound like a scavenger hunt!

At the Clarksdale Visitor’s Center, we talked to the ladies behind the desk.  One turned out to be from Chicago!  We got a map, some directions, and things we really needed to do in the area.  From there, we hit town.  Driving into town wasn’t bad.  It looked like a lot of small towns I’ve been through before.  Being from a small town, you gotta know that I much prefer those to the big cities.  My town had less than 3,000 people in while I was growing up there.

So back to Clarksdale.  We get into downtown, which looks a little worn.  We find out way to Delta Ave, where some of the things we really want to see are located.  Our first stop is Cat Head.  Roger Stolle has taken great time and effort to preserve the art and music of the area.  His store, Cat Head, houses his music business (Cat Head Records), promotion business, and folk art from the local area.  Let me tell you, I saw so much stuff I would love to have had.  We settled for some books, CDs, t-shirts, and one piece of art by Super Chikan (Rich loves this guy!).  Roger also gave us more tips on what to see and do in town.  Rich found out that Watermelon Slim lives in town.  He’s playing on Saturday.   Darn, we’ll be gone!

After lunching at the Oxbow around the corner from Cat Head, we checked out the Delta Blues Museum.  This is a really nice museum with a lot of blues memoribilia from early to later.  There was a special exhibit for Muddy Waters, including what was thought to be the one-room cypress cabin thought to be his home and running video of importance artists talking about his influence on them.  Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top was instrumental in helping get the museum here started based on having seen Muddy Water’s original house on its site. As we finished our walk through the museum, a huge thunderstorm came up and trapped us for a while.  We did manage to run between raindrops at one point back to the car and off on another adventure. 

Next, we headed into town to visit the Blues and Rock Museum.  This is a personal collection of one Dutch man.  His wife got tired of it being in the house and he opened a museum in Clarksdale rather than storing it.  Shelley got us started on the tour by introducing the display of local musicians.  The collection is based on a timeline starting with the early 1900s and running into 1970s.  I don’t think I saw much beyond that.  This guy had great taste in what he collected and it represented blues very well and showed its influence on rock-n-roll. This was a wonderful view of the music and personalities that made up the blues.

Shelley directed us next door to the Hambone Art Gallery.  The gallery is owned by Stan Street.  Stan it turns out is musician, artist, entrepeneur, and just great guy.  We rang the bell to get enter, but it turned out the bell didn’t work too well.  We went in and looked at the beautiful art.  Once again,  I was fascinated by the color and subject matter.  Good thing I don’t have too many empty walls at home.  We ended up talking to Stan for a while about music and the town.  Turns out, his group was the act on stage at Ground Zero Blues club for the night.  It was also a jam night, so they expected people to come by and sit in with them. Loved the gallery, Stan!

We stopped by the Riverview Hotel in town.  This is the place where all of the blues musicians would stay when they were in town.  It was the blacks hotel in segregated times.  We were told a lot of them still liked to stay there as good luck and to commune with those musicians already gone on ahead of them.  It was a long narrow building that looked like it had been added on to a lot of times.  In 1937, Bessie Smith was involved in a terrible car crash outside of town.  She was taken to this building, which was then a black hospital, where she died of her injuries.  The original hotel owner’s son still lives there and the hotel is run by his granddaughter.  Kind of a cool history.

So I ran by Ground Zero to grab some pictures before we headed out of town to our reservation for the night.  We were staying out at the Hopson Plantation in one of their sharecropper cabins.  It sounded like something different and the website was really cool.  We drove to the crossroads and turned south on 49.  Just outside of town, we turned on a side road leading us to the plantation.  You could see the large buildings from the main road.  We drove around to the lobby to sign in.  The gentleman ahead of me was explanation his latest project, and the reason for his trip to town, to the proprietor.  He was doing a photobook of all the great living blues guitar players.  He was in town to shoot photos of a couple of guys.  I didn’t catch his name. I thought that was different.

I finally got my turn at the desk and explained that my reservation was for the Office.  It was advertise that you could have money business in the office here.  The size was good for us.  However, the owner looked at his screen and stated that his guys were doing work on that area in the morning.  He was moving us to another cabin where the noise wouldn’t bother us.  There was no extra charge for the upgrade.  OK.  Upgrade, uh?

