Blues Road Trip
A Musical Roadtrip Along the Delta Blues Highway
Music spills out of clubs and restaurants, songs of love, heartache, hardship and loss; big raspy voices, wailing notes from a harmonica, a guitar rif, the thump of a homemade drum. The sounds and songs capture special emotions, but are also part of a powerful tradition: the Blues. On Friday and Saturday evenings there are often two free Blues performances on atmospheric Beale Street in Memphis (and sometimes during the week too), many in the W.C. Handy Performing Park. For the paying performances, you can buy a wristband for $10 which gets you into all the places with a cover charge (instead of around $5 per club). Beginning July 5, 2004, Memphis also plans a year-long commemoration celebration --- on July 5, 1954, Elvis Presley recorded "That's all Right" in Sun Studio, and began another musical tradition. This is the first stop on a trip along the Blues Highway, for many Blues artists their road to freedom.
The Blues Highway stretches from New Orleans to Chicago, but we focus on a small section, often considered the "cradle of Blues". Between Memphis, TN, and Rosedale, MS, the twin highways, 61 and 1, run about 112 miles close to the Mississippi River. Here many of the legendary Blues "greats" were born, passed through, performed, and died, such as Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson, Son House, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Bessie Smith.
Blues is a unique American music and traveling along part of the Blues Highway gives a better understanding and deeper knowledge of what this music was, and still is, and what made these artists. The Blues was about traveling and moving forward, out of the Mississippi Delta and, hopefully, out of poverty. They traveled along the Mississippi River, to Memphis, then St Louis and Chicago (and other points east). They walked, they rode trains and buses, and later, they drove, and the highway became their symbol of freedom.
The roots of Blues have a complex history, starting with African slaves, sold to southern plantations, who brought their musical heritage with them. Over time, this blended with music of the Christian Europeans, leading to Gospel music, field hollers, work songs, and prison songs. Even after the Civil War, life for the descendants of these slaves was very hard, often full of injustice and grinding poverty. Music was a natural outlet and expression for a passionate people and a way of gathering people together on Saturday nights to relax.Blues is a complex music, inextricably linked to jazz and later to rock 'n' roll. In fact, they say, "Blues had a baby. Its name was Rock 'n' Roll". One of the kings was Elvis Presley, also rooted in this Delta area.
Start in Memphis, with its famous Beale Street. This street, renovated in the 1980s, was the center of music exchange from the 1880s to the 1960s, and the heart of African-American society here. Wander up and down the street, bright with neon and pulsing music. A party atmosphere prevails, alcohol flowing freely, but it feels safe and controlled, due to a preventive police presence, who often patrol on horseback. (In my opinion, it's much better than Bourbon Street in New Orleans, which has become rather sleazy).
During the day, Memphis has many other attractions. Don't miss these sights: Graceland, the hugely popular, flashy mansion and estate of Elvis Presley; the Fedex Forum, with the Rock 'n' Soul Museum, and 18,000-seat arena; the former home of W.C. Handy, known as the father of the Blues; Sun Studio, where Sam Phillips first signed a gawky Elvis; the Stax Museum of American Soul Music; the Gibson Guitar Factory; and the National Civil Rights Museum, on the site where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.But you need to escape the sounds of the city for glimpses of the rural lives of these artists. Driving along the river to Rosedale gives a close view of the countryside here, the flat lands of the Delta, small villages, heat, and endless cotton fields. Many of the small towns are poor and dilapidated even today, so you can imagine the poverty these musicians wanted to escape. Rosedale has the great River Road State Park, with a panoramic view of the river from a 75-foot overlook tower.
Back to Clarksdale, very important in this musical odyssey. "Blues Alley", a small area around the former railway station, has the informative Delta Blues Museum, and Ground Zero Blues Club (named because Clarksdale has always been known as "ground zero" for Blues). Opened in May 2001, the club is nondescript outside, but inside the atmosphere is full of music with raw emotion and throbbing rhythms. Hopson Plantation, birthplace of Muddy Waters, with the Shackup Inn (you can stay in the former slave cabins), is 4 mi east of the famous crossroads (of highways 49 and 61) where Robert Johnson supposedly made a pact with the devil in return for his amazing guitar playing skills. Walk a little along the old railway track, cluttered with weeds now, and imagine the musicians hopping on a train. You almost hear whispers of that haunting song, "Freight train, freight train, going so fast", by Elizabeth Cotton in her wonderful, raspy, untrained voice.
It depends how much time you have, but I suggest a minimum of three days and nights: begin in Memphis for one day and night, then spend a day driving to Rosedale, and back to Clarksdale for the night. Explore Clarksdale area the next day, and head back to Memphis for another night.
Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau www.memphistravel.com or 901-543-5333
Clarksdale www.clarksdale.com or www.clarksdale-ms.com
A: Lodging
There are many hotels in downtown Memphis, close to all the main attractions (Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, Days Inn, Best Western, Hampton Inn, Marriot, Radisson). The most famous is probably the Peabody Hotel because of its ducks: every morning at 11am the ducks march on a red carpet to the lobby fountain, and every evening at 5pm the ducks return to their rooftop "house" via the red carpet and their personal elevator. Go to www.peabodymemphis.com
In Clarksdale there are many chain hotels along the main road, or go to www.shackupinn.com (on Hopson Plantation)
B: Transport
Once in Memphis, you can get to most attractions on foot, or catch the Main Street trolley, www.matatransit.com
You do need to drive to Graceland.
C: Attractions
-Beale Street: http://bealestreet.com
-Graceland: www.elvis.com
-Sun Studio: www.SunStudio.com
-Rock 'n' Soul Museum: www.memphisrocknsoul.org
-Stax Museum of American Soul Music: www.staxmuseum.com
-Gibson Guitar Factory: www.gibsonmemphis.com
-National Civil Rights Museum: www.civilrightsmuseum.org
-Delta Blues Museum: www.deltabluesmuseum.org
-Ground Zero Blues Club: www.groundzerobluesclub.com
Images and Text copyright Vivienne Mackie, 2005.
No reproduction, electronic, written or otherwise, without prior written consent.
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