Travel, Photography and the Blues.
Posted on by Opher
We stopped off at the Highway 61 Museum and met Pat Thomas (James ‘Son’ Thomas’s son. He played for us!
Some of the monuments and Markers from The Blues Trail in Mississippi (Plus a few) – Pt 3
Some of the monuments and Markers from The Blues Trail in Mississippi (Plus a few) – Pt 1
My daughter got a job in Louisiana. When we went to stay we were able to hire a car and spent a fabulous week touring around Mississippi looking up the graves, venues and markers of all the fabulous Blues guys.
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The Mississippi Blues Trail – Rolling Fork – Birthplace of Muddy Waters.
I’d heard there was a monument to Muddy Waters in his birthplace. We stopped and I had a walk around. I was looking for a statue. There were some murals on a wall but that wasn’t it.
It was Sunday morning and the only people around were three guys in a gazebo sharing a bottle of whiskey in a brown bag. I wandered over. They looked like locals. I asked them if they knew where the monument to Muddy Waters was. One of them said ‘You’re standing in it, brother’.
Seems the gazebo was the monument. It had a plaque in front. I took a photo.
One of the other guys said: ‘What’s Muddy Waters ever done for us?’
I thought that was a little harsh as the guys were sitting in his gazebo enjoying a drink.
The Mississippi Blues Trail – The Blue Front Cafe – A Blues venue of note.
This was exactly the sort of joint I wanted to hear some great old blues played. Unfortunately there was nothing on!
The Mississippi Blues Trail – Tutwiler
Sitting on the station where way back at the turn of the nineteenth century W C Handy wrote of his first encounter with an itinerate Blues singer. This is where the story began.
The Mississippi Blues Trail – The Delta Blues Museum
There it is – a museum for the DElta Blues. They’ve even got Muddy Waters old sharecropping cabin in there! It has a wax Muddy Waters sitting in it playing guitar! Not as good as the real one!
The Blues Trail in Mississippi – Hazlehurst – Hickory Street where Elmore James had his electric store.
The bottom photo is where Elmore James’ store stood. That’s where he fiddled with his guitars to get that uncopyable sound.
The Blues Trail – Hits The Hill Country in Mississippi – Howlin’ Wolf
I was too late to catch RL Burnside or Junior Kimbrough. All that was left was the markers, statues and a museum that was shut. But I breathed the air.
Some of the monuments and Markers from The Blues Trail in Mississippi (Plus a few) – Pt 4
This was a pilgrimage that I was making to connect with all those old guys who had given me so much! Fabulous. We had to hunt them all out!
Some of the monuments and Markers from The Blues Trail in Mississippi (Plus a few) – Pt 3
We stopped off at the Highway 61 Museum and met Pat Thomas (James ‘Son’ Thomas’s son. He played for us!