We got the keys and drove to the Robert Clay cabin.  This is the name of the guy who used to live in this cabin with his wife and 7 kids before it was moved here for preservation.  We opened the back door first that lead into the main bedroom.  Walking down the hall, it opened up into a huge kitchen and living room.  I’m trying to figure out where he put the 7 kids!  All over the floor, I image.  The cabin is bare wood walls and a tin roof, with a nice porch on the front.  There are pictures of Rob in front of the cabin when he stilled lived here.  Kind of cool.

By this time, Rich is suffering from a sinus issue.  We aren’t sure if its all the cigarette smoke that you endure in the clubs since there is still smoking in public buildings or just a bad sinus infection that’s been making the rounds.  He’s not feeling so hot at the moment.  We rest up and he takes some meds to get through the evening.  We go back to Ground Zero for dinner and wait for the show.  For those who don’t know, Ground Zero Blues Club is owned by actor Morgan Freeman and his two business partners.  They gone together to bring blues and business to the town.  It’s great that they are trying to bring something back to their town.  No, we didn’t see Morgan while we were there.  I think we saw one of the partners though. 

Dinner is BBQ pork and tamales.  Tamales are big thing here in Mississippi.  With the migration of Mexican workers to help tend the fields, many of their staples have been added to the Southern diet.  And they are so good.  Rich gets his greens and okra fix also.  The food was wonderful and the service was friendly and helpful.  We had a great time talking to Tamala.  She gave Rich a hard time about being a beer snob, but she found things to tempt him from the local Mississippi breweries. 

The musicians filtered in slowly and began setting the stage for the evening.  Stan and his Hambone Jam Band were great!  Stan can play the harmonica.  Several people beginning signing in to the jam list to go on stage.  The four older guys next to us are from Natchez MS.  One of them has signed up to go on stage and play guitar.  They are ribbing him and drinking a lot of beer.  Finally, he gets his shot.  He’s not too bad.  I’d say red was the color of guitars tonight though.  The next guy is Omar Gordon, a local kid from town.  He’s probably not more than 15 by the look of him.  But he can play, maybe too well though.  I thought he overplayed the Stevie Ray Vaughn song a little.

While we listen, I notice an older gentleman standing at the rail around the area where we are sitting and he is all dressed up in a suit and tie.  He looks snazzy.  Everyone has something to say to him.  He comes by Rich and asks where we are from.  I guess we stand out as tourists. Rich says, “Outside of Chicago.”  He thinks that’s funny.  Everyone here does.  Everything is outside of Chicago to them.  We just say Chicago now.  He wants to talk so I go over by him and let him talk to me.  Turns out, he is the real driving force for blues music in the area.  For years, he has run a program to teach children how to play and work as a blues musician.  He tells me all about getting the electric turned on this building and how one or two of the musicians I’m seeing are from his program.  The drummer in Stan’s band is a product of the program and has played for President Clinton in the White House.  I’m impressed.  He tells me to google him when I can and I can read all about him.

We finish up listening to Slim Fatz on stage.  He’s a different type of blues guy.  Not sure I like that style much.   Rich is feeling a little worse and is ready for bed.  It’s late and I tell John thanks for the conversation.  I really enjoyed meeting him.  We return to the Robert Clay cabin and Rich heads off to bed.  I’m sitting here writing my blog and filling in the pieces where I need research into facts. I decide to look up John and get his info for my blog.  Sure enough, there is on the Internet in a lot of entries.  John Billington, Mr Johnny, was born in 1935 and was a blues musician for most of his life.  His Blues in School program came about in 1990s when he using the garage where he worked to teach kids to play the blues.  He got government funding to run the program so that the neighbors would quit complaining about the noise.  He says he doesn’t play much now, but his credentials as a bluesman were really, really good.  I was impressed now to have met him!

So that’s it for today.  I’m off to bed.  Tomorrow, we leave the Delta and the blues behind and start the trip back to Illinois.  Wonder if my son will have the house back to norma before I return?  You hear me, Rick!