{"id":497,"date":"2012-01-27T01:01:03","date_gmt":"2012-01-27T07:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=497"},"modified":"2012-01-27T01:01:03","modified_gmt":"2012-01-27T07:01:03","slug":"memphis-road-trip-at-the-crossroads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=497","title":{"rendered":"Memphis Road Trip: At the Crossroads"},"content":{"rendered":"
One the road again.\u00a0 This time, we are down in the Delta visting Clarksdale.\u00a0 Legend has it, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads to gain his skills with blues music and to be a guitar master. Those crossroads are in Clarksdale where Hwy 49 and Hwy 61 meet.\u00a0 The same crossroads that Eric Clapton sings about in his song.\u00a0 We aren’t here to meet the devil, just hear some good blues music.<\/div>\n

But first, we prepared to leave Memphis.\u00a0 This is a sad moment.\u00a0 We’ve had such a great time here and have learned about the city, the music, and the food.\u00a0 Breakfast was at Cockadoo’s again.\u00a0 Rich indulged in the cathead biscuits again while I got the Shag.\u00a0 There is no way that french toast, peanut butter and bananas can be fried together into such a scrumptious menu option.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They only had the search our booth for someone’s phone clip.\u00a0 We checked out of the hotel, but I noticed the parking wasn’t on the bill.\u00a0 So I stopped by the front desk to see what happened and how to pay it.\u00a0 The clerk looks at me and says, “Guess you got free parking.”\u00a0 I asked if I can get out of the lot without pay and he says sure you can and have a nice day.<\/p>\n

We took Hwy 61 out of Memphis and headed for Clarksdale.\u00a0 This is Delta country.\u00a0 Since the Mississippi River runs right through, and sometimes over, this beautiful flat land, it is all bottomland perfect for farming.\u00a0 It was amazing to see so much green in January.\u00a0 The grass is green as well as the fields that we passed.\u00a0 The temperatures were in the 50s, but it rained almost the entire ride down 61.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We stopped at the Blues Visitor’s Center in Tunica.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We saw Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and, my personal favorite, Bonnie Raitt.\u00a0 Back on the road, our next stop was the Clarksdale Visitor’s Center where we are told there is more information and helpful hints.\u00a0 This is beginning to sound like a scavenger hunt!<\/p>\n

At the Clarksdale Visitor’s Center, we talked to the ladies behind the desk.\u00a0 One turned out to be from Chicago!\u00a0 We got a map, some directions, and things we really needed to do in the area.\u00a0 From there, we hit town.\u00a0 Driving into town wasn’t bad.\u00a0 It looked like a lot of small towns I’ve been through before.\u00a0 Being from a small town, you gotta know that I much prefer those to the big cities.\u00a0 My town had less than 3,000 people in while I was growing up there.<\/p>\n

So back to Clarksdale.\u00a0 We get into downtown, which looks a little worn.\u00a0 We find out way to Delta Ave, where some of the things we really want to see are located.\u00a0 Our first stop is Cat Head.\u00a0 Roger Stolle has taken great time and effort to preserve the art and music of the area.\u00a0 His store, Cat Head, houses his music business (Cat Head Records),\u00a0promotion business, and folk art from the local area.\u00a0 Let me tell you, I saw so much stuff I would love to have had.\u00a0 We settled for some books, CDs, t-shirts, and one piece of art by Super Chikan (Rich loves this guy!).\u00a0 Roger also gave us more tips on what to see and do in town.\u00a0 Rich found out that Watermelon Slim lives in town.\u00a0 He’s playing on Saturday.\u00a0\u00a0 Darn, we’ll be gone!<\/p>\n

