Travel: Clarksdale, Mississippi

Standing at the Crossroads

In Clarskdale, the Delta Blues meet Southern Hospitality

By Elizabeth Chubbuck Weinstein

Steeped in history and the strains of steel-string guitars, Clarkshdale, hMississippi is a mecca for music lovers. Thousands of tourists flock each year to this birthplace of the blues. Located at the intersection of Highways 61 and 49, Clarksdale is the crossroads where—legend has it— Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil and disappeared, only to mysteriously re-emerge as a guitar virtuoso and “King of the Delta Blues”. When Hurricane Ida stormed through the Gulf Coast recently, my family and I rode out the storm in Clarksdale, only to find ourselves literally and figuratively at our own set of crossroads.

We had departed quickly, bringing only our vehicles, our beloved dog Beatrix, clothes for three days, medications, computers, our children’s treasures, and those material goods that seemed important at the time. Neither my husband nor I had ever evacuated. Yet, Ida threatened to pass right over the Capitol City as a Category 4 upon landfall. Spurred by memories of the forty-foot water oak that fell into our house during Gustav in 2008, we anxiously looked for somewhere outside of Ida’s widespread path. Clarksdale seemed ideal, providing not only a haven but also an educational adventure. Plus, we could pay an overdue visit to see my brother-in-law, nephew, and the newest addition to our family.

After the five-hour drive from Baton Rouge, we arrived in Downtown Clarksdale, eyeing its wide avenues and broad sidewalks, historic architecture, and an impressive number of former banks. The city is settled on the northern end of the Mississippi Delta and about seventy-five-miles southwest of Memphis on the Sunflower River, where Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto is said to have discovered the mighty Mississippi.

Originally named Clarksville, the city was settled by the English lumberman John Clark in 1848, near the intersection of the Chakchiuma Trade Trail and the Lower Creek Trade Paths.

Though the Delta’s lowland soil was fertile, the land was difficult to cultivate. Thus, there were few plantations in the region until after the Civil War, when African American laborers were recruited to clear the area, build levees, and work on the new plantations as field hands. Many worked as sharecroppers. By the 1870s, most of these plantations and towns were connected by rail to New Orleans and Memphis, including Clarksville. Incorporated in 1882 and renamed Clarksdale, the city thrived and came to be known as “The Golden Buckle in the Cotton Belt.”

Much has happened since those days, but our landing place at the Auberge Clarksdale Hostel, with its 1930s brick edifice on Delta Avenue, hints at Clarksdale’s former grandeur. Once the home of Landry’s Menswear, the historic building last served as the Madidi Restaurant and is only a few blocks from Ground Zero Blues Club, both ventures of actor Morgan Freeman and his late business partner Bill Luckett. Their early-2000s revitalization efforts got the ball rolling to turn the music back on in the downtown district. Similarly inspired, my nephew Robert Weinstein and his wife Lucy recognized Clarksdale’s potential and reopened the building (In 2012, Madidi closed after ten years of operation.) as a hostel in 2019.

The Auberge Clarksdale’s attractive dorm-style rooms and spacious shared living spaces suited us perfectly. We felt right at home, lounging along the lengths of the enormous, polished mahogany bar, playing foosball, and strumming the guitars set out for guests who felt musically inclined. As night fell, we watched Ida wend her destructive path from the safe distance of the TV screen. We awoke next morning to learn we were among the lucky ones, losing only fences and a moderate-sized tree (this time not on our house). So, then we faced the crossroads: Return home or stay in Clarksdale.

Photo by Elizabeth Weinstein

We chose to remain and accept the tradeoff: take charge of the hostel, its guests, a dog, a chinchilla, and an active eighteen-and-a-half-month-old toddler. Expecting to be apart for only a brief time, Robert and the baby had met us in Clarksdale, while his wife was riding out her first hurricane with the guests at their New Orleans property, Auberge NOLA. Robert needed to take care of the damage there. Unsure of the roadways and the safety of a city completely without power, he decided that the baby would remain with us. Thus, my children quickly learned the level of atten- tion a baby requires and began to sing their own version of the blues.

Originating in Mississippi, blues music encapsulates the particular musical expression of those enslaved in the South and their descendants.

One of the earliest mentions of the genre is by musician W. C. Handy, who recalled hearing a Black guitarist play the new sound at a train station in Tutwiler, Mississippi, around 1903. This new form of music was influenced by work songs, field hollers, church music, as well as ragtime and European folk songs. It sounded different because it was sung in the first person and due to its scale, which is a minor pentatonic scale with the addition of a flat fifth (or a blue note). When compared to other forms of the blues, the Mississippi sound is characterized by speech-like vocals and a rhythmic, percussive guitar style. Over time the diddley bow, a one-stringed guitar-like instrument derived from instruments used in Africa, and the banjo gave way to the acoustic guitar. In the 1940s, when most rural Mississippi homes still did not have electricity, the electric guitar became a genre-defining instrument.

