Blogs from Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States, North America

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North America » United States » Mississippi » Clarksdale September 25th 2016

Sounds like the start of a good song At times -- Time and distance makes being together challenging in our consulting line of work. We’ve been apart for 18 days….18 miserable days for us. In over 20+ years, nothing had separated us this long, until now. With MJ starting a new job out on the left coast in California and Dave finishing up a contract in Arkansas, the timing was off….but now that has been corrected. Only one thing to do once we get reunited……head to The Crossroads. The Mississippi Delta the birthplace of the blues music. Our souls needed some nurturing and the blues is the cure. Many a blues fan from around the world dream of the drive through Delta blues country from Memphis to New Orleans via Clarksdale and Vicksburg Mississippi. The tales ... read more
Grain Bin A
The Kingfish
Larry's


Authenticity is often hard to come by. We all seek it as it provides a feeling of both truth and originality. As travelers, this is one of the reasons we travel, to see things that are not necessarily contrived or otherwise. But when you visit the Mississippi Delta region and roll in to Clarksdale, you instantly discover that you’ve entered a place where something is real and true…..The Blues. Now the quote above is attributed to McKinley Morganfield....you may know him as Muddy Waters. Ask any rock 'n roll artist from the 1960's and they'll tell you the same......the blues begat rock 'n roll. As a matter of lore, Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil at what is widely known as “The Crossroads.” This is where highway 49 and highway 61 intersect. Great ... read more
Sell your soul to the devil
Iconic Crossroads
"Juke Joint"


THE BLUES HIGHWAY: Take off your overcoat girl...so we can see your moves. When Denise drives really fast...and my body tenses...she threatens to put me in the boot. The boot of the Cadillac SRX is quite spacious...so it's not too bad when she puts me in it. But today is a special day. Denise says she's going to get an esky...put it in the boot...and make it into a bed-sitter! Threaten all you like my love...my own pad...I can hardly wait. ****** It's Sunday. Leaving Memphis Tennessee...the BB King All Stars ringing in our ears. Playing their CD as we enter Mississippi...farmlands and heaps of big "Have fun at our casinos in Tupelo" signs. I tense...Den stops. Zillions of birds rising like a puff of smoke. Me thinks Den has stopped to put me in the ... read more
Guess who's in the boot?
Red's Blues Club
Who's playing tonight?

North America » United States » Mississippi » Clarksdale March 28th 2014

Memphis – Tennessee We’re going to Graceland, Graceland…….. Memphis, Tennessee (said Paul Simon). Actually, that’s not why we’re coming here at all. We wanted to see the Delta and the LP gave Memphis an interesting write up. And we largely have to thank Rick Stein for one of his obscure travelogue/food programmes which M saw purely by accident back home and decided we had to fit the area into our travel plans and definitely a stay at the Shack Up Inn near Clarksdale. It’s a very early start as we have to get 2 buses to the Greyhound station for our bus to Memphis which leaves at 9am and surprisingly isn’t very full. It’s a Jefferson bus (a partner of Greyhound), but the facilities aren’t as good – no Wi-Fi or chargers on board for such ... read more
Our pad - Clarksdale
The King..... with Elvis, Sun Studios Memphis
At The Shack Up Inn - Clarksdale

North America » United States » Mississippi » Clarksdale December 8th 2011

The place is almost like a ghost town. Driving up Highway 49 is a drive back through time. It may not be what it looked like in its heyday. But a movie would set it up like this to show a scene of a time gone by. Plantation fields dominate the area. The Mississippi was a place many African Americans saw as a promise land. A place to work and earn enough money to buy a plot themselves to work on. That time didn’t happen with many working on plantations. Working on cotton fields. It is a different part of America. Slushy looking still, the swampland was perfect for growing cotton. This is where the blues began. It’s hard sometimes that a music genera I like came from hard slave labour but its true. The weather ... read more
2 - Sun Studios
3 - the brick wall in front of Elvis' house Gracelands
4 - entrance to the Ground Zero Bar

North America » United States » Mississippi » Clarksdale October 1st 2011

Well, we’re now halfway through our time in New Orleans and it’s been so full on there’s been little time to write up this blog. But I’m up early today so hope to describe our 3 day road trip from Memphis down through the State of Mississippi and into Louisiana. Destination 1 was Clarksdale, in the Mississippi Delta. Actually this is a bit of a misnomer as it’s not a Delta (it’s an alluvial plain, but y’all know that!). It’s some of the most fertile land in the USA and we would see lots of cotton, corn and soya growing and being harvested over the next couple of days. With his farm background this was very interesting for John and it’s a good time to come to Mississippi to see lots of farming going on. .Just ... read more
the Crossroads
Ronnie and Richard, fellow travellers!
Clarksdale

North America » United States » Mississippi » Clarksdale April 28th 2011

The Crossroads My main goal for today was to drive back to Louisville, Kentucky. This required going through part of the area hit by the storms a day earlier. I was not looking forward to it. Ironically, the day itself was perfect weather wise. The temperature was in the high seventies, without a cloud in the sky. It started with a little treat. While clearing my car top this morning, I discovered a little cotton boll stuck to the roof. It had clearly blown there overnight from a nearby farm. It was the perfect symbol of the Delta. On the way into town, I passed the original crossroads of highways 61 and 49. Ironically, the modern roads have been rerouted and meet somewhere else. This is the interse... read more
Cotton Boll
Delta Blues Museum
Flooded Mississippi forest.

North America » United States » Mississippi » Clarksdale April 27th 2011

Mississippi Delta Today I explored the famous Mississippi Delta. The name is something of a misnomer, since it is actually a flood plain. All those floods laid down rich soil, which turned into swamps. Southern planters forced their slaves to clear and drain these swamps just before the Civil War, creating one of the richest cotton growing regions in the country. After the war, the relatively predictable growing conditions attracted sharecroppers from throughout the South. The area has been poor, rural, and primarily African American ever since. These poor farm laborers created the area’s most famous export, Blues music. The Delta is both a landscape and a culture. They are intricately... read more
House in Mississippi delta
Onward General Store
The Shack Up Inn




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