Aug-Sept2016

ROAD TRIP: MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW FOR THE BEST FALL FESTIVALS!

AUGUST.SEPTEMBER 2016

Ghosts on the

Mississippi Finding History in the Heart and Soul of The Delta

The Beautiful Beignet From powdered sugar to crawfish-stuffed, New Orleans has the fix

M I S S I S S I P P I ’ S A W A R D - W I N N I N G C O N S U M E R T R AV E L P U B L I C AT I O N W W W. R E A D L E G E N D S . C O M

Gilbert & Sullivan’s

The Mikado

NOVEMBER 15 and 20, 2017

27th SEASON

Mississippi Bicentennial Celebration MAY 6 - 27, 2017

Verdi’s

Rigoletto APRIL 22, 2017

WWW.MSOPERA.ORG JUNE 4, 2016

NATCHEZFESTIVALOFMUSIC.COM 800.647.6742

PLAN YOUR STAYCATION! SAVE-THE-DATES

FestivalSouth 1 - 17 JUNE 2017 festivalsouth.org 800.844.8425

WHEN YOU THINK ARTS THINK SOUTHERN MISS These events are supported in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a state agency, and in part, from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

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CONTENTS AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2016

MUSIC 16 The Bogalusa Blues & Heritage Festival Celebrating Louisiana’s musical heritage

32 The Mighty Mississippi

Bridging the Blues means festival time in The Delta

61 King Biscuit Blues Festival

The granddaddy of blues festivals returns

CULTURE 22 The Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival Celebrating livelihood and community since 1936

38 COVER STORY: Ghosts on the Mississippi Finding history in the Heart and Soul of The Delta

42 Greenville’s Belmont Plantation

Nine-thousand square feet of Antebellum bliss

46 The Melting Pot of Delta History

Greenville’s museums pay tribute to a diverse culture

62 The Great Delta Bear Affair ABOUT OUR COVER Euphus “Butch” Ruth of Greenville, Mississippi, resurrects the lost art of wet plate collodian photography, a process predominantly used in the 19th century. Ruth shoots with an 11 x 14 Kodak view camera on a wooden tripod and utilizes an old black hearse as a portable darkroom wherever he goes.

(Photograph by Bill Steber)

How the teddy bear got its name in Rolling Fork

CULINARY 12 The Beautiful Beignet

Yummy from powdered sugar to crawfish-stuffed

52 Dining in The Delta

Tastes of Creole, Italian, African-American and Mexican

56 From Sea to Land to Table

WaterView’s new Sandbar Fish House & Grill

4 • AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER 2016

12

42

38

46

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EARS 10 Y

2016-2017 FALL/WINTER

Performing Arts Series VINCE GILL

JESSICA LANG DANCE

FAME – THE MUSICAL

OAK RIDGE BOYS

Thurs. 9/8/16 | 7:30 p.m. | $80, $74

Fri. 9/30/16 | 7:30 p.m. | $46, $40

BIG HEAD TODD AND THE MONSTERS

with Mud Morganfield, Billy Branch, and Ronnie Baker Brooks Sat. 10/15/16 | 7:30 p.m.

Pre-show 6:00 p.m. | $50, $44 “An Evening with

KEB’ MO’ and His Band”

Fri. 10/21/16 | 7:30 p.m.

Pre-show 6:00 p.m. | $50, $44

MELISSA ETHERIDGE This is MEmphis Rock & Soul A Soul-ute to Stax Records Thurs. 10/27/16 | 7:30 p.m.

Pre-show 6:00 p.m. | $78, $72

PATTI LABELLE

Thurs. 11/3/16 | 7:30 p.m.

Pre-show 6:00 p.m. | $78, $72

RICK SPRINGFIELD “Stripped Down” Thurs. 11/17/16 | 7:30 p.m.

Pre-show 6:00 p.m. | $58, $52

Thurs. 12/1/16 | 7:30 p.m. | $39, $33

“Christmas Night Out” Thurs. 12/8/16 | 7:30 p.m. | $58, $52 Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with

WYNTON MARSALIS

Tues. 1/17/17 | 7:30 p.m. | $65, $59

DANIEL TIGER’S NEIGHBORHOOD LIVE! Thurs. 1/26/17 | 7:00 p.m. | $20, $12

Family Show

THE LIGHTNING THIEF

Fri. 2/3/17 | 7:00 p.m. | $20, $12

Family Show

MURDER ON THE NILE Fri. 2/10/17 | 7:30 p.m. | $39, $33

DR. SEUSS’ THE CAT IN THE HAT Fri. 3/3/17 | 7:00 p.m. | $20, $12

Family Show

For more information scan the bar code.

Join us for pre-show parties in the Grand Lobby before select shows.

MSU Riley Center Box Office | 2200 Fifth Street | Meridian, MS 39301 601.696.2200 | www.msurileycenter.com Facebook.com/RileyCenter READLEGENDS.COM •

7

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MARC BROUSSARD TAB BENOIT DANIELLE NICOLE - SAMANTHA FISH PAUL THORN - CEDRIC BURNSIDE PROJECT Harper and Midwest Kind - Ed Wills and Blues 4 Sale Leslie Blackshear Smith Band CHUBBY CARRIER - VOO DAVIS Waylon Thibodeaux - David Craig - Joel and Bobby

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11

STORY FROM NEW ORLEANS, LA.

The Beautiful Beignet

From powdered sugar to crawfish-stuffed

BY MEGHAN HOLMES Photography by James Edward Bates

S

itting on the river side of Decatur Street, across from Jackson Square, Café du Monde customers sit covered in powdered sugar. It starts out heaped on top of hot beignets, then falls to their feet, dissolving on the pavement. A look around the wrought iron outdoor dining area shows hundreds of patrons deliriously happy, eating fritters on the banks of the Mississippi River.

12 • AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER 2016

Café du Monde serves beignets in sets of three, in the tradition of old New Orleans coffee stands. Opened in 1862, current owners purchased the café in the 1940s. “The business has been in our family for three generations, and over the years I’ve been amazed at how people identify with the taste of the beignet,” says Burt Benrod, vice president.

Beignet history

car to take your order and brought it out to you, and I always thought Morning Call had the best beignets. They don’t drown them in the sugar - you add your own.”

In French, beignet means fritter, or fried pastry dough. “Most cultures have fried dough, and in New Orleans our version is the beignet. People grow up eating them for breakfast,” says Benrod. The Not just a powdered sugar concoction beignet’s history in the city dates back to the arrival of French colonists in the 18th century, who brought with them, “the custom of serving In the 1970s Morning Call left the French Quarter, moving to sweet entremets such as beignets with compote from the mother a bustling area of Metairie (a nearby suburb) known as Fat City, and country,” according to a 1902 Times-Picayune piece. many devotees followed. In 2012, the business returned to Orleans The French also brought chicory coffee, an integral part of the Parish, opening an outpost in City Park. Like Café du Monde it is café au lait which accompanies beignets at New Orleans coffee stands. open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but unlike its competitor, the Café au lait is strong, dark new Morning Call has roast coffee with chicory expanded its cash only served in equal parts with menu to include red hot milk. Chicory comes beans, jambalaya, crawfish from the root of a flowering etouffee, alligator sausage plant, and the French and gumbo, as well as incorporated it into their desserts. coffee during Napoleon’s Most commonly, 1808 blockade to make beignets in New Orleans dwindling coffee supplies appear like those at go further. New Orleanians Morning Call or Café did the same during the du Monde: square, fried American Civil War. pastries with powdered Chicory adds a depth and sugar as accompaniment, evenness to strong coffee but chefs also prepare that people desired after the savory beignets utilizing end of the shortage, and the south Louisiana ingredients Café du Monde serves beignets in sets of three, in the tradition of old New Orleans coffee stands. tradition stuck. like crawfish and crab.

A freed slave, Rose Myriad possibilities exist. In Nicaud, opened one of the traditional French cooking, French Quarter’s first coffee stands in the early 1800s and several other beignet refers to a range of fried dough balls, sometimes with other free women of color quickly followed suit. By the mid-19th century, ingredients in their centers.

New Orleans had hundreds of coffee stands, dozens of which offered When in season, crawfish beignets appear on many fine dining beignets. One of these shops was Morning Call, opening in 1871 on menus. Commander’s Palace chef Tory McPhail created a crawfish the same block as Café du Monde at the opposite end of the French boil beignet, rolling spicy crawfish tails and red chilies into a sweet Market, which marked the beginning of a century-long contest for the corn dough, served with a red pepper aioli and remoulade sauce. The French Quarter’s best coffee and beignets. crawfish beignets at Brennan’s restaurant Café B feature a tempura Older New Orleanians remember Morning Call for its aluminum style batter with Abita Beer, as well as bits of bacon dispersed powdered sugar shakers as well as the curbside service. “I can throughout the fritter. remember my parents driving us to Morning Call as a kid, for beignets Crab beignets also routinely pop up on menus. At John Folse’s early in the morning. I would try to get a glimpse of the strip joints Restaurant R’evolution, each beignet sits atop a different remoulade on as we went down Canal,” says local Susan Rogers. “They came to the a long and narrow plate. Each sauce, including a white remoulade, a

READLEGENDS.COM •

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fire roasted variety, salsa verde and saffron, add different layers of flavor to the dish. A citrusy slaw on the side helps cut the richness of the fritters.

