Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta BluesAt a crossroads in the Mississippi Delta, Robert Johnson is said to have sold his soul to the Devil so that he could become a guitar virtuoso and King of the Delta Blues. Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues will tell you where that legendary deal was supposed to have been made and guide you to all the other hallowed grounds that nourished Mississippi's signature music. Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Memphis Minnie, Jimmie Rodgers, Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Howlin' Wolf, B. B. King, Little Milton, Elvis Presley, Bobby Rush, Junior Kimbrough, R. L. Burnside-the list of great artists with Mississippi connections goes on and on. A trip through Mississippi blues sites is a pilgrimage every music lover ought to make at least once in a lifetime, to see the juke joints and churches, to visit the birthplaces and graves of blues greats, to walk down the dusty roads and over the levee, to eat some barbecue and greens, to sit on the bank of the Mississippi River, and to hear some down-home blues music. Blues Traveling is the first and only guidebook to Mississippi's musical places and blues history. With photographs, maps, easy-to-follow directions, and an informative, entertaining text, this book will lead you in and out of Clarksdale, Greenwood, Helena (Arkansas), Rolling Fork, Jackson, Natchez, Bentonia, Rosedale, Itta Bena, and dozens of other locales that generations of blues musicians have lived in, traveled through, and sung about. Stories, legends, and lyrics are woven into the text so that each backroad and barroom comes alive. Touring Mississippi with Blues Traveling is like having a knowledgeable and entertaining guide at your side. Even people with no immediate plans to visit Mississippi will enjoy reading the book for its photos, descriptions, and lore that will broaden their understanding and enhance their appreciation of the blues. Steve Cheseborough is an independent scholar and blues musician. His work has been published in Living Blues, Blues Access, Mississippi, and the Southern Register . |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 29
Page 5
... train in the Tutwiler depot : A lean , loose - jointed Negro had commenced plunking a guitar beside me while I slept . His clothes were rags ; his feet peeped out of his shoes . His face had on it some of the sadness of the ages . As he ...
... train in the Tutwiler depot : A lean , loose - jointed Negro had commenced plunking a guitar beside me while I slept . His clothes were rags ; his feet peeped out of his shoes . His face had on it some of the sadness of the ages . As he ...
Page 6
... train station. Handy's compositions spurred the first blues craze. The word “blues” became nationally known and identified with the twelve- bar, AAB (sing line, repeat line, answer with rhyming line) for- mat—a format that does not ...
... train station. Handy's compositions spurred the first blues craze. The word “blues” became nationally known and identified with the twelve- bar, AAB (sing line, repeat line, answer with rhyming line) for- mat—a format that does not ...
Page 9
... train north , bringing his slide - guitar - driven music style with him . His collaborators and competitors who also made the trip included fel- low Mississippians Howlin ' Wolf , John Lee Hooker , Jimmy Rogers , Big Walter Horton ...
... train north , bringing his slide - guitar - driven music style with him . His collaborators and competitors who also made the trip included fel- low Mississippians Howlin ' Wolf , John Lee Hooker , Jimmy Rogers , Big Walter Horton ...
Page 11
... trains. And there is always the river—the Big River, the continent's Main Drain, with its boats, birds, fish, fishermen, levees, and bridges, its pre- cious silt, its threat of flood. There are old storefronts and depots, in front of ...
... trains. And there is always the river—the Big River, the continent's Main Drain, with its boats, birds, fish, fishermen, levees, and bridges, its pre- cious silt, its threat of flood. There are old storefronts and depots, in front of ...
Page 12
... train service to little Missis- sippi towns are long past. You will need an automobile to get to most of the places in this book. Chapters 2 through 10 form a rough circle beginning and end- ing in Memphis. So if you want to see it all ...
... train service to little Missis- sippi towns are long past. You will need an automobile to get to most of the places in this book. Chapters 2 through 10 form a rough circle beginning and end- ing in Memphis. So if you want to see it all ...
Contents
3 | |
Memphis | 23 |
Down Highway 61 | 55 |
The Clarksdale Area | 81 |
The MidDelta | 105 |
The Greenwood Area | 131 |
Greenville to Vicksburg | 151 |
The Jackson Area | 183 |
East Mississippi | 213 |
North Mississippi Hill Country | 227 |
Recommended Reading | 251 |
Recommended Listening | 253 |
Index | 259 |
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Common terms and phrases
album Avenue B. B. King band Beale Street blues artists Blues Festival blues marker Blues Museum blues singers bluesman Bo Carter building Café casinos catfish cemetery Center Charley Patton Chatmon Church Clarksdale club cotton crossroads dance Delta Blues Dockery downtown drive Elmore James Elvis Forks front grave Greenville Greenwood guitar guitarist Handy harmonica Helena Highway 61 Holly Springs Howlin Hurt Jackson Jimmy jook joint Kimbrough King Biscuit levee live blues live music Lomax Memphis Minnie miles Mississippi blues Mississippi Sheiks moved Muddy Waters murals Natchez Nelson Street night owner Parchman Park plantation Presley radio record company restaurant River road Robert Johnson Robert Nighthawk Rodgers Rufus Thomas sang Saturday shacks sing Skip James songs Sonny Boy Nelson Sonny Boy Williamson Southern Speir station Stax studio Sunflower tour town Tutwiler Vicksburg Willie Wolf Yazoo