After lunching at the Oxbow around the corner from Cat Head, we checked out the Delta Blues Museum.\u00a0 This is a really nice museum with a lot of blues memoribilia from early to later.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We did manage to run between raindrops at one point back to the car and off on another adventure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next, we headed into town to visit the Blues and Rock Museum.\u00a0 This is a personal collection of one Dutch man.\u00a0 His wife got tired of it being in the house and he opened a museum in Clarksdale rather than storing it.\u00a0 Shelley got us started on the tour by introducing the display of local musicians.\u00a0 The collection is based on a timeline starting with the early 1900s and running into 1970s.\u00a0 I don’t think I saw much beyond that.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Shelley directed us next door to the Hambone Art Gallery.\u00a0 The gallery is owned by Stan Street.\u00a0 Stan it turns out is musician, artist, entrepeneur, and just great guy.\u00a0 We rang the bell to get enter, but it turned out the bell didn’t work too well.\u00a0 We went in and looked at the beautiful art.\u00a0 Once again,\u00a0 I was fascinated by the color and subject matter.\u00a0 Good thing I don’t have too many empty walls at home.\u00a0 We ended up talking to Stan for a while about music and the town.\u00a0 Turns out, his group was the act on stage at Ground Zero Blues club for the night.\u00a0 It was also a jam night, so they expected people to come by and sit in with them. Loved the gallery, Stan!<\/p>\n

We stopped by the Riverview Hotel in town.\u00a0 This is the place where all of the blues musicians would stay when they were in town.\u00a0 It was the blacks hotel in segregated times.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It was a long narrow building that looked like it had been added on to a lot of times.\u00a0 In 1937, Bessie Smith was involved in a terrible car crash outside of town.\u00a0 She was taken to this building, which was then a black hospital, where she died of her injuries.\u00a0 The original hotel owner’s son still lives there and the hotel is run by his granddaughter.\u00a0 Kind of a cool history.<\/p>\n

So I ran by Ground Zero to grab some pictures before we headed out of town to our reservation for the night.\u00a0 We were staying out at the Hopson Plantation in one of their sharecropper cabins.\u00a0 It sounded like something different and the website was really cool.\u00a0 We drove to the crossroads and turned south on 49.\u00a0 Just outside of town, we turned on a side road leading us to the plantation.\u00a0 You could see the large buildings from the main road.\u00a0 We drove around to the lobby to sign in.\u00a0 The gentleman ahead of me was explanation his latest project, and the reason for his trip to town, to the proprietor.\u00a0 He was doing a photobook of all the great living blues guitar players.\u00a0 He was in town to shoot photos of a couple of guys.\u00a0 I didn’t catch his name. I thought that was different.<\/p>\n

I finally got my turn at the desk and explained that my reservation was for the Office.\u00a0 It was advertise that you could have money business in the office here.\u00a0 The size was good for us.\u00a0 However, the owner looked at his screen and stated that his guys were doing work on that area in the morning.\u00a0 He was moving us to another cabin where the noise wouldn’t bother us.\u00a0 There was no extra charge for the upgrade.\u00a0 OK.\u00a0 Upgrade, uh?<\/p>\n

We got the keys and drove to the Robert Clay cabin.\u00a0 This is the name of the guy who used to live in this cabin with his wife and 7 kids\u00a0before it was moved here for preservation.\u00a0 We opened the back door first that lead into the main bedroom.\u00a0 Walking down the hall, it opened up into a huge kitchen and living room.\u00a0 I’m trying to figure out where he put the 7 kids!\u00a0 All over the floor, I image.\u00a0 The cabin is bare wood walls and a tin roof, with a nice porch on the front.\u00a0 There are pictures of Rob in front of the cabin when he stilled lived here.\u00a0 Kind of cool.<\/p>\n

