Clarksdale, Mississippi: Cultural Escape Featuring the Blues and More
Explore Clarksdale, Mississippi and discover the history of the Blues. Visit the Crossroads, Hopson Plantation, Ground Zero Blues Club and The Tennessee Williams Park.
Michael Burks at Hopson Plantation
Blues Veteran Michael Burks performs at the Annual Homecoming for Pinetop Perkins at Hopson Plantation in Clarksdale, MS
Longwood Plantation Natchez Ms
Longwood Plantation, Natchez, Mississippi
Jacob Eddins at Ground Zero, Clarksdale
We (MeMe and Pop) took Jake to Clarksdale, Ms. to Ground Zero..This is a Blues Club and Restaurant in the Home where The Blues began. He was only 13 yrs old at the time and really hadn't been playing the guitar but a year and never introduced to The Blues. We went on Thursday night April 1, 2009 which was Jam Night. We ate and put Jake's name on the playing list. Until he got on the stage and jammed with Stan and The Hambones I didn't know how good he was and how much he had improved. If you look close at Stan he too was surprised that this young man was so good. He was then introduced to the Blues.Since that time he has played with numerous bands and events.Everyone loves to hear him play. He has met a lot of musicians that enjoy his playing and enjoy playing with him..I know one day he will make a name for himself. Pop and I are so proud of him and naturally feel good that we introduced him to The Blues. May Jake always remember King Jesus and it is He that gave him the Talent.We love you Jacob Doc.Me Me and Pop
Make it alright - Shot in the delta outside of Clarksdale Mississippi
I shot this video at the Hopson plantation in September 2009. It was an incredible performance at Pine Top Perkins birthday bash.
Bryan Van Vlymen - John Gammon - Steve Kolbus
Bryant Grocery Store Tour in Money Mississippi with the Freedom Riders May 2011
This is a tour of the outside of Bryant Grocery Store in Money Mississippi where Emmit Til had come and afterwards he was later killed for claiming to have whistle at a White Woman.
Michael Burks live at the invitation jam at Hopson Plantation Mississippi
From Pinetop's Homecoming Festival at Hopson Plantation, near Claksdale MS.
Sun 11 Oct 2009
Pack Your Bags for a Stay at This Unique Inn: Shack Up Inn (Clarksdale, Mississippi)
Bill Talbot started Shack Up Inn with the intention to kick back and enjoy some of the best blues music in Mississippi. Little did he know, Shack Up Inn would be a hotspot for people all over the world. Aerial stops in for a look back in time and to see what makes this place so special.
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Tennessee Valley Uncharted is a show following Erick Baker and Aerial Nicole as they experience activities and places you might never knew existed, from world-class outdoor adventures to the people and cultural opportunities that make the Tennessee Valley so special.
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Credits:
Host: Aerial Nicole Simmons
Executive Creative Director: Joseph Nother
Executive Producer: Taylor Walters
Director of Photography: Edy Recendez
Producers: Kristin Majni, Adam Wigren, Emily Bullen
Writers: Taylor Walters
Camera Op: Matt Caldwell
Sound: Joe Fioravanti
Post Production Supervisor: Michael Cummins
Editor: Jordan Peltz
Sound Editor: Mike Dearing
Special Thanks To:
Quitman Middle School
Vicki Valentine
Shack Up Inn
Deep Blues Festival
Robert Birdsong
Ground Zero Blues Club
Ground Zero Blues Club Apartment
Deak’s Mississippi Saxophone & Blues Emporium
Coahoma County Tourism
NPALL Audio
Additional Thanks To:
Auralation Music
CaptionLink
Tennessee Valley Uncharted is a co-production by Designsensory, PopFizz, and Tennessee Valley Authority.
Clarksdale Ms January Snow
Rare but pretty snow in the deep south!
Focused on Mississippi: Prospect Hill Plantation
More than a hundred years of history just waiting to be told
DOCKERY PLANTATION -Birthplace of MS DELTA BLUES
DOCKERY PLANTATION ((BIRTHPLACE of DELTA BLUES))
By: RSKKZ/ Randy Meadows
The music that was created, at least in part, by Dockery farm workers a century ago continues to influence popular culture to this day. It was a welcome diversion from their hard lives and a form of personal expression that spoke of woes and joys alike in a musical language all its own. Will Dockery, the son of a Confederate general that died at the battle of Bull Run, founded the plantation. Young Will Dockery had graduated from the University of Mississippi and in 1885, with a gift of $1,000 from his grandmother, purchased forest and swampland in the Mississippi Delta near the Yazoo and Sunflower Rivers. Recognizing the richness of the soil, he cleared the woods and drained the swamps opening the land for cotton. Word went out for workers and before long African-American families began to flock to Dockery Farms in search of work in the fields and, as tenant farmers (sharecroppers,) they cultivated cotton on the rich farmland. Throughout the South, large landowners opened their fields to sharecroppers who would lease plots of land to tend themselves. In return they had to share part of their harvested crops as rent for the use of the land. Contracts for sharecroppers were often harsh and many lived on the verge of starvation. Will Dockery had earned a good reputation for treating his African-American workers and sharecroppers fairly and thus attracted ambitious workers from throughout the South.
