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Bartlett’s Annual Fall Car Show on Guffin Road

The homestead and surrounding acreage which belonged to Bartlett bluesman Lum Guffin still belongs to his descendants, and is occasionally rented out for events. Once a year, in the fall, it is the venue for a classic car show, which attracts competitors and fans alike. The weather is always beautiful, there is always a great soul and blues DJ, and usually good food and snacks from a couple of food trucks. I usually run into people I knew from Bartlett High School, and generally have a good time. After the judging is over, the kids love seeing the cars leave one by one. As they turn onto Guffin Road, they will usually peel out, which is of course what the young people want to see. It’s always a Sunday afternoon of good family fun, and one remaining institution in a rapidly vanishing African-American rural community between Bartlett and Ellendale.

As for Lum, he has been unjustly forgotten, although some Bartlett residents are working to change that. Tav Falco’s documentary film about him Key to the Highway (1978) has been posted to YouTube with Falco’s blessing, and an effort is being made to have him honored with a Tennessee historic marker on Guffin Road, which was once his private driveway. Unheard recordings of him seem to exist in the Tennessee State Archives in Nashville and the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis, as well as a video of his fife and drum band at the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History in Washington, DC. Hopefully a new generation of Americans can be made aware of this most important bluesman.

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Cigars, Wine, Blues and Soul at Chulahoma

If anyone is familiar with Chulahoma, Mississippi at all, it is probably as the location of the late blues great Junior Kimbrough’s long lost juke joint, which burned in the 1990s. True, the small crossroads has an annual blues festival, sponsored by singer and entrepreneur Beverly Davis, whose family owns the community grocery store and gas station. But aside from that, Chulahoma is basically just a four-way with a convenience store and an old former store across the road, and a Dollar General on the opposite corner. Near the border of Tate and Panola Counties in the Mississippi Hill Country, it is deep in an area known for blues, Black gospel, picnics and fife and drum music.

The annual Chulahoma Blues Festival is held in October, but in September of 2022, some promoters decided to try a new event called the Cigar and Wine Festival at Columbus Park, a large and spacious park south of Chulahoma just off the Tyro Road. The event featured a number of vendors, plenty of food trucks, motorcycle clubs, live music and a DJ. What it did not have, at least at first, was very many attendees, which was all the stranger since the weather was absolutely gorgeous. One of the three acts scheduled to perform had cancelled at the last minute, and Hill Country bluesman Garry Burnside was called as a replacement. Garry is well-known in Marshall County and in Oxford, and if he had been advertised on the event flyers and posters, there might have been a larger turnout. As it was, a singer named Cassandra the Soulchild from Memphis opened up the stage with her band, and Garry Burnside and his band followed, before Courtney Little from Memphis came on with his band, by which time there was at last a good-sized crowd, line-dancing in front of the stage.

Altogether, it was great food, great fun, a wonderful family atmosphere, and great weather. Here’s hoping the Cigar and Wine Fest returns for many more years.

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Great Soul and Blues on Kentucky Lake

For 33 years, the Kenlake Hot August Blues Festival has been bringing great blues to a most unlikely place, the shores of Kentucky Lake at Kenlake State Resort Park near Hardin, Kentucky. Although there is no extensive record of blues in the area, the location is an inspiring one, with its stage set in front of the lakeshore, the iconic Aurora Bridge and a flotilla of boats in the background. With a state-owned resort hotel less than a mile from the festival site, accommodations are easy for performers and attendees alike. On the hill above the amphitheater seats, guests enjoy a wide variety of food and dessert trucks, as well as the festival store, which sells festival shirts, posters and records and compact discs of the performers.

For 2022, the Kenlake festival booked three African-American bands, which is notable in this era where so many blues festivals book all-white or predominantly-white lineups, and often including many artists that play genres other than blues. The opening band, A Different Sound was from Paducah, and while competent, they did not live up their name, as they were primarily a cover band. They were followed by Hill Country legend Duwayne Burnside, the son of the late R. L. Burnside, who gave the crowd an hour-long set of authentic blues. Behind him came Lexington, Kentucky-based bluesman Tee Dee Young, an artist with whom I was unfamiliar, but one deserving a lot more attention and acclaim. His band was quite impressive, and his voice and original compositions stood out. Toward the end of his set, people were on their feet dancing in the seats. By that point there were several hundred people in the amphitheater, and the hot day had cooled off. It was a pleasant end to an exciting day of blues.

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Comforting Food at Brownsville’s New Nostalgic Diner

Brownsville, the county seat of Haywood County in West Tennessee is in most respects a fairly typical Southern town. It has the typical town square with the county courthouse in the center, and a number of historic homes. But it also has a talented and bizarre hometown artist named Billy Tripp, whose outdoor permanent art installation The Mindfield towers over the buildings on the square. For many years, The Mindfield shared its name with one of Tennessee’s very best restaurants, the Mindfield Grill, but that community institution was not able to survive the COVID-19 pandemic.