By this time, Rich is suffering from a sinus issue.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He’s not feeling so hot at the moment.\u00a0 We rest up and he takes some meds to get through the evening.\u00a0 We go back to Ground Zero for dinner and wait for the show.\u00a0 For those who don’t know, Ground Zero Blues Club is owned by actor Morgan Freeman and his two business partners.\u00a0 They gone together to bring blues and business to the town.\u00a0 It’s great that they are trying to bring something back to their town.\u00a0 No, we didn’t see Morgan while we were there.\u00a0 I think we saw one of the partners though.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dinner is BBQ pork and tamales.\u00a0 Tamales are big thing here in Mississippi.\u00a0 With the migration of Mexican workers to help tend the fields, many of their staples have been added to the Southern diet.\u00a0 And they are so good.\u00a0 Rich gets his greens and okra fix also.\u00a0 The food was wonderful and the service was friendly and helpful.\u00a0 We had a great time talking to Tamala.\u00a0 She gave Rich a hard time about being a beer snob, but she found things to tempt him from the local Mississippi breweries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The musicians filtered in slowly and began setting the stage for the evening.\u00a0 Stan and his Hambone Jam Band were great!\u00a0 Stan can play the harmonica.\u00a0 Several people beginning signing in to the jam list to go on stage.\u00a0 The four older guys next to us are from Natchez MS.\u00a0 One of them has signed up to go on stage and play guitar.\u00a0 They are ribbing him and drinking a lot of beer.\u00a0 Finally, he gets his shot.\u00a0 He’s not too bad.\u00a0 I’d say red was the color of guitars tonight though.\u00a0 The next guy is Omar Gordon, a local kid from town.\u00a0 He’s probably not more than 15 by the look of him.\u00a0 But he can play, maybe too well though.\u00a0 I thought he overplayed the Stevie Ray Vaughn song a little.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0suit and tie.\u00a0 He looks snazzy.\u00a0 Everyone has something to say to him.\u00a0 He comes by Rich and asks where we are from.\u00a0 I guess we stand out as tourists. Rich says, “Outside of Chicago.”\u00a0 He thinks that’s funny.\u00a0 Everyone here does.\u00a0 Everything is outside of Chicago to them.\u00a0 We just say Chicago now.\u00a0 He wants to talk so I go over by him and let him talk to me.\u00a0 Turns out, he is the real driving force for blues music in the area.\u00a0 For years, he has run a program to teach children how to play and work as a blues musician.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The drummer in Stan’s band is a product of the program and has played for President Clinton in the White House.\u00a0 I’m impressed.\u00a0 He tells me to google him when I can and I can read all about him.<\/p>\n

We finish up listening to Slim Fatz on stage.\u00a0 He’s a different type of blues guy.\u00a0 Not sure I like that style much.\u00a0\u00a0 Rich is feeling a little worse and is ready for bed.\u00a0 It’s late and I tell John thanks for the conversation.\u00a0 I really enjoyed meeting him.\u00a0 We return to the Robert Clay cabin and Rich heads off to bed.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Sure enough, there is on the Internet in a lot of entries.\u00a0 John Billington, Mr Johnny, was born in 1935 and was a blues musician for most of his life.\u00a0 His Blues in School program came about in 1990s when he using the garage where he worked to teach kids to play the blues.\u00a0 He got government funding to run the program so that the neighbors would quit complaining about the noise.\u00a0 He says he doesn’t play much now, but his credentials as a bluesman were really, really good.\u00a0 I was impressed now to have met him!<\/p>\n

So that’s it for today.\u00a0 I’m off to bed.\u00a0 Tomorrow, we leave the Delta and the blues behind and start the trip back to Illinois.\u00a0 Wonder if my son will have the house back to norma before I return?\u00a0 You hear me, Rick!<\/p>\n

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Rich standing outside of Cat Head.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Ground Zero Blues Club in downtown Clarksdale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Commisary on Hopson Plantation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Front porch of our shack (Robert Clay cabin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One the road again.\u00a0 This time, we are down in the Delta visting Clarksdale.\u00a0 Legend has it, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads to gain his skills with blues music and to be a guitar master. Those crossroads are in Clarksdale where Hwy 49 and Hwy 61 meet.\u00a0 The same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}