It’s hard to know what to say about the Mississippi delta, a Wikipedia search will tell you it’s the poorest state with the lowest literacy rates and a few days driving around shows you what these statistics look like in real life. Town after town of shacks and trailer homes, churches, jails, juvenile detention centres historic towns with nobody in the streets and most buildings closed up or worse, it’s pretty depressing.
The countryside is starkly beautiful in winter – shades of brown and grey, huge skies, flat fenceless land criss crossed with rivers and streams. There are layers of history, mostly bloody and violent, if ghosts exist, then the air in the Mississippi Delta must be thick with the souls of those slain in war, lynched, tortured or burnt to death, shot, or simply worn out trying to eke out a subsistence living as a sharecropper or labourer.
Clarksdale – birthplace of Sam Cooke, John Lee Hooker, Junior Parker, Mack Rice, Brother John Sellers, Ike Turner and Bilbo Walker, deathplace of Bessie Smith and home to Muddy Waters and Tennessee Williams – is a pretty special town and seems more vibrant than its neighbours. Yes, it certainly has the same problems as the rest of the Delta and the same sense of a simmering undercurrent of racial and class division, but it also has live music, a vibrant art community, programs for talented young musicians through the Blues Museum, a great renewal program and a friendly charm.
We stayed 5 days and had a ball, met some amazing people, made lots of friends and heard some great music. You could stay 5 years and never scratch the surface of Mississippi .. but many of those born there, and many who have made Clarksdale their home are dedicated to changing attitudes while preserving the history.
Incredible musicians we met include Heather Crosse and Lee Williams, a bassist and drummer couple who play up a storm together and separately in different bands. Lee, at 30 is a world class drummer who despite being offered many tours and travel chooses to stay mostly in Clarksdale, teaching, mentoring, playing and doing sessions at the busy recording studios. Jaxx Nassar – a teenage guitar prodigy, who at 22 is already a veteran of touring and festivals with several releases under her belt. We heard 14 year old Kingfish Ingram in Red’s lounge, 81 year old Bud Welch in Ground Zero blues club, ate delicious hot tamales, catfish, grits and barbeque, and just hung out with great people.
Clarksdale places:
Ground Zero Blues Club – for the tourists, but open every night with live music Wednesday through Saturday and an open jam on Thursday nights. Good food, not great, except for the Fried Green Tomato sandwich .. delicious!
Reds Lounge – one of the last jook joints left standing, a tiny low down dive run by a grumpy old dude and his happier sidekick, the improbably named Dingo. It’s the real deal, no BBQ the night we were there but apparently it’s delicious, cheap (illegal) beers from an icebox. We were informed by Heather that on a big night in Red’s some of the local ladies get liquored up and ‘walk the dog’. Now I always thought that referred to getting dressed up and parading out on the town, but apparently, at least in Clarksdale, it’s a very dirty form of dancing. Nuff said.
Hambone Gallery -Tuesday night live music, where we met Heather and Lee and saw them perform as Heavy Suga and the Sweet Tones. Also has really interesting art for sale, including by the owner Stan who you will also see performing around town.
Also check out Joey Young, a super talented potter and artist who has work around town and who also works at the Shack Up Inn as well as teaching, one of several talented Clarksdale residents who are also dedicated to teaching and giving to the town.
Yazoo Pass – lovely cafe, great food
Larry’s Hot Tamales – delicious!
Rest Haven – not an old folks’ home, but a super breakfast joint in the classic Southern style. Tables filled with camo wearing duck hunters, Baptist preachers and men having important conversations.
Shack Up Inn – a totally unique and great place to stay