“When I was at Bayona we regularly offered different kinds of beignets. Once you have a base dough recipe you can really add anything to it,” says Christane Engeran, former pastry and pantry chef at Bayona. “We would run specials like a sweet cinnamon banana beignet, or a smoked salmon beignet with brandied tomato sauce.”

A beignet is really just dough, and as a result it lends itself well

“A

to creative cooking. At SoBou in the French Quarter, Chef Juan Carlos Gonzales offers sweet potato beignets with foie gras fondue, duck debris and chicory coffee ganache - uniquely incorporating the beignets traditional accompaniment into the dish itself. It is rich and decadent and an ideal combination of sweet and savory.

freed slave, Rose Nicaud, opened one of the French Quarter’s first coffee

stands in the early 1800s and several other free women of color quickly followed suit.

By the mid-19th century, New Orleans had hundreds of coffee stands, dozens of which offered beignets. One of these shops was Morning Call, opening in 1871 on the same block as Café du Monde at the opposite end of the French Market, which marked the beginning of a century-long contest for the French Quarter’s best coffee and beignets.”

The New Orleans light and fluffy sweet treat is so popular that crowds line up day and night for their fill at shops like Morning Call and Café du Monde.

14 • AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER 2016

The secret of the light and fluffy beignet Traditional beignets begin as a choux pastry - the same type of dough used to make cream puffs or profiteroles, but without sugar. “The best beignets have two qualities,” says local food author Tom Fitzmorris. “They’re doughy enough that there’s more than just air inside, but they’re not so heavy that they sink to the bottom of the fryer.”

Cooks agree that beignets require a light hand - the dough must be worked minimally or it will toughen, leaving you with a rock-hard fried object after cooking. The dough will also be wet - almost like a drop biscuit. From there, recipes vary wildly. Café du Monde offers a take-home box version that some say works like a charm, while for others, there’s no substitute for a homemade recipe or the coffee stand magic.

“We use cottonseed oil,” says Benrod. “You need something with a high smoke point - the temperature will need to be between 370-380 degrees. You also need a deep, cast iron skillet. Something that holds heat well. We use a deep fryer for our commercial operation, which is also an option if you have one at home.”

For cooks who would rather not attempt blooming yeast and cast iron cooking, there’s always the beignets of the French Quarter, laced with a lazy river and jazz – and a heaping measure of powdered sugar. L Most commonly, beignets in New Orleans appear like those at Morning Call or Café du Monde: square, fried pastries with powdered sugar as accompaniment, but chefs also prepare savory beignets utilizing south Louisiana ingredients like crawfish and crab.

READLEGENDS.COM •

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STORY FROM BOGALUSA, LA.

Heritage Festival marks 5th year Photography by Rusty Costanza

C

elebrating is 5th year, the Bogalusa Blues and Heritage Festival isn’t short on talent in its 2016 lineup.

The popular Louisiana festival is slated this year for September 23-24 and in keeping with tradition will run the gamut from favorite Louisiana blues artists to multiple Grammy and Blues Music Award nominees and winners, the “biggest and boldest yet,” say organizers.

“And because we know this region has additional great music to offer, we’ll present jazz, zydeco, Americana and country music on our Heritage Stage,” said festival chair Malinda White.

16 • AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER 2016

While the festival’s hallmark is blues, creators spice up the musical variety with jazz, zydeco, Americana and country.

The Bogalusa Blues & Heritage Festival is slated for Sept. 23-24 and its 2016 lineup promises to get guests out of their seats.

Headlining this year is the popular Tab Benoit and Marc Broussard. LEFT: Vanessa Neimann cranks out a tune with The Honky Tonk Revue.

The gumbo will get cooking on Friday on The Blues Stage with the Chicago blues of Voo Davis. Afterward, Samantha Fish will perform with her eclectic electric blues steeped in the roots of the genre. The evening’s highlight, though, is Tab Benoit, who did a lot to help ensure the success of the BBHF as the sole headliner in the festival’s first year.

Saturday begins with the electric Ed Wills and Blues 4 Sale before the Australian blues of Harper and the Midwest Kind take to the stage with their heady mix of roots music. After that, the Leslie Blackshear

Smith Band steps into the spotlight. Smith has been called “one of the most talented women vocalists in a city full of them,” and the band will add to the flavor with its rhythm and blues, gospel and jazz.

The Mississippi Hill Blues will then take center stage with the Cedric Burnside Project and Southern raconteur/storyteller Paul Thorn.

Saturday’s headliner, Marc Broussard, whose Southern-rooted “Bayou Soul” sound is a mix of funk, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and pop.

For more information, visit bogalusablues.com. L READLEGENDS.COM •

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FRIDAY, SEPT. 23 Voo Davis 5 pm Samantha Fish 6:30 pm Tab Benoit 8:15 pm SATURDAY, SEPT. 24 Ed Wills and Blues 4 Sale 12 pm Harper and Midwest Kind 1:15 pm Leslie Blackshear Smith Band 2:45 pm Cedric Burnside Project 4:15 pm Paul Thorn 5:45 pm Danielle Nicole 7:30 pm Marc Broussard 9 pm

18 • AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER 2016

CLOCKWISE: The festival draws big names but offers a small-town feel; Andrew Wiseman on harmonica conducts African drum circle lessons at the festival each year; Bart Walker of Cyril Neville’s Band, Royal Southern Brotherhood, cranks out a tune; Tea J. Moore sings from the heart; Johnny Sansone performs with his own band and also plays in the All Stars Voice of the Wetlands group.

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Dew Drop Jazz Hall Concerts

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STORY FROM MORGAN CITY, LA.

LOUISIANA’S SHRIMP AND PETROLEUM FESTIVAL

Celebrating livelihood and community since 1936

By MEGHAN HOLMES

O

n Labor Day weekend in 1936, a celebration began on the docks in Morgan City, Louisiana.

Jumbo shrimp had recently been discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, and shrimpers had hauled in a giant catch. They gathered, along with other fishermen and trappers, and paraded through downtown, from the banks of the Atchafalaya to town hall, where the day ended with a picnic and dancing. The shrimpers decided to make the event official, adding a blessing of the fleet and creating a Louisiana Shrimp Festival Association the following year.

September 2 marks the festival’s 81st anniversary. Now called the

22 • AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER 2016

Shrimp and Petroleum Festival, the event reflects the community that surrounds it, paying homage to two industries that define southern Louisiana, particularly St. Mary Parish.

“There have been a lot of economic booms and busts in Morgan City,” says Nelson Cortez, a former festival king and board member.

“We’ve had trapping, cypress, shrimp and oil come and go over the last century. Shrimping came after we had cut the virgin timber and brown shrimp migrated from the western Gulf.”

The area became the shrimp capitol of the country. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, 90 percent of the United States’ shrimp came

through processing facilities in St. Mary Parish. “The shrimp boats would stretch a half mile along the city’s waterfront. During the festival we all ate together after the blessing, on our family’s boats. We were all connected to the industry,” says Cortez. A common route for many shrimpers in Morgan City ended in Brownsville, Texas. The men shrimped along the way, dropped off the catch and refueled in Texas, and then shrimped back to Morgan City.

In the 1960s many shrimpers saw new opportunities in the oil industry.

They already had boats and familiarity with the complexity of the Atchafalaya Delta, and oil companies promised a steady paycheck. “Shrimping can be unpredictable, and there’s a lot of risk. These guys could use their boats for inshore drilling and get paid daily. People got rich overnight,” says Cortez.

The new role of the oil sector in Morgan City’s economy prompted a change in the festival. “Each year whoever caught the biggest catch would be king. As we had fewer and fewer shrimpers, men from the oil industry could become king, and the selection committee started alternating between men from the shrimping industry and men who worked in oil,” says Cortez.

In 1967, the event officially became the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival, acknowledging Morgan City’s economic shift.

The festival continues, and thrives, despite the departure of many oil companies in the 1980s and a small number of shrimpers. Ties to both industries still run deep. “We’ve had the best shrimp in the world come through these docks, and we’ve also had ship and rig builders and boat

September 2 marks the festival’s 81st anniversary. Now called the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival, the event reflects the community that surrounds it, paying homage to two industries that define southern Louisiana, particularly St. Mary Parish.

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captains as part of the oil industry,” says festival director Darby Isham. downtown, and the youth parked cars over Labor Day weekend. “I had “It’s about respecting those traditions.” a Central Catholic burger for lunch every day. They have grilled onions During the festival weekend, the city’s population expands from and nacho cheese; it’s incredible,” she says.

