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Month: <span>April 2012</span>
Month: April 2012

The Shack Up Inn grounds at Hopson are a peaceful place to relax and unwind after the hustle and bustle of Juke Joint Festival in downtown Clarksdale, 4/14/12

Nashville blues singer Tullie Brae on the Hopson Commissary main stage, Juke Joint Festival, 4/14/12

The Rev. John Wilkins performing at The Bank stage, Juke Joint Festival, Clarksdale, MS, 4/14/12

Bands occasionally just set up on the street in Clarksdale during Juke Joint Festival 4/14/12

Baby Blues drumline, Juke Joint Festival, Clarksdale, MS April 14, 2012

If the Shack Up Inn evokes one kind of Mississippi past, Clarksdale’s Riverside Hotel evokes another. It was once the African-American hospital where blues legend Bessie Smith died (her room is a shrine to her that is not rented), and from the 1940’s on has been a hotel. Frank “Rat” Ratcliff is the owner, and can tell the visitor all the famous blues and soul legends who have stayed there. While it isn’t fancy, and while the rooms don’t have private bathrooms, it is clean and extremely difficult to get a room there during Juke Joint Festival