More Blues and Roots Music at Clarksdale Caravan Music Festival
At one time, as far as music festivals went, Clarksdale, Mississippi had one, the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival in August. Later, after former …
History
An Evening of Art at Arkansas’s Waverly Plantation
Historic Waverly Plantation in Crittenden County, Arkansas has suffered from the fact that it shares its name with a much better-known plantation home near Columbus, …
The Ruins of St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church, Amanca, Arkansas
West Memphis, with its dog racing track/casino and industries obscures the fact that Crittenden County, Arkansas was once Delta country, with plantations and sharecropper shacks. …
The Remnants of Hulbert, Arkansas
Crittenden County, Arkansas, despite being across the river from Memphis, has struggled to develop over the years. Although there were frequent attempts to develop a …
Delta Easter: Slow and Easy Is The Pace in Pace
I recalled Pace, Mississippi being the site of some degree of controversy in my younger days back in the 1980’s. Like the similar town of …
Delta Easter: An Abandoned Church Near Symonds
The map showed a road called Pemble Road, a direct route from Merigold to a community called Symonds, which I had never been to, and …
Delta Easter: Desecration of Po Monkey’s, One of the Holy Sites of the Blues
From Drew, I decided to head across to Merigold. I had wanted to see Po Monkey’s juke joint for the first time in real life, …
Delta Easter: Mattson, Mississippi and True Vine Church
Mattson is a community which would seem to be the center of a large plantation. That being said, it is laid out like a beautiful …
Delta Easter: St. Paul Church, Hopson, Mississippi
Just to the west of the current Highway 49 beyond Clarksdale is the old Highway 49, the road that runs past Hopson Commissary and the …
Catfish’s Big Day in Belzoni
I had no phone service at all while I was at Swiftown, but as I approached Belzoni, my phone started ringing. Blues musician Duwayne Burnside, …