12,000 to more than 150,000 people, who come to enjoy live music, Now that Isham’s grown up, her fondest festival memories come food, fair rides, arts and crafts, art vendors, dancing, a parade and from last year’s event – the first one she coordinated. “The last night the blessing of the fleet. Visitors spend Friday and Saturday afternoon of the festival I cried driving home because I didn’t want the weekend walking from booth to booth as live music plays, snacking on boiled to end. I couldn’t believe how proud the people of Morgan City are shrimp and Mexican corn of our community and on the cob while looking at our festival, and how art, or watching their kids many people want to see it try to win a live bunny. It all succeed from year to year. culminates with a Sunday Everyone comes home for morning mass followed by the the Shrimp and Petroleum blessing of the fleet across the Festival.” river in Burwick Bay. Police For Morgan City, close the large bridge crossing optimism is important. The the river, and pedestrians bear community has seen its the hot sun to walk across share of economic ups and the river to the other side, downs, as well as criticism watching boats circling in the for praising the role of the river below. oil industry in its economy, During the festival weekend, the city’s population expands from 12,000 to more than 150,000 “Originally the blessing particularly following the people, who come to enjoy live music, food, fair rides, arts and crafts, art vendors, dancing, a parade and the blessing of the fleet. was just for the shrimp boats, BP oil spill. For residents, and then there were giant the two industries are oil boats, 200 or 300 feet long, and now the oil boats are gone but inexorably linked. The Shrimp and Petroleum Festival celebrates they allow pleasure craft,” says Joann Blanchard, owner of JoJo’s Café community and its ability to triumph despite an ever-shifting on the riverfront in Morgan City and longtime festival attendee and economic landscape. The boiled shrimp are important, but it’s really participant. “I remember one year in the ‘50s when we had high water about the people. L and the priest blessed the boats from the top of the levee. I was Miss Morgan City that year and so I was on the boat with the queen.”

During the blessing, decorated boats of all shapes and sizes circle the docks on either side of the river, waving and celebrating.

Participants range from a riding lawn mower powered dingy to a large, Friday Sept. 2nd Sunday Sept. 4th multi-story shrimp boat. The priest blesses one and all, after they’ve 5-6:30 pm Cliff Hillebran & 12-1:30 pm Cajun Zydeco made several passes beforehand. Shrimp boils follow, although the The Anytime Band Dancers celebrations are smaller now than during shrimping’s mid-century 7-8:30 pm Kyle Wilson 2-4 pm Chubby Carrier peak.

9-11 pm ZOSO 4:30-6:30 pm South 70 Band “All the local restaurants sell food downtown,” says Blanchard.

7-9 pm Todd O’Neill “We do the jambalaya, praline chicken, white chocolate bread pudding Saturday Sept. 3rd 9:30-11 pm MoJEAUX and shrimp pasta, and nobody else is gonna have that. The downtown 11:30 am-1 pm Cajun Zydeco businesses don’t compete; we all do different things.” A trip to the Dancers Monday Sept. 5th Shrimp and Petroleum isn’t complete without a Central Catholic 1:30-3:30 pm Geno Delafose 11 am -1 pm Jus Cuz hamburger. The local private school sells the burgers (as well as less 4-6 pm Beau Young Band 1:30-3:30 pm Pontchartrain Wrecks popular hotdogs) at most parish festivals, and locals swear they’re the 6:30-8:30 pm Category 6 4-6 pm Ross Grisham best.

9-11 pm Cowboy Mouth 6:30-8:30 pm Don Rich Isham grew up in Morgan City and remembers the burgers as a part of the event throughout her childhood. Her church was

The Rockin’ Music Lineup

24 • AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER 2016

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Sept 22-Oct 9

Come to Greenville-Washington County to reboot your energy with a full lineup of revelry to renew your spirit. Join us for award-winning Delta blues from artists like Greenville native Eden Brent, more crawfish than you can eat, and some of the most fun this side of – dare we say paradise?

39th Annual Delta Blues & Heritage Festival 6th Annual Sam Chatmon Blues Festival 4th Annual Mighty Mississippi Music Festival 5th Annual Delta Hot Tamale Festival 6th Annual “Jim Henson” Frog Fest, Leland 52nd Annual Christmas on Deer Creek

September 17th September 23rd - 24th September 30th - October 2nd October 13th - 15th October 22nd December 1st - 31st

Greenville - Washington County. More than meets the eye. www.visitgreenville.org 1-800-467-3582

Convention & Visitors Bureau

Welcome to the

Heart and Soul of

The Delta

There’s more to Greenville than its rich soil.

Join us on a journey to this Mississippi River city, where music, food, history and arts come to life.

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STORY FROM GREENVILLE, MISS.

It’s festival time in The Delta

I

f there’s one thing the Delta is known for, it’s music. And food. And when you visit a festival in the Delta, these local specialties are on display in all their glory.

Washington County has a festival for every taste, a perfectly synced jam or gutbucket wail for every sensibility.

The fall festival season gets underway with a bang when the 39th Annual Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival happens at the Washington County Convention Center in Greenville on September 17.

Hailed as the largest blues fest in the Delta and the oldest in the United States, bluesmen from near and far will tune up and plug in to get the music flowing in Greenville.

Next up is the Sam Chatmon Festival, happening in downtown Hollandale September 23-24. Expect to enjoy “bikes, barbecue and the blues” at this event named in honor of local guitarist and singer who cranked out the blues from his home base in Hollandale until he passed away in the early 1980s.

The biggest event on the fall calendar is no doubt the 4th Annual Mighty Mississippi Music Festival and 17th Annual Highway 61 Blues Festival, a combined fest that takes place September 30 through October 2 on the banks of the Mississippi River at Greenville’s Warfield Point Park. Almost 30 acts of various country, folk, blues and rock genres will perform.

“At Mighty, we pride ourselves on introducing new acts that are about to become household names,” said musician Steve Azar,

The bridge spanning the Mississippi River into Greenville welcomes music and food lovers to a variety of festivals happening throughout the fall. From the Mighty Mississippi to the Hot Tamale Festival, there’s something for everyone.

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co-founder of The Mighty Mississippi Music Festival. “Last year it was Chris Stapleton. This year, it’s New Orleans-based The Revivalists, and the hottest thing going out of Nashville, Maren Morris.”

Azar said Rolling Stone picked his festival’s headliners, The Revivalists, as one of the “Top 10 bands you need to know in 2016.”

He said he’s also excited because he’ll introduce a new band of his own, Steve Azar and the Kings Men. “The band consists of a handful of B.B. King’s former band mates as well as one member from Elvis Presley and Little Milton,” he said, adding the band just recorded its first record in Club Ebony in Indianola.

Other acts to be featured on the Mighty Mississippi stage include Texas singer-songwriter Ryan Bingham, G. Love and Special Sauce, Cedric Burnside, Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers, Mr. Sipp, and more.

“I think this being our 4th annual, we have come up with a pretty good program,” Azar said, adding there are also “late night movies indigenous to our Delta and SEC football on the Jumbotron.”

“A third stage in the tent camping area gets cranked up at midnight, a Delta village showcases great art and food,” he continues, “and of course our two main stages, The Mighty Main Stage and Highway 61 Blues Stage, together feature a mix of music like no other I’ve ever seen.”

Azar calls the event’s VIP Experience “unreal.”

“From the ‘I Give a Crop’ tent, which includes a weekend of beer and wine, to the ‘GIN VIP’ tent, which includes a full bar and all meals from Friday night through Sunday, it’s a good ticket to buy for sure,” he said. “Both have a direct line of sight to the Mighty Main Stage.”

The fest is now part of a lineup of events known as “Bridging the Blues,” a project of Executive Director Wesley Smith at the Greenville and Washington County CVB. It seeks to link various blues-related events in the larger cultural area that includes Delta regions of Arkansas, Mississippi and Memphis. The King Biscuit Festival of Helena and the Mighty Mississippi/Highway 61 festivals are the biggest of Smith’s Bridging the Blues roster (the entire slate may be seen at bridgingtheblues.com).

For Azar, though, the Mighty Mississippi is a one-of-akind, a standout among the area’s other happenings.

“Our roots of blues and celebration of the farmer has set us apart from the pack I feel,” he said. “With the Mississippi River

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The fest is part of a lineup of events known as “Bridging the Blues, “ linking various bluesrelated events that include Delta regions of Arkansas, Mississippi and Memphis.

The biggest event on the fall calendar is no doubt the 4th Annual Mighty Mississippi Music Festival and 17th Annual Highway 61 Blues Festival, a combined fest that takes place September 30 through October 2 on the banks of the Mississippi River at Greenville’s Warfield Point Park.

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as our backdrop, what better glorious setting than that to celebrate all our culture and history?”

The culinary scene will heat up October 13-15 when Greenville hosts a tamale cornucopia.

“The Delta Hot Tamale Festival originated as a result of a study conducted by Southern Foodways Alliance which stated that Greenville has more hot tamale restaurants and food stations than any other city in Mississippi,” said Daniel Boggs, chief executive officer for the Greater Greenville Development Foundation/Main Street Greenville.

It’s a fest appropriate for a region noted for tamale culture. In fact, Greenville’s tamale eats are included on the Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale Trail, which Boggs said is “a project of the Southern Foodways Alliance and Viking Corporation” which “notes the history of the hot tamale through a documented oral history archived on its website, Tamaletrail.com.”

