The Baby Blues Drum Line is comprised of young Memphis drummers who are amazingly talented for their young age. They frequently appear at Memphis events, but it was unexpected to encounter them at Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale. Wherever they go, they always attract a crowd.
Month: April 2012
MISCELLANEOUS “TAKE CONTROL” HD CO STARRING ALONDUS DIRECTED BY MAINE-MAINE (by Directedbymainemaine)
#MemphisRising
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Why America’s Education System Is Like Apartheid
A new report reveals just how deep the education disparities in New York City really are.
Louis “Gearshifter” Youngblood performs at the Cat Head Music and Folk Art stage in Clarksdale, MS at Juke Joint Festival, April 14, 2012
Austin “Walking” Cane performs at the Stone Pony stage on Delta Avenue in Clarksdale during the Juke Joint Festival, April 14, 2012
Juke Joint Festival, April 14, 2012, Clarksdale, MS
The marble lobby of this old bank in Clarksdale has been turned into a performance space known as The Bank. It was one of the main venues for the Juke Joint Festival this year.
At last year’s Juke Joint Fest, there was no place to buy coffee in Clarksdale, but this year there was Yazoo Pass, a really good coffee bar on Yazoo Avenue that also features sandwiches and the current trend of frozen yogurt in cups charged by weight. Yazoo Pass became a center of activity during the festival, perhaps because of its location between stages at Bluesberry Cafe and Yazoo Park on one end, and the Bank Stage in the former Coahoma Bank at the other end.
The Juke Joint Festival is held annually in April in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and is probably the biggest tourist event in the city, and one of the biggest in the state. Originally a one-day event, the festival now stretches across all or part of four days, with movie screenings, concerts, a parade, kids’ activities and more. Central to the event are legendary Clarksdale jukes, such as Red’s Blues Lounge and Messengers Pool Hall, while newer clubs, such as Bill Luckett and Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero are also important venues. On Saturday, there are arts and crafts, and numerous outdoor stages across the downtown area and in the adjacent New Era district.
The former Hopson Plantation just outside of Clarksdale has become the Shack Up Inn, a boutique hotel consisting of motel rooms in the former cotton gin and rentable sharecroppers’ shacks, as well as the former commissary which is now a bar and live music venue. The grounds are decorated with old signs and bottletrees, and there is the Juke Joint Chapel, which serves as a second music venue on the premises. Needless to say, the hotel is extremely popular with visitors to the Juke Joint Festival, and a special excursion train of the Mississippi Delta Railroad is run between Hopson and the Clarksdale depot every half hour during the festival days.