Selling Travel April 19

my journey
71
Highway 61 blues
mural, Leland
Live music at the Walnut
Street Blue Bar, Greenville
Follow the trail and learn the
story of the blues in Mississippi
“This has always been a black neighbourhood. We
are in a Deep South town and we have always served
everyone here, even during those times when blacks
went in through the front and whites were served in a
room at the back,” says my waitress.
These days, everyone – including Bill Clinton, Jessica
Lang and the late Anthony Bourdain - enter through
the front, straight into a sweltering kitchen with a
broiler on full blast, past big bowls of salad and those
giant slabs of meat being primed with seasoning.
I had spent this first day in Mississippi hearing
and reading all about the blues but was beginning to
wonder whether anyone was still playing it.
That changed when we walked into the Walnut Street
Blues Bar in downtown Greenville, a few paces from
the banks of the Mississippi river. Here, in a room with
barstools and tables that looked like they were taken
out of someone’s kitchen, we watched a jam session of
the rawest, most authentic blues imaginable.
Welcome to the South - welcome to the Blues Men.
B.B. King still a Mississippi draw
One of Mississippi’s main draw cards is the B.B. King
Museum and Delta interpretive Center in Indianola.
The Delta cotton country town is where Riley B.B.
King first played on street corners as a young man
and the extensive facility is a testament to the life of
the blues’ foremost ambassador. B.B. died in 2015 and
his body lies in a memorial garden at the back of the
museum.
By the time we reach Clarksdale, a town on the
Sunflower River central to the story of the blues, I
had got the message: Mississippi is a state that is the
beating heart and soul of America’s musical roots.
Several of those Mississippi Blues Trail markers are
located in the town, including at the Riverside Hotel,
where many famous blues entertainers stayed.
At Clarksdale’s Rock and Blues Museum, there’s a
collection of 78 rpm records, posters and displays on
the ‘British Invasion’ of the 1960s. Next door, Ground
Zero Blues Club, owned by Morgan Freeman, packs in
the crowds while Red’s Lounge is a real-deal juke joint.
Like that Blues Man Pat Thomas, I’ll be whistling the
blues for a good while yet.
visitmississippi.org; industry.travelsouthusa.com
Holy cow! Big
steaks at Doe’s
Eat Place,
Greenville
B.B. King’s
grave in
Indianola
Is this where Robert Johnson
sold his soul to the devil?
Rock and
Blues Museum,
Clarksdale
Touring the B.B.
King Museum and
Delta Interpretive
Center, Indianola
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