In addition to tamales, the fest will offer appearances by various chefs and authors and a musical lineup with a yet-to-be-announced

headliner. There are tamale cooking and eating contests, craft vendors and more.

Boggs said attendance has doubled every year for the past four years, and 20,000 are expected to attend in 2016.

“The Delta Hot Tamale Festival embodies everything that is great about Mississippi,” Boggs said, adding that the family-friendly three-day event “will highlight, promote and celebrate regional artists, musicians, authors and Southern food vendors.”

Last but not least, the sixth annual Leland Frogfest will round out the fall fest season on October 22.

“The festival features a chili cook-off, kids’ art activities, train rides, arts and crafts vendors and live music,” said Melia Christensen of the Leland Chamber of Commerce. “We’re really focused on creating a great experience for the whole family, and all our kids activities are free.”

With so much to do, there’s no reason to not be out and about during a Washington County fall. L

The 39th Annual Mississippi Delta Blues & Heritage Festival is slated for September 17. It is hailed as the largest blues fest in The Delta and the oldest in the United States.

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STORY FROM GREENVILLE, MISS.

Ghosts on the Mississippi

Finding history in the Heart and Soul of The Delta Story and photographs by Bill Steber

A

lthough it’s barely 9 a.m., the air hangs thick and oppressive like a mourning shroud over the old Greenville cemetery as a long black hearse pulls slowly along one of the cemetery’s concentric circle roads.

It comes to rest in a shady spot beneath an enormous, ancient magnolia tree in the old section, but there is no funeral today.

This hearse is actually a portable darkroom for wet plate collodion photography, the dominant form of photography from 1851 to the mid

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1880s, the same era in which the cemetery was founded.

Greenville artist Euphus Ruth, known to longtime friends as “Butch,” steps out of the hearse and sets up his 11x14 Kodak view camera on an old wooden tripod. He pulls the dark cloth over his head and moves the bellows to focus an 1890 Darlot lens on the magisterial monument known as “the Patriot,” a life-size bronze statue of a medieval knight that marks the final resting place of Greenville’s royal family, the Percys.

COVER STORY

OPPOSITE: Moon Lake Baptism by Euphus Ruth. ABOVE: Ruth prefers the lengthy and time-consuming process of wet plate collodian photography because, unlike digital, it allows him to be part of the creation itself. The effort to make a single photograph takes upwards of an hour to complete.

Ruth opens the side door of his black hearse, and from a wooden box holding plates, pulls out an 11x14 piece of clear glass. With his left hand he pours out collodion from a small bottle. The acrid smell rises, flaring the nostrils. The collodion, a mixture of ether, gun cotton and salts, floods the plate, flowing thick and brown over the surface, and like the spring floods that once regularly flowed over this part of the Mississippi Delta, the surface receives the salts, enriching it, preparing it to produce something magnificent and beautiful.

After immersion in a bath of silver nitrate in a darkbox, Ruth places a wooden holder containing the sensitized plate on the back of the camera, takes out the dark slide, removes the lens cap and begins the exposure count. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi.

Despite the sunny day, the exposure takes 30 seconds. Ruth takes the plate back to the hearse, disappears under the cloth of the portable darkbox, and pours developer over the plate, watching the image slowly emerge, milky-gray and blueish, under the illumination of a dim red headlamp.

He emerges into bright sun once again with the developed plate carefully balanced in a tray of water, and replaces the water with a weak solution of cyanide. The image is then magically transformed from negative to positive as the unused silver is stripped away. But this is not the end of the work. Next comes more washing, drying, varnishing, and eventually, an albumen contact print of the image in a process that is itself as long and laborious as the creation of the collodion negative.

The effort to make a single photograph takes upwards of an hour to complete. This is photography on 19th century time.

“It’s the process,” says Ruth. “It’s feeling like you’re part of the process instead of it being given to you. To me, with digital, I feel like it’s given to you. Wet plate collodion photography lets me make the photograph look like what my mind’s eye sees when I’m thinking about it.

“When I’m looking through the ground glass I’m seeing everything and knowing what I want, which isn’t what reality actually is. But it’s also what I see in my mind from what I’ve read, from what I feel, from what I think, from what I would like to think. And this process lets me show that on the plate, where I couldn’t do that with film.

“I think there’s something we feel about land and process as Southerners that maybe not the rest of the country feels. I’m biased that way. I’ve always felt that. Sally Mann said that Southern artists ‘Experiment with dosages of romance that would be fatal to most 20th century artists.’ If you grew up in the South from a baby, you get it.”

Ruth’s journey from power plant worker and Harley Davidson motorcyclist to respected Delta artist is as meandering and circuitous as the river that defines the state’s western edge and gives the land its name.

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County. His fascination with photography began with a box of family photos his mother kept under the sofa which he often studied.

“Mother bought my sister and me a Polaroid swinger camera from the early ‘70s, and we always had some Kodak Instamatic camera or something, so I always was making snapshots,” recalls Ruth.

Ruth moved to Greenville in 1980, getting a job with Mississippi Power and Light Co., married his wife Vicky, and started a family, raising two boys, Cody and Casey.

After years of photographing blues festivals with a 35mm camera and experimenting with medium format, Ruth acquired his first large format camera as a gift from Greenville commercial photographer Ed Larson, an Agfa 5x7 Ansco.

“I remember the first time looking through that camera, and I just thought ‘God.’ Looking at this ground glass, I just almost teared up and I thought ‘This is what I want to do. This is what I want to look through, this is the camera I’m supposed to have.’ That’s when it hit me.”

Ruth spent the ensuing years exploring rural Mississippi and New Orleans, photographing abandoned churches, cemeteries and the sprawling landscape with large format cameras.

“When I first moved to the Delta it seemed so boring, but the

Angel on the Road to Lawrence Deadening by Euphus Ruth.

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longer I stayed here, the more I started experiencing the land,” says Ruth. “This land is just so full of past and spirits. I feel drawn to this land. It’s like a magnetism. It’s like once you get in sync with it, the polarity is right.”

Ruth was pursuing his art on the side while working full time at the power plant when a boiler he had been working on exploded moments after he walked away from it.

“That’s when I realized that all I really wanted to do was to make good photographs, so I really needed to start working on this stuff because you could just croak tomorrow, or today. I just kind of changed my way of thinking about life.”

Ruth eventually took early retirement to pursue his art fulltime and to spend more time with family. He learned wet plate collodion photography from John Coffer, one of a handful of artists who had rescued the craft from obscurity in the 1970s, and began spending his days making tintypes and ambrotypes, particularly in cemeteries. It was perhaps a natural habitat for a man who grew up playing in a country cemetery and now drives a hearse, wears skull rings and collects artifacts, books and ephemera about traditional funerary practices. You might say that death gives life to Ruth’s art.

“I

think there’s something we feel about land and process as Southerners that maybe not

the rest of the country feels. I’m biased that way.

I’ve always felt that. Sally Mann said that Southern artists ‘Experiment with dosages of romance that would be fatal to most 20th century artists.’ If you grew up in the South from a baby, you get it.”

– Euphus “Butch” Ruth

“Death has been around me my whole life. I just grew up with it.

My family went to all the funerals, carried us children and taught us that death was a part of life. Thank God for writers and books and friends that kind of understand some of it. Cause a lot of people in America have come to where they’d like to put death away. I think now there’s a movement of bringing back that experience to the family and to everyday life like it used to be in 19th century times.”

Ruth’s home lies on the outskirts of Greenville near the river. It’s an art compound of sorts, called the “Fuzzy Moon Farm,” with a modest 1940s home and double shotgun shack next door that contains Ruth’s darkroom and gallery.

Along with his collection of antique cameras and lenses, the home is a joyous jumble of books, framed photographs, artwork, religious iconography from all over the world, found objects and grinning skeletons peering out from every surface – an atmosphere bristling with bohemian charm and creativity.

There are tintypes and framed ambrotypes everywhere, hanging on the walls, in boxes waiting to be varnished, stacked in corners awaiting exhibition. The imagery runs the gamut from beautifully decaying abandoned homes and churches, to neglected cemetery fences and tombstones to landscapes of stark winter trees, their leafless skeletal forms stretched against brooding slate-colored skies. Like a Tom Waits song, Ruth’s photos are layered with an earthy, ruined beauty that give cover to a romantic heart.

Ruth shoots with an 11 x 14 Kodak view camera on an old wooden tripod and uses a hearse as a portable darkroom to photograph images such as “The Patriot,” a life-sized bronze statue marking the final resting place of Greenville’s royal family, the Percys.

The common denominator in all this rich imagery is a bittersweet melancholy born of an embrace and celebration of the Southern Gothic – a recognition of the beauty in death, in loss, in the passage of time, in the ephemeral nature of life itself and the camera’s unique ability to arrest a moment that will soon pass into history.

Wet plate is often seen as perhaps the latest hipster fad, but the work of Ruth stands out from his peers. It is the work of an artist in tune with his environment, with the ability to recognize and tease out the ghosts of the past from the living landscape, reanimating those spirits and making them dance in the edges of our peripheral vision. L

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STORY FROM WAYSIDE, MISS.