Early in 2022, Brownsville gained a replacement when Livingston’s Soda Fountain and Grill opened in the town’s old post office just off the square. The new restaurant has a very different vibe from the old Mindfield Grill, which was somewhat upscale. Livingston’s, on the other hand, has the look and feel of a Norman Rockwell painting. If the atmosphere is nostalgic, it is also cheerful and bright. Unlike the Mindfield Grill, Livingston’s sells breakfast, milkshakes and ice cream floats. But there are a number of similarities, too. Both restaurants had reasonable prices, and both restaurants had amazing food. And they share something else…..former cooks for the Mindfield work at Livingston’s. At any given time, the place can be filled with local residents and out of town visitors, but there is rarely a wait for a table, and the food rarely takes very long to come out. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, but hours can be different on different days, so be sure to contact them if you are visiting from out of town.

Livingston’s Soda Fountain and Grill

60 S. Washington Av

Brownsville, TN 38012

(731) 734-2041

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A Beautiful Evening of Blues with Lady Trucker at Blues on the Porch in Holly Springs

During the warm months, Blues on the Porch in Holly Springs, Mississippi brings the area’s best blues performers to the front porches and yards of some of the town’s most historic and beautiful old homes, some of which predate the Civil War. The atmosphere is family-friendly and congenial, and there is usually plenty of good food.

The August Blues on the Porch occurred at the end of a beautiful Saturday which was not all that hot despite the time of year, at a mansion a few blocks south of the Court Square. The opening act was a band which included the house’s owner, but the main act was Lady Trucker, a blues and Southern Soul singer who is the wife of the great Hill Country drummer Artemas LeSeur. Trucker’s band for the evening included bluesman Lightning Malcolm, and R. L. Boyce’s daughter Sherena came to jook and play the tambourine. With the weather so pleasant, a large crowd turned out, well over a hundred people, who enjoyed a night of food, fun and great music.

Afterwards, a friend and I headed to Marshall’s Steakhouse, arguably the county’s best restaurant for a late dinner, and they also were featuring a live band in front of their building. Our steaks were delicious, and it all made a perfect ending to an awesome day.

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Keeping the Hill Country Blues Tradition Alive at Burnside Bar and Grill in Holly Springs

The Hill Country blues scene has always been a music of juke joints. Although the music is occasionally heard at large festivals and big city clubs, its home is the rural Northeast Mississippi hole-in-the-walls and picnics. For many years, the nerve center of the music (in the related form of Cotton Patch Soul Blues, as the Kimbrough family called it) was the rural juke on Highway 4 in Chulahoma which the late Junior Kimbrough owned. After it burned, there have been a succession of attempts to replace it in the Marshall County area, from a Burnside Blues Cafe out on Highway 310 in 2011 to David Kimbrough’s Junior’s Juke Joint No. 2 in 2015 in Holly Springs on Highway 7.

In early 2022, R. L. Burnside’s son Duwayne acquired the building in which David ran his juke joint and began converting it into the Burnside Bar and Grill. After a soft opening in April, the place has become a gathering point for barbecue and great live blues on an almost weekly basis. Not only has Duwayne Burnside performed there himself with his band, but also such great musicians as Garry Burnside, Kinney Kimbrough, Kenny Brown, Memphis Gold and Robert Kimbrough have graced its stage. Like most jukes, the ambiance is generally informal. People walk in and out. Sometimes there is an admission charge, often there is not. Sometimes there is free food, sometimes food is available for a price per plate. There is no DJ as such, just a cell phone hooked to speakers playing good blues. But then, one doesn’t expect a juke joint to be formal. Burnside Bar and Grill is a must-experience destination in Holly Springs, especially for all fans of the Hill Country and Cotton Patch Soul blues styles.

Burnside Bar and Grill

645 Highway 7 N

Holly Springs, MS 38635

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Living Memphis Musical History at Hernando’s Hide-a-Way

Hernando’s Hide-a-Way was once a popular and famous nightclub on the Old Hernando Road west of Highway 51 in Whitehaven. Named for a song from the 1950s musical The Pajama Game, the club was popular as a place for early rock and roll, country and rockabilly. In later years, it had been famous for country music and then it finally closed altogether. After about three years of closure, Hernando’s Hide-a-Way was renovated and reopened, but I had somewhat assumed that the focus of the club would be country, so I had not taken the time to go out there, although some musician friends I knew in Memphis had been playing there since the reopening.

Nevertheless, in July of 2022, Hernando’s Hide-a-Way booked Hill Country blues musician Duwayne Burnside, and I became aware that they were booking far more than simply country or rockabilly. In fact, upon entering the club and seeing all of the historic memorabilia on the walls, it became clear that the booking policy had always been more diverse than I had thought. Even Fats Domino had played there in the 1950s. The furnishings and stage are in keeping with a nostalgic throwback ambiance…..there is even an old-fashioned cigarette machine. But what is new is the food menu, which is a vast step above the usual bar food. Even the bacon cheeseburger I ordered was a delicious thing of beauty indeed, and the prices were quite reasonable. If one wants to talk with their friend of significant other over a meal, the outdoor patio makes a great alternative to the club interior.

