Day 3 (Part 2) - Clarksdale Mississippi

Clarksdale, Mississippi. What can you say? John Lee Hooker born just down the road. Sonny Boy Williamson was from around these parts and was buried not far from here and of course Robert Johnson the enigmatic blues legend was supposed to have sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads of Highway 61 and Highway 49 (but not at the current location.) right here in Clarksdale.

Apparently the devil appeared to Johnson in the form of a large black man who took his guitar and retuned it in a way that let Johnson play anything he wanted. However, many believe that this folklore was really made up as an explanation for how Robert Johnson went from being described as a poor player to a magnificent player in a short space of time. Later on in my day I got the story from a Clarksdale local.... But I'll get to that....

Driving into Clarksdale one notice immediately that this is a fairly unprepossessing sort of place. No tarting up for the tourists. What you see is what you get - and to be honest, only musicians and blues pilgrims come here.

I headed towards the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale - which happily is sign posted well. Good news as Jenny the GPS had just about given up for the day...

But I never made it to the museum....

Driving down Delta Avenue having taken a wrong turn I hear some blues wailing out of a speaker somewhere in the street.

I stop and turn my head to see a beat up old shop with a couple of guitars without strings nailed to the wall (an SG copy and a red Strat for guitar nerds) and a vintage amp cabinet playing the blues with a wire leading into the shop. I have discovered the Blues Music guitar shop - vintage and non-vintage bought, sold and traded... I am now, officially, in heaven.

The next two hours are spent chatting with the owner of the store and his wife and son, and playing steel resonators, archtops, vintage Stellas (the guitar that most bluesmen started on), strats, tele copies and a bunch of others... Playing the electrics through original vintage Fender amps just added to the glory of the moment, although as usual I couldn't get any of my fingers to do what they're supposed to do (always happens in guitar shops - some kind of performance anxiety as you're surrounded by real guitar heads)...

I progressed to some Stellas and make a note of a 1964 vintage model which is priced attractively. It's not the nicest guitar I've played, but it is a proper blues acoustic and the name is so evocative...and it sounds very 'true'.

Then I get my paws around a new Dobro Hound Dog steel resonator with a big heavy wooden body and a massive square neck. The action on this guitar is set at about an inch and it is clearly JUST for slide. I borrow a slide and start playing. A couple of buzzy bass strings can be sorted by adjusting the bridge, but this baby has tone and richness with the steel and wood harmonising just right. I played ok too - recovering some cool points but still massively in deficit from earlier...

Then I meet an interesting 1960s Telecaster copy with two sealed pick-ups in a faded cream colour and a rosewood neck and a giant 60's Fender logo on the bass of the guitar. It's a steal at $160 and it sounds real nice too...but I put her aside as I have been cultivating a long distance relationship with a proper Fender 1952 replica model in London...whom I hope to persuade to come and live with me later this year...

Then I set eyes upon a candy apple red strat with two straight single coil Tex Mex pickups and a Fat Strat humbucker - an unusual combination for a Strat. She's got a fancy pick guard in white pearl effect and she's a US made original from the "California Series". I have fallen in love with her looks but it only gets deeper when I plug her in to the vintage amp.... She's gorgeous. Rich tones, deep power from the humbucker and light twang from the single coils. The tremelo bar also works great with much more control than my other Strat. I know immediately that she is coming home with me.

And so is the Dobro Hound Dog. Hard cases are found at the back of the store for both and cash is stumped up. The owner of the store - Ronnie - was a great guy and genuinely appreciative of the sale (his son was getting married a week later and weddings always hurt dad's pocket!). He threw in a brass slide as part of the deal and gave me good prices on the cases. The Dobro got an old vintage brown leather semi hard case while the Strat got a Fender case. How I'm going to get them back I don't know, but I'll figure it out.

Anyone who loves guitars really needs to see this store. It's not the overall collection of vintage and new guitars, nor the amps but the overall feel of the place. It's rammed with posters, photos, blues memorabilia, bits and pieces of guitars, accessories and so on. None of it is formally laid out and there is none of the snotty behaviour you get with big commercial stores. Pick up and play whatever you like and welcome to a family atmosphere. This is a place full of guitar culture and not just guitars. Elvis Costello popped by a year or so ago and bought a guitar there which he went on to use in live gigs. I think everyone who visits should buy something there so this place continues to thrive.