Belmont Plantation

Nine-thousand square feet of Antebellum bliss

By MEGHAN HOLMES Photography by Marianne Todd

O

nce laden with antebellum homes and rich plantations, the Mississippi Delta these days holds on to a dwindling few.

“Too many of our landmarks have been burned, flooded or just fallen into disrepair, and I want to be able to preserve at least one,” says Joshua Cain, owner of Belmont, the sole remaining Wayside, Mississippi, antebellum home.

Driving north on Highway 1 toward Greenville, Mississippi, the Mississippi River lies just west, and to the east, neat rows of cash crops extend endlessly. A few miles south of town, Belmont sits just off the

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highway on grounds that used to extend to the river.

In 2015, Cain, a Mississippi-born, California-based interior designer purchased the property and has since begun restoring the historic structure. The plantation provides a glimpse into Greenville’s beginnings and the lives lived along the river since the mid-19th century.

It’s difficult to imagine the changes the Delta’s landscape has seen in the last 150 years. When construction on Belmont began, Washington County represented a small area of development in an otherwise densely forested nexus of rivers, swamps and streams.

Belmont Plantation provides a glimpse into Greenville’s beginnings and the lives lived along the river since the mid-19th century. Today, the home serves as a historical tour site and as event space for weddings, banquets and the occasional (well-behaved) hunting party.

Greenville became the county seat after the previous two, New Mexico and Princeton, caved into the Mississippi River.

Transplants from Kentucky and South Carolina settled and began farming on both sides of the river, looking for slaves with skills like brick-making and construction to build their plantations. One of these men, William Worthington, began constructing Belmont in 1855. His three brothers also each built at least one plantation in the area, farming thousands of acres with hundreds of slaves.

“The Delta had more than 50 antebellum homes prior to the Civil War and now only a handful remain,” says Cain.

Cain grew up in Brandon, Mississippi, always attracted to antebellum architecture and Southern history. Work took him out of the Delta, but he never stopped wanting to come back and find an antebellum home to restore and call his own. His first choice was Mount Holly, an Italianate mansion owned by author Shelby Foote’s ancestors and memorialized in his 1949 novel “Tournament.” An absentee owner allowed the home to fall into disrepair, and it burned to the ground mysteriously in 2015 before the two men could agree on a price.

“I feel guilty that I wasn’t able to save that space, but it was ultimately a good thing for Belmont, because I had to keep looking,” says Cain. “I first saw the home in the middle of the winter, it was 9 degrees and the pipes had burst. I knew the restoration process was going to be so much work, and that I wanted to do it.”

Before Cain purchased the property a New Orleans lawyer, Fernando Cuquet, restored the plantation in the 1990s along with his wife, but as they aged they left the area, and the home quickly deteriorated. “The pipes had frozen and burst over the course of READLEGENDS.COM •

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several winters. In the spring water from the pipes flooded the house. cousin turned into a hunting camp.”

There were snakes, raccoons and possums. The Delta was taking over

Cain works with Sandra Stillman, another distant cousin, who Belmont,” says Cain. oversees Belmont’s day to day operations and gives tours of the home.

This wasn’t the first time Belmont lost its glory. The heirs of She admires Cain’s dedication to faithfully restoring Belmont, a place the Worthington family sold the plantation to Mississippi governor she grew up admiring from afar. “When I was a kid and we drove past Dennis Murphree during the Great Depression, and he turned it Belmont, the gates were always closed and locked. I always dreamed into a hunting camp. By the 1930s many of the area’s antebellum of going inside; it seemed so romantic, but it was a private hunting homes were already gone. Isaac club and no one else had access.

Worthington’s plantation, Leota, Now people can come here,” says he pipes had frozen and burst over the collapsed into the Mississippi Stillman.

River in the late 19th century and The plantation now serves course of several winters. In the spring, brother Samuel Worthington’s as an event space, hosting water from the pipes flooded the house.

There home, Wayside, was demolished weddings and banquets, as well during construction of new levees were snakes, raccoons and possums. The Delta was as the occasional (well-behaved) following the 1927 flood. hunting party. Beautiful interiors taking over Belmont.”

The home remained a throughout the space showcase hunting camp until sold to the a combination of authentic – Joshua Cain Cuquets in the 1990s, but during antebellum furniture with that time suffered neglect at the a vibrant and contemporary hands of hunters and sportsmen. Elegant rooms became bunk houses color palette that brings the home to life. It feels opulent, with full of muddy clothing, bloody boots and booze. “They converted one almost impossibly high ceilings and chandeliers and thick, detailed of the back rooms into a drinking room to try to keep from further mouldings. Cain is returning the home to its original floor plan, with a damaging the parlors, but the plaster was still crumbling from the music room as well as parlors for both ladies and gentleman. walls and ceiling medallions,” says Cain. “Ironically, Dennis Murphree The plantation’s Greek revival design strongly resembles another is a cousin of mine, so I’m trying to repair an antebellum home my antebellum home across the river – Lakeport, which was restored

“T

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Beautiful interiors throughout the space showcase a combination of authentic antebellum furniture with a vibrant and contemporary color palette that brings the home to life.

by Arkansas State University. Blake Wintory, Director of Lakeport Museum, says “evidence strongly suggests the same carpenters from Indiana constructed Belmont and Lakeport, as well as Leota and several other area plantations.”

Wintory and Cain often compare notes on features the two homes share – including servants’ bells, nearly identical entryway ceiling medallions, and double galleried, three-bay projecting porticos.

“We’ve had to rebuild our smokehouse but Belmont still has their original - although it’s in pretty bad shape,” says Wintory. There’s always something that needs repair in two of the oldest buildings along the Mississippi River.”

“I want Belmont to be available to the community, to anyone that’s interested in it,” says Cain. “This home should be able to last as long as it can. It’s the last true, opulent, antebellum mansion that stands on this side of the river. I think that’s important.” He’s not alone in that opinion. Belmont is a window into Greenville’s antebellum history, as well as its transition into the city it is today.

Want to go?

To book a tour at Belmont, 3498 Highway 1 South, Wayside, Miss., phone (662) 347-2782. For more information, visit belmontplantation1857.com.

Belmont feels opulent, with almost impossibly high ceilings and chandeliers and thick, detailed mouldings.

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STORY FROM GREENVILLE, MISS.

the

MELTING POT of Delta History

By KARA MARTINEZ BACHMAN Photography by Rory Doyle

W

ell before the blues were plucked and strummed out on Greenville’s Nelson Street and the whimsy of Kermit the Frog indelibly impacted American culture, people lived, worked, sang, cried, created and built in the Delta.

As with most places, people have always left something behind for others to find and enjoy, and a trip to Washington County is a visit to witness those scratches on history that essentially said: “I was here.”

Hundreds of years before the blues created plaintive songs and the enslaved built plantations, people impressed their signature expressions in clay, shell and earthworks.

In Washington County, visitors can see and interpret those ancient messages of history when visiting Greenville’s Winterville Mounds.

Mark Howell has given tours of the mounds for a decade, along with a few others who work at the site, including archaeologist Ed Jackson.

With a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology – in layman’s terms, musical anthropology – Howell is passionate about the past and has extensive knowledge of the Native Americans who built these ceremonial mounds and inhabited the city for several hundred years after, sometime during the Mississippian Period, between 1200 and 1250 A.D. It is believed the Winterville site began several thousand years before as a hunting and gathering camp but reached its cultural zenith with the construction of 23 mounds suspected to be influenced by similar structures found at the legendary Cahokia site near St. Louis, Missouri. Twelve of the 23 mounds remain at Winterville today.

“I like to talk about the place,” Howell said, of this National Historic Landmark. “It interests me and not because I work here.

I find it very mysterious that there was this ancient civilization that occupied this region.”

He said the mounds and museum – containing artifacts excavated on-site – would be of interest to anyone, whether they’re knowledgeable about archaeology and history or not. The site has a video and detailed text panels. Artifacts illustrate the pottery styles, projectile points used and other objects ranging from clay cooking tools, effigies and even game pieces.

“We’ve had a lot of experience talking to kids,” he said, “and if you can talk to children about Native Americans or archaeology, you can usually explain it to adults as well.”

A recent unfortunate event will allow archaeologists to, in a sense, turn lemons into lemonade.

“About two months ago, there was a big weather event in this

part of the Delta,” he said, explaining that a portion of the biggest mound, 55-foot tall Mound A, slid off. Although the soil movement has changed the nature of the mound, the disruption does provide opportunity for archaeologists to sift through the soil before it is replaced on the prominent mound.

“There’s going to be some major archaeology here soon,” Howell said, who added that there may be a large team excavating and sifting to find more puzzles to the past.

Howell explained how the mounds of the Delta region represent an important point of the past. He often simplifies it for children by explaining, “When Native Americans were living in caves in New York and California, they were living in cities in the Delta.”

He said the reason for such advanced development is probably due to “the abundance of food sources and the ease of transportation” offered by the rich soil and proximity to waterways.

It’s exactly the same reasons antebellum plantations would spring up in the region some years later; the richness of the soil made it valuable real estate.