According to writer Debra Devi at American Blues Scene, the term “blues” stems from a seventeenth-century English expression, “the blue devils,” which refers to the feeling of agitation that comes from alcohol withdrawal. Shortened over time, the phrase evolved to mean a feeling of sadness or melancholy but retained its connection to drinking. White Americans used the word “blue” to mean drunk by the 1800s. African Americans later used the word to refer to the intimate style of dance performed by the couples in rural juke joints where Black sharecroppers and laborers drank and played music. Inhibited by Jim Crow laws, poverty, and prejudice, this marginalized people found both a voice and a catharsis when “singin’ the blues.”

Eager to explore, we strapped the baby in the stroller and headed down Delta Avenue, where we discovered that the local businesses seem to proudly embrace the blues and its accompanying potential for tourism. Many downtown walls are covered with colorful murals inspired by the city’s musical legacy and public benches are adorned with music note motifs. Every restaurant we visited accompanied their tasty meals with live performances. Among the fare we sampled, the seafood at Hooker Grocer & Eatery and the pizza at Stone Pony stood out. Some restaurants are even listed as blues clubs, such as Bluesberry Café and Levon’s Bar and Grill.

Julien Fontenot

We ducked into Hambone Art & Music around the corner on E. Second Street. A combination folk art gallery and downhome bar, Hambone is a popular gathering spot for Tuesday night concerts, featuring touring and local artists playing a wide variety of musical genres. The place is owned by Stan Street, an artist and musician himself, who welcomed us with neighborly charm. With its comfortable array of couches, the atmosphere was decidedly cozy.

At the far end of Delta Avenue is The Delta Blues Museum, the first to honor this unique form of music. The museum is located inside the historic Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad depot. Like the passenger station in Baton Rouge, the depot was incorporated into the Illinois Central Railway System. Thousands of passengers departed from this spot bound for Chicago and Washington D.C. during the Great Migration between 1916 and 1970, when six million African Americans moved out of the rural South. Their flight was prompted by the falling price of cotton, a dwindling demand for field workers due to the growing mechanization of agriculture and increasing racial tensions. A turning point for Clarksdale came in 1944, when the nearby Hopson Planting Company produced the first commercial cotton crop planted, harvested, and baled entirely by machinery. Clarksdale’s population declined and the city lost its luster. But not before giving birth to the blues.

Today, the Delta Blues Museum pays tribute to this rich heritage through exhibitions, education programs, and music festivals that not only interpret the past but carry the blues into the future. As we strolled through the galleries, we were introduced to many blues greats, particularly those born in or around Clarksdale, including: Sam Cooke, John Lee Hooker, Edward James “Son” House Jr., and Herman “Junior” Parker. Their lively personalities were conveyed through show garments displayed on mannequins, as well as photographs, videos, instruments, and other memorabilia. An area devoted to Muddy Waters even included his car and the remains of the cabin where he lived during his early days as a sharecropper. My son was particularly impressed with ZZ Top’s “Muddywood” guitar, crafted from one of the cabin’s timbers.

Many visitors discover the museum while following The Mississippi Blues Trail, which runs from New Orleans to Nashville. The trail commemorates those places deemed significant to the birth, growth, and influence of the blues. Identified by commemorative markers, fifteen of these sites are in Clarksdale. Just Downtown you’ll find the Riverside Hotel, where Bessie Smith took her last breath, and the former WROX Radio station, which introduced the blues to the listening pubic from 1945 to 1955. Also downtown is The Walk of Fame, a series of sidewalk plaques, which honors such important artists as Ike Turner, whose credits include what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recognizes as the first Rock ‘n Roll song, “Rocket 88,” recorded in 1951.

Photo courtesy of the Clarksdale, Mississippi CVB

After a week of soaking in the blues, we decided the time had come for us to face our own music. We had to return to Baton Rouge, despite the continuing power outage (which was to last eleven days). Robert and his wife were still repairing their New Orleans hostel. Thus, Hammond was selected as a convenient spot to meet up on the road home, where we experienced first-hand the sorrowful extent of the damage there and the tears of a happy mother reunited with her child.

On our last night before heading home, we trekked down Delta Avenue once again, this time to visit Ground Zero Blues Club. Housed in the former wholesale Delta Grocery and Cotton Co., the no-frills space is raw, an aspect that only reinforces its authenticity. The club markets itself as “the real deal” and presents mostly Mississippi artists, both accomplished musicians like Super Chikan, who performs regularly, as well as aspiring talent. Sitting at tables covered in vinyl red-and-white checkered tablecloths, we dined on fried green tomato sandwiches, fried catfish, and pickles while the room around us vibrated with the energy that only a live blues band can induce. Popular with locals and tourists alike, Ground Zero proved to be family friendly. Even the baby enjoyed himself as we waltzed around the dance floor to the syncopated rhythm and soulful lyrics. Named “ground zero” in reference to Clarksdale’s origins as the birthplace of the blues, the club was the perfect place to honor where it all began.

Elizabeth Chubbuck Weinstein is a consultant serving museums, arts organizations, and private collectors, a curator, and a writer based in Baton Rouge.

visitclarksdale.com