The store owner gave me two recommendations before I left. Find Gary - the local blues expert and the most knowledgeable man on the blues in Clarksdale and go to the Hopson Plantation two miles out of town. One of the largest plantations in Mississippi, Hopson has converted the out buildings into a semi museum and the old wooden shacks where the sharecroppers used to live are available to rent...

A quick look out the door and Gary's truck was spotted outside the bar on Delta Avenue... And so Gary was inside. I duly headed in that direction....

The bar was cool. Locals kicking back and enjoying a beer or seven... Gary was to be found hanging out behind the bar so I sat down on a bar stool and got introduced.

Gary is the editor and publisher of BluesSource.com the #1 Blues online magazine in the world. He is also a collector and retailer of vintage and original recordings of blues, country and associated genres and a walking encyclopedia of the blues. In his younger days he played with some of the blues and country greats including people like Howlin' Wolf and Carl Perkins. He once got an impromptu guitar lesson from Son House himself.

During his lifelong association with the blues he's spent plenty of time in Juke Joints around Mississippi and rolling out of bars and clubs in Chicago often there listening to or playing with some of the greats. Gary plays guitar and blues harp (harmonica).

He told me some wonderful stories as we exchanged views on the Blues and favourite artists. One story was when he was in Chicago after Leonard Chess's death. Chess was the founder of Chess Records - perhaps the greatest blues record label of the time with artists like Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Howlin' Wolf on its books. Leonard Chess himself nurtured much of the black talent that came up from the Delta to Chicago and recorded the records that took them to a mass audience.

Gary met up with Howlin' Wolf at a gathering after Chess's untimely death and commented how sad it was that Chess had died so young etc etc. To which the Wolf replied "Shit, that motherf+@ker still owed me money!" Such a commercial obsession was a common trait of the bluesmen of the time - presumably because they had been ripped off so many times in the past.

Another tale explains the real story behind Robert Johnson's transformation as a guitarist. Son House - one of the greatest Mississippi Delta bluesmen - told Gary that he was in a juke joint one night in Clarksdale listening to Robert Johnson play. Son House thought Johnson's playing was poor to say the least and after Johnson finished his set Son House went up and told him how bad he was. Johnson, who by all accounts was a shy person, was so horrified and embarrassed by this criticism that he upped and left there and then and went to Helena in Arkansas where he stayed for two years. No-one knows who taught him there (it was a another renowned blues centre) but when he came back to Clarksdale he could outplay the best of them and went on to record the famous songs that live on today...

Talking with Gary Miller for those 2-3 hours was a great experience. A man whose passion for the blues has never wained and who has crossed over the major stages in Blues in the US. From what he calls original (Son House and Skip James era in the 30s) to "modern" - Muddy Waters and co in the 60s to "contemporary" - people like Keb' Mo' and Watermelon Slim who Gary introduced me too via the jukebox in the bar.

Before leaving the bar I asked the owner what the legal drinking and driving levels were (as I had had several beers). He replied, "As long as you don't run anybody down and kill 'em, the cops won't give you any trouble.".

Welcome to Mississippi!

Leaving town I headed to Hopson's Plantation and was lucky enough to get a room for the night in one of the original wooden shacks. Mine is "The Crossroads" shack. It's got electricity, air conditioning and regular plumbing, but that's the only concession to the modern day. The walls are covered in old posters from blues festivals and there is a rickety old stand-up piano in one space. Wooden floors, walls and ceiling and plenty of interesting looking bugs complete the experience.

On the recommendation of the Hopson people I dined at Abe's BBQ near the crossroads of 61 & 49. Abe's has been going since 1924 and was founded by Abe Davis an immigrant from Lebanon. Abe Junior runs it today and I feasted on BBQ pork and BBQ beef together with home made beans and coleslaw. The pork and beef were so tender and so delicious that words alone cannot capture the delight. The beans and 'slaw were great too. All washed down with a bottle of Bud and it was back to the plantation and to my shack.

I ended the day sitting in the big armchair in my wooden shack with my Dobro guitar across my lap playing slide blues guitar until sleep took me sometime in the night....