As the history of Greenville moves forward, it involves development of antebellum plantation culture; devastating fire during the siege of Vicksburg; rebuilding of the city at the highest point along the Mississippi between Vicksburg and Memphis; a yellow fever epidemic in 1877; and establishment of a cotton exchange in 1886, followed by exceptional prosperity driven by the fertile soil.

Just as with the recent damage to Winterville Mounds, it seems water might also sometimes be the Delta’s Achilles heel.

In 1927, the levee eight miles from Greenville broke, bringing a flush of water 10-feet deep into the Delta, flooding it for a full three

months and causing massive homelessness. It is today considered one of the worst natural disasters in American history, and its story is told in The Flood of 1927 Museum, housed in the oldest structure standing in downtown Greenville.

Greenville native Benji Nelkin is a moving and shaping force in the re-telling of local culture – from the Flood of 1927 Museum to being curator of the Greenville History Museum and a presenter of Jewish immigrant history in the Century of History Museum at the Hebrew Union Temple.

“The Flood Museum specifically highlights the 1927 flood,” he said, stressing the museum also archives information on school integration, civil rights and other topics affecting local history.

Nelkin said the museum might be of particular interest to tourists arriving by steamboat as it presents a different portrait of the power of the romantic waterway that today transports those wanting to experience the old days of the river.

He joked that tourists learn “that river can turn around and bite you in the ass.”

“I’ve had people come in and stay five minutes, and I’ve had people come in and stay five hours,” he said, of the museum.

Nelkin suggests visitors not restrict themselves to one museum; taking in several will paint a full portrait of Delta region history.

“We’ve got five or six museums downtown,” he said. “We’ve just got lots of stuff to entertain people with and allow them to learn about the history of Greenville, Mississippi.”

The Washington County CVB boasts that in the years since the history-making flood, a variety of artists, creators and world-shapers have made their mark on not only the region, but the world. Writers such as Shelby Foote, Hodding Carter and Walker Percy have called Greenville home. Muppets creator, Jim Henson, was born and raised in Greenville. And the music – perhaps the most unforgettable product of the Delta region – allowed bluesmen such as Charlie Patton, Jimmy Reed and Sam Chatmon to make their marks on history.

Billy Johnson of the Highway 61 Blues Museum in Leland, suggests that a visit to nearby Leland alone is a visit filled with history and culture.

“Leland was the home of Finklea’s Dawn Patrol, who were aviation pioneers,” he said. “They once owned the largest fleet of privately owned aircraft in the world. A beautiful downtown mural tells their story.”

Johnson describes Leland as a “delightful walk back in time.”

“Jim Henson’s Rainbow Bridge, five Mississippi Blues Trail Markers, eight murals and the Highway 61 Blues Museum, as well as the soon-to-be-opened Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Museum and Mississippi Outdoor Hall of Fame, are all in easy walking distance of each other.”

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The Flood of 1927 Museum showcases the plight of Greenville when the levee eight miles from Greenville broke, bringing a flush of water 10 feet deep into The Delta and flooding it for three months causing massive homelessness.

As history marches on, a visit to Washington County shows that the local creative soil might still be as fertile as it ever was. L

MORE SITES IN WASHINGTON COUNTY: Jim Henson Delta Boyhood Exhibit Melia Christensen of the Leland Chamber of Commerce, said the museum is dedicated to the life and work of Kermit the Frog creator Jim Henson and is “a great travel stop for kids of all ages, from age one to 100.”

Museums in Greenville abound covering everything from Greenville history to the Hebrew Union Temple’s Century of History Museum to the Highway 61 Blues Museum and the Greenville Writers’ Exhibit.

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“Virtually everyone has some memory or connection to Henson’s work, from Sesame Street to the Muppets and lots more in-between.”

The exhibit tells the story of Henson’s life and the creativity that gave rise to memorable characters.

“The Henson Exhibit explores how Henson’s experience growing up in the rich Delta cultural environment shaped his early ideas and can be identified in his characters even today,” Christensen said. “The music, family values and connection to the land offered by life in the Delta were instrumental to his creative process. It’s fun to learn about how Henson’s childhood friends became colorful characters like Kermit and then grew up to be pillars of our community.”

Christensen said the exhibit was gifted to Leland by Henson’s family.

“We hope Henson’s work can continue to teach and inspire our community,” she said, “and that our community can continue to teach and inspire the next generation’s creative geniuses and cultural icons.”

The Highway 61 Blues Museum “There are 250 internationally-known blues musicians from the Mississippi Delta, and more than 50 of those have lived in the Leland area,” said Billy Johnson of the Highway 61 Blues Museum.

“This museum tells the story of Highway 61, the blues highway, as well as old Mississippi Highway 10, the forgotten Blues Highway. B.B. King, Jimmy Reed and Albert King were all born on this highway.

Charley Patton, Willie Foster, Son Thomas, Lil Bill Wallace and Willie Nix are buried along it.

“The Delta musicians that played in the bands of B.B. King, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf are enough for a whole museum just to tell their stories and that of their collective body of work.”

Greenville History Museum Tie together various eras of Greenville History with a visit to the Greenville History Museum, where memorabilia, artifacts, newspaper clippings and photographs present the history of the city from the late 1800s to the 1970s.

Hebrew Union Temple’s Century of History Museum Learn about other marks made on local history by visiting the exhibit illustrating early history of Jewish immigrants in the region.

The small Century of History Museum in the Temple’s library relays this history in a unique way, by presenting a “historical narrative,” a storyline of the Jewish families who settled in the area long ago and still inhabit and impact it today.

Armitage Herschell Carousel Located in the Delta Children’s Museum Pavilion of the E.E. Bass Cultural Arts Center, children can feel as if they have gone back in time when riding a happy white steed of this historic circa 1901 carousel. Beloved by children of Greenville for decades, rides on the refurbished carousel hearken back to days of old.

Greenville Writers’ Exhibit Many literary giants left marks on the Delta and the world.

According to the Greenville and Washington County CVB, Greenville “has shaped more writers than any town of its size in this country,” with more than 100 published writers hailing from the city during the 20th century. The exhibit, located in the William Alexander Percy Memorial Library, includes original manuscripts and other related documents.

ABOVE: This circa 1901 refurbished carousel is located in the Delta Children’s Museum Pavilion of the E.E. Bass Cultural Arts Center and has been a beloved attraction by the children of Greenville for decades. RIGHT: A Kermit the Frog exhibit pays homage to creator Jim Henson, delighting children of all ages, in Leland, Mississippi.

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y r a n i l u c s d a o r s cros

Just as two highways here meld into a rich blues culture, so do varied geographic and cultural backgrounds come together to create some of the most authentic food you’ll find anywhere. Check out a Mennonite bakery, Lebanese and Italian restaurants, tamale and barbecue diners, farm-to-table cafes, an artisan ice cream shop, and soul food in juke joints and clubs. You can drool over descriptions all day long, but you have to come taste in person.

We’re saving a seat at the table for you.

662.627.6149 • visitclarksdale.com

STORY FROM GREENVILLE AND LELAND, MISS.

Dining Delta in The

From Creole to Italian, African American to Mexican

B Doe’s Eat Place is known best for its steaks which have been passed down from generation to generation. The menu features several nods to the family’s Italian ancestry, including homemade spaghetti and meatballs with garlic toast.

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By MEGHAN HOLMES Photography by Rory Doyle and Marianne Todd

aby Doe Signa was on his way to work the dinner shift at Doe’s Eat Place in Greenville with his 11-year-old son in the passenger seat beside him. He had ask to go in and help his dad cook that night. “I’m third generation,” Baby Doe explained. “Before me there was Little Doe and before him Big Doe. He started the restaurant out of a honky tonk in 1941.”

Before Doe’s was a restaurant, lauded in the New York Times and by the James Beard Foundation (with an American Classic Award in 2007), Dominick “Doe” Signa and his wife Mamie ran a “blacks-only honky tonk” in

Doe’s grew from a blacks-only honky tonk in 1941. Today, the restaurant is crowded on most nights with diners who enjoy everything from steaks to tamales.

the front of a building while the family lived in the back. For his front of the house clientele, Big Doe prepared buffalo fish and chili, while in the back the town’s doctors and lawyers sat at the family’s table and ate steak.

Eventually his back door patrons convinced Big Doe to close the honky tonk and run his eat place full time.

Like many of the Delta’s best restaurants, Doe’s makes delicious tamales. Greenville residents grow up taking them to go and eating them on the levee. “My grandmother took parts of several different recipes and added her own ideas and made our tamale recipe in the late ‘30s,” says Baby Doe. “People love the chili and cheese on our tamales.”

Doe’s also continues to be known for its steaks, which Baby Doe learned to prepare from his father. Aunt Florence makes the salads and has since the 1950s. “She would say the secret is a whole lot of love,” Baby Doe laughs, “but it’s really a simple recipe. The dressing is just lemon, fresh garlic and olive oil.”

The menu features several nods to the family’s Italian ancestry, including homemade spaghetti and meatballs and garlic toast. “People love dipping that toast in everything. They’ll dip it in the sauce from the shrimp boil and the steak juice,” says Baby Doe.

