Some of the monuments and Markers from The Blues Trail in Mississippi (Plus a few) – Pt 2
Some of the monuments and Markers from The Blues Trail in Mississippi (Plus a few) – Pt 1
The Blues Trail – Mississippi
Blues Music
I started listening to the Blues when I was 14 years old back in 1964. These Blues guys were old black guys who sang about a world that was totally different. They sang about places that sounded so weird and exotic like Tishomingo, Rolling Fork, Tutwiler and Tupelo. It was as if they were on another planet.
Then my daughter moved to Louisiana and I had the chance to spend time travelling through Louisiana and Mississippi to check out the whole Blues Scene. I could actually visit those places and see where these wonderful musicians played, lived and died.
We followed the Blues Trail around. Signs were put up at significant places; places where they’d played, recorded, lived or died. We hunted out graves, old venues and wonderful little hamlets. It took us out into really obscure places and we got to meet people and see what Mississippi was all about. It brought all those old songs to life and enabled me to imagine their lives.
We were able to travel down the old Blues Highways of the magical Highway 61 and Highway 49, the fabled crossroads, plantations and Juke Joints.
I thought it would be nice to put a few posts out showing some of our adventures.
Charlie Patton and Aisey Payton – Blues Giants in a field.
The Blues
The giants of yesteryear.
I only knew Charlie Patton from a few scratchy tracks recorded well back in the 1930s. Alongside people like Blind Lemon Jefferson he was one of the founding fathers of the Blues. It was only later, when CDs came out, that I got to hear some more.
Charlie Patton was part Native American and reputed was quite a showman. He’d play that acoustic guitar between his legs and behind his head – the sort of skills required to entertain while busking on street corners.
We finally tracked his grave down in an old neglected graveyard in the middle of nowhere.
After a big search we eventually tracked down his grave.
A little further away was the grave of Aisie Payton.
Aisie was one of the great Hill Country Bluesmen who recorded for Fat Possum.
Alongside Aisley was Little Willie Foster the Chicago Harp Player.
Today’s Music to Keep me IiiINNnnSSAAaaannnNee – Muddy Waters Hard Again!
Muddy Waters goes right back to the plantations in Mississippi. He used to drive a tractor there. I visited his place at Rolling Fork (I wonder just what is left now after the Tornado?
Muddy was one of the first Blues guys that Dick introduced me to some fifty-odd years ago!
This is him with Johnny Winter – Hard Again!!
Lightnin’ Hopkins – It’s a sin to be Rich
Cotton Pickin’ Blues – The Dockery Plantation
In Search of Captain Beefheart – A Rock Music memoir – Continued – Son House
I had discovered him.
I had found what I did not know I had been looking for. Son House had entered my life.
It is one thing to discover something but quite another to find out everything about an artist and gain a picture of their entire work and history. That is something I have been pursuing to this day. It is only with the advent of CDs that much of the material has come to light and is available. Back in 1967 there was only one album that had been released containing ‘Death Letter Blues’ – ‘Son House – Father of the Delta Blues’. I discovered it in a rack of blues albums in a small record shop in Kingston Upon Thames and listened to it in a tiny listening booth and it was every bit as strident and powerful as I remembered. I snapped it up.
Now I have 26 CDs of Son house material – including his early ‘field’ recordings and a number of live concerts.
Son House was playing at the time of Charlie Patton and those other early itinerant Mississippi blues musicians. He is fabled to have taught Robert Johnson to play. As such you could say that he was the focal point for all that was to follow! Rock music might not have existed without him.
You could say that my quest had led me all the way back to the beginning.
The beginning is a good place to start. Once you have the beginning you’ve got a cornerstone to build the rest of the story on. I consider myself fortunate to have seen the man who started it all. He was as awesome as his reputation.