As I drive my rented Dodge Hornet south on Highway 61 across the flat Mississippi Delta, the region’s famous native son B.B. King croons “Why I Sing the Blues” on the radio. Music that sprung from suffering fills me with joy, and I contemplate the paradox.
This stretch of the Blues Highway cuts through the endless snow-white cotton fields that once defined the region. I try to imagine the “King of the Blues” as a ragged youth dragging a 100-pound cotton sack in the blistering Southern heat alongside his sharecropper parents in the impoverished Jim Crow South.
It is hard to reconcile such a drastic departure from the image of the late international superstar onstage, wearing a flashy gold jacket and singing “The Thrill is Gone” as his bejeweled hands wring notes from one of his “Lucille” guitars.
Riley B. King was born Sept. 16, 1925, on a cotton plantation in tiny Berclair, Mississippi. When he was a rising star in the 1940s, he adopted the nickname “Beale Street Blues Boy,” which was shortened to Blues Boy and later B.B. King. He died in 2015 at age 89, but his legacy lives on. This year marks what would have been the blues legend’s 100th birthday.
The occasion is a good excuse to sojourn through the Delta on the Mississippi Blues Trail from tiny Clarksdale to Jackson, the state capital, with stops in Greenwood, Cleveland and Indianola. Along the 226-mile journey, King’s influence can be found behind the voices, guitar licks and melodies of the current generation of blues performers.
In Clarksdale, the first stop is the iconic marker at the crossroads of U.S. 49 and U.S. 61. According to legend, it’s where trailblazing blues performer Robert Johnson (1911-1938) sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his musical prowess.
At Clarksdale’s famous Ground Zero Blues Club, Laura “Lala” Craig sings about lost love in a voice full of grit and gravel, and she rocks the keyboard with her fiery boogie blues playing style. With each wild head bob, her heart-shaped pink sunglasses perched atop unruly gray hair seem poised to fly across the stage.
A California native, Craig moved to the region more than 20 years ago to pursue her dream of performing in the Delta and hasn’t looked back.
Musicians come from across the globe to test their musical chops at Ground Zero. It can be daunting playing on the same stage as locals who have the blues in their blood and can trace their musical lineage back to the dawn of the genre.
Credit: Wesley K.H. Teo
Credit: Wesley K.H. Teo
Take award-winning bluesman James “Super Chikan” Johnson, for instance. He’s distantly related to Robert Johnson of Crossroads fame. His smoke-and-molasses voice and command of the “chikantar” – what he calls the guitars he makes from recycled items such as ceiling fans and old gas cans – are on full display when performing Jimmy Reed’s angst-ridden hit “Baby, What’s Wrong?”
Like B.B. King, one of his many musical influences, 73-year-old Johnson was born on a Mississippi cotton plantation and was a sharecropper, a tenant farming system he calls “modernized slavery.” His stage name comes from his childhood chore of looking after his family’s chickens.
He calls blues a “pain pill,” and says for African Americans of his generation, the music was more than just a form of entertainment.
“We lived it, bathed in it and ate it.”
Credit: Wesley K.H. Teo
Credit: Wesley K.H. Teo
Across from Ground Zero is the Delta Blues Museum, a former rail depot that houses an impressive collection of artifacts from blues pioneers.
On view is one of King’s iconic Lucille guitars, a fire-engine red acoustic Gibson. The first Lucille was a humble instrument that King rescued from a dance hall fire that started when a kerosene-filled heating barrel was knocked over during a brawl. Two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille.
It’s a short drive to Dockery Farms, a Mississippi Blues Trail landmark near Cleveland, Mississippi, that King called the birthplace of the blues. The former cotton plantation on the Sunflower River once echoed with spirituals, folk music and call-and-response work songs known as field hollers – a soulful amalgam that evolved into a distinctive new musical genre called the blues.
Credit: Wesley K.H. Teo
Credit: Wesley K.H. Teo
The historic cotton gin where King worked still stands. Inside, an informative film offers a glimpse of how music was part of everyday farm life.