People love the food at Doe’s, but it’s also the place it holds in the community that keep people coming back. As the restaurant celebrates its 75th anniversary, Baby Doe (along with his cousin Charles, who runs the restaurant with him) hopes that future generations will maintain their presence in Greenville. “Charles has two kids and so do I, and they keep saying that want to work here, too. If they work hard enough maybe one day they will,” Baby Doe says.

In nearby Leland, another of the area’s best restaurant’s, Vince’s, also serves steaks, as well as a broad American menu focusing on seasonal and regional ingredients. Chef and owner Will Gault started out in Oxford, Mississippi, at Proud Larry’s, using that restaurant’s stage design as inspiration for Vince’s own, which showcases live music several nights a week.

The name pays homage to one of the building’s earlier occupants, a 24/7 diner catering to the two rail lines crossing through Leland.

“There was nonstop traffic through Vince’s Café throughout the ‘40s and ‘50s,” says Gault, “then the owner sold it to his son who converted it into a package store, which is how my parents remember it.”

Eventually the liquor store closed, and the building sat vacant READLEGENDS.COM •

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for two decades before Gault and a partner decided to turn it back into a restaurant. A year later Gault bought out the other owner and began running the restaurant on his own. “It’s a space with a unique atmosphere where you can find great live music and fine dining,” says Gault.

The menu changes seasonally, with specials showcasing wild game in the cooler months and highlighting the abundance of fresh vegetables available during Mississippi summers. “Right now I’m doing a lot of eggplant, squash, tomato and zucchini. I also get fresh seafood in a couple days a week so a lot of my dishes are based on that,” says Gault.

Menu highlights include an andouille crusted redfish, a pan seared duck breast over polenta with a balsamic port sauce, crab cakes and steak with toppings including jumbo lump crabmeat, cremini mushrooms and artichoke hearts, a crawfish cream sauce or jumbo Gulf shrimp. “We also do a taco night on Wednesdays. We like to mix it up and do things that are different,” says Gault.

Vince’s also serves several Italian dishes, including chicken Parmesan, veal cannelloni, spaghetti and meatballs and stuffed cremini mushrooms. “I like a lot of Creole Louisiana and Cajun style cooking, but I’m always being influenced by other cuisines as well,” says Gault.

The restaurant has an open mic night on Wednesdays and jazz on Sundays with Dr. Alphonso Sanders. Additional artists perform regularly, so check their Facebook page for updates. “Sometimes I’ll have

54 • AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER 2016

band four or five nights a week,” Gault says.

Just across the river from Greenville in Lake Village, residents swear by the Italian food at Regina’s Pasta Shop, where Regina and Ronnie Moyer sell prepared homemade pastas, breads and desserts. The family makes up part of a large Italian community in the area. As a result menus around Greenville (as well as the rest of the Delta) often feature classic Italian dishes.

In Greenville proper, La Sierrita Mexican restaurant is always worth a stop. The menu includes authentic Mexican tacos, featuring charred meat topped with cilantro and onion as well as tortas cubanas, a sandwich commonly sold from roadside taco trucks with seared meat and fresh vegetables.

Locals also recommend Sherman’s in downtown Greenville, serving meat-and-three plate lunches during the day and steaks, barbecue and American style classics for dinner. The restaurant opened in 1947 as a neighborhood grocery and meat market and remains a fixture in the community. It’s hard to find a parking spot at lunch.

The Greenville area offers a variety of cuisine as a result of the diverse culinary influences in the region. Immigrants brought with them foods from home, and their descendants continue to cook and serve them. Italian, Creole, African American, Mexican and innumerable other styles of cooking all coexist in the Delta, and it makes for exciting eating. L

Hummingbird September 9th-11th: 9 am to 5 pm.

General Admission $15 | Seniors $10 4 & Under FREE | Group Discounts

MIGRATION & NATURE CELEBRATION Join us for the 17th Annual Hummingbird Migration and Nature Celebration, one of the Southeast’s biggest nature festivals. Highlights include renowned guest speakers, live animal shows, kids activity zone, wagon rides, naturethemed arts & crafts vendors, native plant sale and up-close views of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds being banded and released!

Strawberry Plains Audubon Center Where Nature and History Meet

285 Plains Road • Holly Springs, MS For more information, call (662) 252-1155

OPPOSITE: Andouille encrusted redfish with vegetable orzo and a Creole beurre blanc.

CLOCKWISE: Private tables with curtains are reminiscent of 1930s Delta dining; Bacon wrapped stuffed pork chop with vegetables; Crab cakes served over a bed of corn and spring mix.

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STORY FROM VICKSBURG, MISS.

From Sea to Land to Table

Sandbar Fish House & Grill

By ADRIENNE DISON Photography by Marianne Todd

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OPPOSITE: Creole Crab Cakes featuring jumbo lump crab with New Orleans white Remoulade. CLOCKWISE: Executive Chef James Palen has studied under renowned chefs Johnny Hernandez and John Folse; Crab and Shrimp Alfredo featuring Blue crab and Gulf shrimp sautéed and blended in a creamy Alfredo sauce over angel hair pasta; Palen’s signature Amaretto Deglazed Trout Amandine; Double Chocolate cheesecake made with a duo of white and milk chocolate in a graham cracker crust.

T

here’s a new chef in town, and he’s smokin’.

James Palen, the executive chef of the Sandbar Fish House & Grill located inside the newly-renovated WaterView Casino & Hotel, has joined the ranks of the newest restaurant in Vicksburg.

Hailing from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the 26-year-old is a graduate of San Antonio’s Culinary Institute of America, but

guests shouldn’t judge him by his youthfulness. Having worked for culinary legends like Johnny Hernandez and John Folse in Baton Rouge, Palen knows his way around the kitchen. And he knows the stories behind each of his signature dishes.

“I’ve been doing this since I was 16, but the highlight of my career so far has been working with Folse. We shot 48 TV episodes, doing eight shows a day, feeding people like Hillary Clinton, READLEGENDS.COM •

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Condoleezza Rice and even Dick Cheney at his duck hunting camp,” he said.

Under Folse’s tutelage, Palen learned the traditional roots of Cajun cooking. “He [Folse] doesn’t just cook something. There’s always a story behind it and a reason for everything that goes into it.

It’s about the basic ways and the history behind the seven nations of the Creole,” Palen said.

After the release of Folse’s latest cookbook, the “Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine,” Palen in February moved to Vicksburg.

Brand new on the Vicksburg scene, he is working hard to learn the area and understand the market. In creating weekly specials – like grilled salmon with citrus glaze and bacon tomato rice – Palen likes to “push the envelope without breaking too many comfort zones.”

“I like keeping it simple, but still flavorful.” His ultimate goal is to put Mississippi on the culinary map.

Palen’s favorite dish – one he likes to both cook and eat – is his world-class Amaretto Deglazed Trout Amandine. Traditionally, Trout Amandine is fish blackened in a pan and sautéed in butter and garlic.

Palen’s version, however, is “Southern style with a little bit of jazz.”

“Here, we take a fresh trout and coat it with blackening seasoning, dust it in flour, sear it and then transfer it to a pan where we top it with a crab cake mixture and put it under the broiler. While that’s going, we take butter, almonds and garlic, which we sauté and deglaze with Amaretto – for a little sweetness – and pour it on top of the fish.”

The result? Sweet and savory. “You get the taste of the fish, plus the aroma of the garlic and the toasted nuts,” Palen said.

Other popular dishes on the Sandbar menu include Creole Crab Cakes, featuring jumbo lump crab with New Orleans white Remoulade, Crab and Shrimp Alfredo, and South Coast Gumbo, a famous Creole soup of shrimp, crawfish, crab, oysters and smoked Andouille sausage made with a dark brown roux. Fried green tomatoes are served with Texas petal sauce or topped with crabmeat cream sauce. From the garden, the WaterView house salad features seasonal mixed greens with red and yellow pear tomatoes, a duo of roasted beets, cucumbers and red onions tossed in Cane Syrup Vinaigrette.

Once a well-known steakhouse, the Sandbar – which re-opened its doors May 26th – still boasts “the best ribeye in town.” The dry aged prime beef steak “dropped” from a Cowboy Cut Chicago ribeye is the best cut of meat, according to Palen. “When they cut the Cowboy chops with the big bones, there’s a 12-ounce section in between that doesn’t have the full fat cap on the outside. It falls out, so they call it a drop.”

Desserts include crème brulée, a decadent double chocolate cheesecake, tiramisu and New Orleans white chocolate bread pudding, a light and airy warm bread pudding made from house batard bread soaked in a creme anglaise, baked with white chocolate chips and

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Crawfish chili fries, featuring spicy crawfish chili and pimento cheese sauce served over Cajun fries, pair well with a Yuengling traditional lager in a frosty chilled glass.

“I

’ve been doing this since I was 16, but the highlight of my career so far has been

working with Folse. We shot 48 TV episodes, doing eight shows a day, feeding people like Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice and even Dick Cheney at his duck hunting camp.”

– Chef James Palen

With a fresh new décor of soothing ocean-like blues and marine life artifacts, the restaurant seats 93 and features the works of Mississippi artists like H.C. Porter and Walter Anderson.