Altogether, the new Hernando’s Hide-a-Way is a must-visit attraction in the city of Memphis, for its history, for its great music and for its great food as well.

Hernando’s Hide-a-Way

3210 Old Hernando Rd

Memphis, TN 38116

(901) 509-2352

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Preserving the Legacy of the Hill Country and Cotton Patch Soul Blues in North Mississippi

After an interruption caused by COVID-19, the annual Hill Country Picnic returned to Betty Davis’ Ponderosa near Waterford, Mississippi in Marshall County, with two days of great Hill Country music and artists. The Hill Country Blues style (or Cotton Patch Soul Blues, as the Kimbrough family calls their style of blues) is a unique form of music that originates in the Hill Country of Northeast Mississippi, and is especially prevalent in Marshall County, where well-known blues musicians like R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough lived. The county is still home to prominent musicians, including Duwayne Burnside and Robert Kimbrough, as well as Joe Ayers, who was an original member of Junior Kimbrough’s Soul Blues Boys band.

Unlike many other summer blues events, the Hill Country Picnic is generally restricted to artists who are from the Hill Country region, or who were mentored by the original Hill Country/Cotton Patch Soul Blues performers. This guarantees plenty of opportunities to see the African-American originators of the tradition, which sadly is increasingly not the case at other high-profile blues festivals.

On the hot July Saturday of this year’s festival, fans got an opportunity to hear R. L. Boyce and Lightnin Malcolm, Duwayne Burnside, Kent Burnside and Kenny Brown, who started the festival in Potts Camp some 15 or so years ago.

Although the crowds have been smaller since the pandemic, it is good to see things beginning to return to normal, and one hopes that attendance will bounce back toward pre-pandemic numbers with each coming year.

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Celebrating the Blues and Juke Joint Culture in its Birthplace

Saturday April 23 was the main day of Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, a bright and sunny day, but extremely windy. In fact, the wind was so severe that it blew down a number of the vendor tents along downtown streets. When I arrived at the Wade Walton Stage, one of the free stages throughout the daytime, Memphisippi Sounds was on stage, the duo of Cameron Kimbrough and Damian Pearson. While there are not a lot of young Mississippi Hill Country artists, this group is one of the best emerging artists from the region. They were followed by Garry Burnside and his band, and then Duwayne Burnside and his band, and finally Kenny Brown, who was mentored by Mississippi Joe Callicott and the great R. L. Burnside. Around the same time, Como bluesman R. L. Boyce and Lightning Malcolm were on the Sunflower River stage next to Quapaw Canoe Company.

2022 brought some new openings to Clarksdale as well as some sad closings. The Riverside Hotel, famous as the the former hospital where blues great Bessie Smith died, has remained closed since it was damaged in a storm, and a fundraising effort is underway to keep it from closing permanently. Yazoo Pass, although open to a limited extent during weekdays, has closed at night, and was open only briefly on the festival day. But Sean “Bad” Apple’s new blues club in the former Club 2000 building, as well as the opening of the new Buster’s Blues Club next door show that the renaissance in Clarksdale still remains strong coming out of the pandemic.

After a dinner at the Hooker Grocery, I made my way over to Pete’s Grill on Sunflower Avenue for Duwayne Burnside’s night show. While the daytime stages are free to the public, the night shows inside the various juke joints require wristbands or paid admissions, but the shows are generally well-attended, and Duwayne’s was no exception.

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Kicking Off The Juke Joint Festival With A Parade And A Friday Night of Music

As events go, the annual Juke Joint Fest has played perhaps the biggest role in making Clarksdale, Mississippi a tourist destination on the world stage, and over the years it has grown into a bigger and bigger event. Although the official festival generally takes place on a Saturday, it has come to encompass four days of live music and events, some of them official and others not. This year, the Juke Joint Fest kicked off on Friday with a parade in downtown Clarksdale, the first such parade during the festival I can recall. It was breaking up on John Lee Hooker Street just as I walked up to the Hooker Grocery, perhaps Clarksdale’s most upscale restaurant.

After dinner, I walked down to Meraki Coffee Roasters, the youth-run coffee bar which was also quite crowded. Although it usually closes early in the afternoon, Meraki extends their hours during the festival, and it is something of a hub for visitors and performers alike. The streets were full of local residents and tourists in a festive mood, and music was everywhere. Making my way back to Yazoo Avenue, I met up with Duwayne Burnside whose band was setting up to play at Bluesberry Cafe, which was packed to overflowing. After his performance, I was tempted to swing by Red’s Lounge, but as it was late and the next day was an even bigger day for the festival, I headed back to Memphis.