the delta review

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the delta review

the delta review

#037 Baby Blues Drum Line.MOV (by jdoggtn7)

The Baby Blues Drumline from Memphis draws a crowd on Third Street in Clarksdale, MS during Juke Joint Festival April 14, 2012

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.