Adorning the walls are abstract oil paintings by local florist and artist Geni Fulcher.

served with Shirley’s whiskey sauce and white chocolate ganache.

With a fresh new décor of soothing ocean-like blues and marine life artifacts, the restaurant seats 93 and features the works of Mississippi artists like H.C. Porter and Walter Anderson. Adorning the walls are abstract oil paintings by local florist and artist Geni Fulcher.

The dining area features an expansive view of the open kitchen, where guests can watch as their meals are prepared.

Signature cocktails created by manager Candace Werginz include the Sandbar Sunrise, the Muddy River Mudslide and Mississippi Iced Tea, a twist on the classic Long Island Iced Tea.

Palen’s hope is to build the Sandbar Fish House & Grill into a premier dining experience.

“My vision is that not only WaterView, but even the Sandbar, will

become its own destination. So you think, ‘I really want to go eat at this place,’ then you realize there’s a casino here, too,” he said. L

Want to go?

Serving dinner only, Sandbar Fish House & Grill is open Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m. Happy hour is from 5 to 7 p.m., featuring half priced drinks and appetizers.

The restaurant is located in the WaterView Casino & Hotel, 3990 Washington St. For more information, phone (601) 636-5700 or visit waterviewcasino.com/dining.

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3

t 1s

Anniversa

ry

Q NATION’S FOREMOST

BLUES

MUSIC SHOWCASE

Thursday REBA RUSSELL, ERIC GALES, STERLING BILLINGSLEY, JOHNNY SANSONE, HEAVY SUGA & THE SWEETONES,

OCTOBER 5-8, 2016 Helena, Arkansas

SONNY LANDRETH WITH SPECIAL GUEST ROY ROGERS

Friday HENRY 'GIP' GIBSON, ROBERT FINLEY, WAMPUS CATS, SPOONFED BLUES FT. MISSISSIPPI SPOONMAN, MIKE ZITO, CASH MCCALL BAND, LONNIE SHIELDS BAND, MIKE WHEELER, LINSEY ALEXANDER BAND, REBIRTH BRASS BAND, ANSON FUNDERBURGH, C.W. GATLIN BAND, CARSON DIERSING BAND, KENNY NEAL, KATY GUILLEN & THE GIRLS, D.R. DIAMOND & BIRTHRIGHT BLUES PROJECT

JOHN MAYALL

Saturday DALLAS ALICE, PHILLIP STACKHOUSE BAND, SEAN "BAD" APPLE, SAM FRAZIER & ALBERT WHITE, MARK "MULEMAN" MASSEY, KEVIN NAQUIN, ROBERT LEE "LIL POOCHIE" WATSON & HEZEKIAH EARLY, MAC ARNOLD & PLATE FULL O' BLUES, BEVERLY "GUITAR" WATKINS, CHARLES WILSON BAND, PETERSON BROTHERS, BLIND MISSISSIPPI MORRIS, KENNY SMITH WITH BOB MARGOLIN & BOB STROGER, ANDY T. & NICK NIXON, TORONZO CANNON, DYLAN DOYLE BAND, MARCUS "MOOKIE" CARTWRIGHT,

LOGO:

CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE

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KINGBISCUITFESTIVAL.COM / 870.572.5223 COLORS:

60 • AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER 2016

Red

Black

White

st

Anniversa

ry

STORY FROM HELENA, ARK.

LEGENDS is a proud sponsor

Y’all come on down for some seriously unforgettable, soul-searching music

T

he granddaddy of blues festivals, the King Biscuit Blues Festival, opens its classic lineup this year on Oct. 5. Scheduled to run through the 8th in historic Helena, Ark., the Biscuit this year will feature headliners Sonny Landreth with special guest Roy Rogers, John Mayall and Charlie Musselwhite – along with all of the regional favorites. And on Friday you won’t want to miss the Rebirth Brass Band and longtime favorite Anson Funderburgh.

Now it its 29th year, the Biscuit is considered one of the foremost showcases of blues music in the nation. Steeped in historic culture, many of the artists remember when the Biscuit got its start on KFFA, the Helena radio show that paid tribute to the emerging – and mostly penniless – musicians. Most played for a few bucks and all the whiskey they could drink. Now those artists come back to the banks of the Mississippi each year in celebration of this river town’s musical roots.

The staff of LEGENDS cordially invites you to take part in this national event encompassing five stages of entertainment.

We promise, it’ll be an experience you won’t soon forget.

Want to know more?

Visit the Biscuit at www.kingbiscuitfestival.com

The King Biscuit Blues Festival this year features as its headliners Charlie Musselwhite, top, and Sonny Landreth, right, with special guests Roy Rogers and the talented John Mayall.

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STORY FROM ROLLING FORK, MISS.

The Great Delta Bear Affair

O

ne hundred years after President Theodore Roosevelt gave the teddy bear its namesake, this Rolling Fork festival was created to pay homage to the famous Sharkey County, Mississippi, bear hunt.

The story goes that in 1902, after three days of hunting at the invitation of Mississippi Gov. Andrew H. Longino, the entire party had spotted bears, but not Roosevelt.

So that he would return to Washington with a great bear story, the hunting party’s guides tracked down an old black bear and tied it to a willow tree. But upon seeing the poor creature tied, injured and suffering, Roosevelt refused to shoot it. When word hit newspapers across the country, cartoonist Clifford Berryman picked up the story and drew a cartoon depicting the president and bear. It landed in the pages of The Washington Post and became an overnight sensation.

When Brooklyn, New York, candy shop owner Morris Michtom

62 • AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER 2016

saw the cartoon, he placed two stuffed homemade toy bears in his store window and asked the president’s permission to call them Teddy Bears. Before long, the Teddy Bear’s popularity was so great, Michtom was asked to mass produce the bears.

These days, guests to The Great Delta Bear Affair in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, enjoy live music, tours of nearby archaeological sites, seminars, chain saw wood carving demonstrations, arts and crafts, a Teddy Roosevelt impersonation and food.

Held on the Courthouse Square each fall, this year’s festival is slated for October 22. This year’s main stage headliners are the Paul Thorn Band, Jarekus Singleton and The Grayhounds.

Want to go?

For more information, visit greatdeltabearaffair.org.

The Great Delta Bear Affair is a Rolling Fork, Mississippi, festival that pays homage to the great 1902 bear hunt of President Theodore Roosevelt which gave the popular Teddy Bear its name.

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WHAT’S SHAKIN’ IN THE CRADLE? •

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Bogalusa, La. Sept 23-24 .. The Bogalusa Blues & Heritage Festival featuring Marc Broussard and Tab Benoit, Cassidy Park. For more information, visit BogalusaBlues.com.

Greenville, Miss.

Sept 17 .. The 39th Annual Delta Blues & Heritage Festival. Begun in 1977, the festival is now the largest blues festival in the Delta and the oldest in the United States. Always held on the 3rd Saturday in September, the Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival features blues artists from near and far. For more information, visit visitgreenville.org.

Sept 30-Oct 2 .. The 4th Annual Mighty Mississippi Music Festival and the 17th Annual Highway 61 Blues Festival, held on the banks of the Mississippi River in Warfield Park. For more information, visit bridgingtheblues.com.

Grenada, Miss.

Sept 17 .. Downtown Jubilee featuring live music, arts and crafts, and antique car show and children’s activities, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit visitgrenadams.com.

Jackson, Miss.

Aug 19-20 .. The Jackson Rhythm and Blues Festival featuring Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, T-Pain, Jagged Edge and more, Jackson Convention Complex. Over 30 performances on five stages. Get tickets at Ticketmaster. For more information, visit jacksonfestival.com.

Mandeville, La. Sept 9 and 23 .. Dew Drop Jazz Hall Fall Concerts with Willie Sugarcapps on Sept. 9 and Gospel Night with Mandeville’s First Free Mission Choir on Sept 23. $10 at the door of this historic music hall. For more information, visit LouisianaNorthshore.com.

Meridian, Miss.

Sept 8 .. Vince Gill, MSU Riley Center, 7:30 p.m. Ticket prices are $80 and $74. For more information, visit msurileycenter.com.

Sept 30 .. FAME, the Musical, MSU Riley Center, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $46 and $40. For more information, visit msurileycenter.com.

Morgan City, La. Sept 2-5 .. The Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival, four day extravaganza of family entertainment, including live music by local and national acts, arts and crafts show and sale, Children’s Village, the Cajun Culinary Classic and the Blessing of the Fleet and water parade. No gate fee. For more information, visit cajuncoast.com.

Natchez, Miss Aug 3 ... Natchez’ 300th Birthday Celebration, a night to remember at multiple venues around town. Come celebrate Natchez’ Tricentennial with tours, food, music and romance on the river! For more information, visit visitnatchez.org.

Sept 23-Oct 10 .. Natchez Fall Pilgrimage with historic tours of private antebellum homes. Enjoy dinner in an antebellum home, historic carriage rides, visit historic churches, take a pontoon boat ride along the river and attend a concert. For more information, visit natchezpilgrimage.com.