We're gonna take a break from April...I don't think the blog can take it.
Besides...
I'm in The Delta this week and it always deserves some attention.
About halfway between Ruleville and Cleveland on 8 you come to Dockery Farms.
If you were looking for the beginning of the Blues...the birthplace...this is about as close as you can get. Charley Patton worked here and played his guitar.
There are speakers planted all around these buildings. You push a button and you can hear Patton and others as you walk around the grounds.
Patton's a fascinating character. He embodies all the complicated murky issues that surround the music and it's origins...race, identity, proprietorship. He was black, white, and Cherokee...he played what we'd call country music too. He weren't born in The Delta...he was born down in Hinds county between Edwards and Bolton.
BUT...everybody from Robert Johnson to John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters came to hear Charley play.
Did somebody say Muddy Waters?
Un******touchable! Makes me want to kungfu chop the desk in two.
Hopefully I'll Rolling Fork today.
And they told us tourists Memphis was the home of the Blues :)
ReplyDeleteLOVE Robert Johnson, and the ex boyfriend who introduced me too him will always have a special place in my heart from introducing me to such an amazing sound, never heard anything like him.
Now I need to check out this Charley Patton, I have missed this part of my musical education
Only 42 recordings, so unfair.
Flippin Memphis...:)
DeleteThis part of Mississippi is within Memphis's sphere of influence. When people go to the city...it's Memphis.
Memphis is only Memphis because of Mississippi musicians. That's where they stopped first heading north and where a lot of them were recorded.
I like Johnson but Delta blues isn't my favorite and I actually prefer Elmore James's take on his sound and what he did with it...but, Johnson is a legend.
Talking of the Blues, and stop me if you've heard this one, get yrself to the address below and I think there's something there you might like...
ReplyDeletehttp://kicktokill.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/cat-iron.html
Thank you my man.
DeleteHe brings up a good point...and it's why the state always hedges it's bets when definitive statements are called for.
Cat Irons mentioned on the south Mississippi Highway 61 marker and, I believe, is schedule to get his own marker in Natches.
Consider what Fat Possum was able to do in the 90's. We know who the greatest of all time is....R.L. Burnside, and I won't hear otherwise, but I doubt we've ever even heard number two.
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ReplyDelete"We're gonna take a break from April" - is that even allowed? I'm pretty sure it's not.
ReplyDeleteIt is in May.
DeleteApril is now in May? - *mind blown*
DeleteMay is the new April.
DeleteAs in: "May I April, for thou art most lovely and, indeed, overly wet for this time of year?"
DeleteIf April showers bring May flowers then February is April around here.
Delete"Touché" - a touch, I do admit, as John Travolta didn't say to the masseur, allegedly.
DeleteThe Scientologist must be strong here because If I didn't read the Daily Mail I wouldn't have heard the first word about Vinnie Barbarino's groping issues.
DeleteSpeaking of the blues … and this is a segway into completely unrelated matters ... some may observe there's a letter's width between Mormon and moron, but that wouldn't be me; I believe in the benefit of the doubt, especially when there's a pretty woman involved – think: Kelly McGillis “Witness”, okay, that's Amish; let's not get too entangled in the theological – hats, bonnets and technophobia – niceties and overlook the fact the actress in question turned out to be a lesbian. Wo hah! Let me rewind here: so I was walking back from the local super store (where I picked up two cutlery-draw dividers in the sale, for a pound by-the-way), and I see a bunch of well-dressed people coming towards me in the opposite direction on the path. I already knew who they awere before contact – only Mormons on a mission dress this smart, have decent dental work and speak with American accents in this neighbourhood. Five males and one female. It's was the female that launched the inevitable opening gambit of: “Can I interest you in Jesus Christ?” And she was pretty (I think I hinted at that earlier, but now I'm filling all-important context). Already my mind has generated a fully-formed rejoinder, something along the lines of: “You probably could; however, it depends on the latitude your willing to give to that particular incentive program.” A little too creepy and, I'm sure, a deal-killer. I went, instead, with: “Not really”. She took that well: lovely – lots of eye contact – yet my mind turned to the inevitable psychodrama of deprogramming should, in all unlikelihood, I get past the successful offer of a date. Anyway, I bottled it, accepted the postcard of the white Jesus with ginger beard and with the web-address for salvation and continued home with my culinary dividers. At least I didn't ask about what the Bible had to say about Mitt Romney, queer bashing and enforced hair cuts.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's my Sunday.
I see the missionaries all the time...here in a couple of months, it will be their red puffy faces, as they trudge or peddle around in 100 degree heat, that'll give em away before the ties do.
DeleteStill I don't think I've ever seen a female missionary...least not that I know of. At least it weren't Watchtowers....you'd still be there.
Who is this Mitt Romney you speak of?