The Dockery plantation by its peak in the mid 1930s consisted of 18,000 acres and extended over 28 square miles of rich fertile lowland along the Sunflower River. Will Dockery managed the land until the 1930s when his son, Joe Rice Dockery, took over and maintained the plantation through the Great Depression until his death in 1982. His widow, Keith Dockery McLean then ran the farm, which diversified to produce corn, rice and soybeans. In 1994, she turned the farm over to hired managers. It was Ms. McLean that realized that Dockery Farms was a hotbed of the blues and later in her life came to take pride in the farm's significance as a source of this music. Since her death in 2006, her daughters and grandchildren have owned Dockery and have established a foundation in hopes of funding research into its extensive historic archives of the Delta Blues.
In the early 20th century, Dockery Farms was nearly self-sufficient, more so than its neighboring plantations. It had its own currency and general store, a physician, a railroad depot, a dairy, a seed house, cotton gin, sawmill, and three churches. There was also a school for the 1,000 to 3,000 men, women, and children who worked during the farm's busiest times as either day laborers or as sharecroppers. Farm workers often sang while working the fields and their music became their basic entertainment. The music from the fields and cabins of the farms in the Mississippi Delta became famous as the blues. African-American men, accompanying themselves on guitars, banjos, harmonicas, quills and jugs, would sing versions of popular songs and variations of field hollers as they planted, weeded, and picked cotton. The first reported sighting of the blues, however, was recorded in 1903 at the Tutwiler railroad depot near Dockery. Here, composer W. C. Handy noticed a lean, loose-jointed Negro playing a guitar and pressing the flat of a knife blade against the strings down its neck. The player created a bluesy effect while singing going where the southern cross' the dog, a reference to a locally famous juncture of train lines. In 1900, Bill and Annie Patton and their 12 children took up residence at Dockery Farms. Their nine-yearold, Charlie, took to following guitarist Henry Sloan to his performances at picnics, fish-fries, and social gatherings at boarding houses where the day laborers lived. By 1910, Patton was himself a professional musician, playing songs such as his own Pony Blues, often with fellow guitarist Willie Brown. Within the next five years Patton had come to influence Tommy Johnson, considered one of the best ragtime-blues guitarists of the day, who had traveled to Dockery. He had also joined the Chatmon brothers who recorded using the name the Mississippi Sheiks at their musical jobs throughout the area. Even though there were no juke joints on the farm, Charlie Patton and other bluesmen, drawn to Dockery by its fame, used the plantation as their base. They would travel the network of state roads around Dockery Farms to communities large enough to support audiences that loved the blues. it was Patton's live performances that inspired and influenced fans such as Robert Johnson, Bukka White, Ed Son House, Chester Burnett (also known as Howlin' Wolf), and Roebuck Pop Staples. These important artists in blues history either lived at or passed through Dockery Farms.
Mississippi Farm Meets Corn College
Meet Ford True, a farmer from Clarksdale, Miss. He attended the 2010 Corn College.
Clarksdale Scenes Friday before Juke Joint Fest 2017
Greetings from Clarksdale, Mississippi, heart of the Mississippi Delta! Juke Joint Fest 2018 is upon us and Clarksdale is hoppin’ like a jumpin’ bullfrog in Calaveras County.
Magical Madge and I have hastily thrown together a get-acquainted-with-Clarksdale video I took with an iPhone while riding around Clarksdale last year on the Friday before Juke Joint Fest 2017.
The video is accompanied by three of Chilly Billy's favorite songs recorded in Clarksdale and performed by three of our good friends, all gifted musicians. The first song, “Come in My Kitchen,” was written by Robert Johnson and performed by Sean Bad Apple at Bluesberry Café. The second is a fine rendition of Junior Kimbrough’s “Meet Me in The City” performed by Lightnin’ Malcolm at Hopson Commissary, and the third was also recorded at Hopson Commissary and performed by Clarksdale native Marshall Drew and is a mighty fine rendering of the Allman Brothers “Melissa!”
Read more about it here:
Clarksdale, Mississippi
Sunflower Blues Festival '09
Land of the Delta Blues, Clarksdale, MS
Terry Harmonica Bean at REDS in Clarksdale August 2011
Terry Harmonica Bean
Reds
Blues
Clarksdale
Mississippi
Sunflower Blues Festival
2011
Harmonica
Let The Good Times Roll
The Shack Up Inn - Delta Blues at the Crossroads
If you are looking for a cool place to stay on your Blues journey, check out the Shack Up Inn, minutes from the Crossroads on the Hopson Plantation on Highway 49. It's rustic elegance in the heart of the Mississippi Delta.
Guitar Mac.MacKnally Front Porch Blues Bash
Live Blues .Delta Cultural Center 2016
Front Porch Blues Bash
Mississippi Town Divided By Race After Deadly Hit & Run
August 6, 2012
Seasick Steve at the Juke Joint Chapel - Clarksdale MS
Seasick Steve's first show on his 2018 tour of the Southeastern U.S. was in the small town of Clarksdale MS, home of the Blues. What a fantastic way to experience Steve's music. Accompanied by a Dan Magnusson on drums, this up close and personal experience was truly amazing.
This performacne was at The Juke Joint Chapel which is a small personal venue located in what is now basically the lobby of the Shackup Inn. The building was re-purposed in the mid 1990s. Prior to its new found use, it was part of the old Hopson Plantation which had laid dormant since the early 70s.
Track List:
I don't why she love me like she do
Self Sufficient Man
Bring It On
Can You Cook
St. Louis Slim
Walkin' Man
Walkin' Blues
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Duet - 13:12
That's All
You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks
Thunderbird
WHITNEY PLANTATION --- National slave museum