Back on the road again, headed south, my next stop is Indianola, King’s hometown during his adolescence.
The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center charts King’s rise from tractor operator to world-famous blues musician.
The first step in his journey to fame was moving to Memphis and making a name for himself on Beale Street, a Black entertainment district that is now a tourist destination. In 1949, he got a foot in the door at WDIA, a Black radio station, by writing a jingle for an alcohol-laced medicinal tonic called Pep-ti-kon. King tells the story of his rise on the airwaves in an interactive exhibit.
In the 1950s, King paid his dues on the chitlin circuit, a series of Black-owned performance venues during the Jim Crow era. Adjacent to the museum stands the iconic Club Ebony, a mint green building that was part of the network. King played at his hometown club countless times, and in 2008, he bought it and donated it to the museum.
Credit: Club Ebony
Credit: Club Ebony
The day of my visit, the Baton Rouge-based Neal Brothers were recording their debut album “Neal Brothers Live from Club Ebony,” so I was treated to a free concert. Known for their south Louisiana swamp blues sound, the six siblings have played together for years, but it is their first time recording together.
Blues performer Kenny Neal toured with King for more than three decades. He says what made King’s sound so distinctive was the heartfelt, soulful emotion that went into every song.
“When B.B. did a song, he made you feel what he’s feeling, and it takes a special artist to do that,” Kenny says. “That’s what set him apart.”
Raful “Lil Ray” Neal also toured with King. He said King’s vibrato guitar technique that seemed to give the instrument a voice of its own was so uncommon, it couldn’t be written.
“Bendin’ them notes and stuff, I would love to see the guy that could write that,” Raful says. “If you ever see sheet music from B.B.’s records, when it comes to his solo, it’s just an empty spot.”
My journey ends in Jackson, 97 miles south of Indianola on U.S. 49. Upstairs at the Iron Horse Grill restaurant and music venue is the Mississippi Music Experience, a museum that chronicles the diverse sounds of the Mississippi music scene from the 1800s through today.
Blues is at the core of rock ‘n’ roll, and exhibits explain its influence on guitar virtuosos Stevie Ray Vaughn, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and others.
Life-size models of famous Mississippi musicians abound, and, of course, King is among them.
I want to stick around Jackson so I can catch a live show, but my time has come to an end. A certain melancholy takes root in my heart as I prepare to leave, but to quote Elton John, I guess that’s why they call it the blues.
If you go
Clarksdale, Mississippi, is a six-hour drive west of Atlanta via I-20 and I-22. By air, take a direct flight from Atlanta to Memphis and drive 1.5 hours southwest.
Attractions
Ground Zero Blues Club. $10-$20. Blues Alley, Clarksdale, Mississippi. 662-621-9009. groundzerobluesclub.com
Delta Blues Museum. $10-$15. 1 Blues Alley Lane, Clarksdale, Mississippi. 662-627-6820, deltabluesmuseum.org
Dockery Farms. Free. 229 MS-8, Cleveland, Mississippi. 662-719-1048, dockeryfarms.com
B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center. $10-$15. 400 Second St., Indianola, Mississippi. 662-887-9539, bbkingmuseum.org
Club Ebony. $10-$20. 400-USA 400 Hanna Ave., Indianola, Mississippi. 662-887-9539.
Where to Stay
Lyric Hotel West End. $133-164 per night. 1300 Highway 8 West, Cleveland, Mississippi. 662-441-3901, westendcleveland.com
The Alluvian Hotel. $225-$275. 318 Howard St., Greenwood, Mississippi. 662-453-2114, thealluvian.com
Where to Eat
Iron Horse Grill. Entrées $12.95-$36.95. No additional charge to tour the museum. 320 W. Pearl St., Jackson, Mississippi. 601-398-0151, theironhorsegrill.com
Hal and Mal’s. Casual restaurant with live music. Entrées $14.95-$38.95. 200 Commerce St., Jackson, Mississippi, 601-948-0888, halandmals.com
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