The Delta Review has given a thorough description of Saine’s Blues Club on a couple of previous occasions. The remote juke joint north of Moscow in Fayette County, Tennessee is a throwback to the kinds of places where Black people routinely partied in rural areas prior to the rise of radio, television and urban development. A handful of these places still exist, but most of them have shifted to DJ entertainment strictly. Saine’s, with a live band every Saturday night is an exception in that regard. In a county where life has never been easy for African-Americans, people party and play as hard as they work.
Juke joints are a dying breed, but they loom large in blues history as well as in the popular image of blues culture. Eagerly sought after by blues tourists, they are also celebrated in the lyrics of Southern Soul songs, such as Mel Waiters’ “Hole in the Wall” or Terry Wright’s “Backroad.” Saine’s Blues Club, located in a remote stretch of Fayette County, Tennessee between Moscow and Somerville is perhaps the last rural juke joint in West Tennessee, at least the last to feature live musicians rather than merely a DJ or a juke box. Fayette is a county that demographically and geographically is a continuation of the Mississippi Hill Country. Once 96% African-American, it was the birthplace of Mississippi Fred McDowell, and home to such bluesmen as Lattie Murrell, William Davis Floyd, Little Buddy Doyle, Homesick James and Johnny Wilson. It was also home to fife and drum bands, including the Broadnax Brothers and Fredonia bands, and massive picnics, such as the Owens Picnic near Oakland where people recalled seeing David “Honeyboy” Edwards and Memphis Minnie.
Like most jukes, Saine’s is nothing fancy, a fairly plain cinderblock building with a long, circular driveway. Were it not for the cars piled in front of it during weekends, it would be easy to miss. But real fans of the blues in its authentic habitat should not miss it, because nearly every Saturday night, Memphis blues veteran Big Don Valentine performs there from 10 PM to 1 AM with his band the Hollywood All-Stars. The original All-Stars featured Don’s dad, Carl Valentine, and a musician named Ben Wilson from near Rosemark in Shelby County, and a young Don Valentine ended up playing drums for the band after the original drummer “Chicken George” Walker had left. Today Don is a singer and has a first-rate band to back him, and a crowd of older Fayette Countians comes out to party and have a good time in a congenial atmosphere.
Inside, the club is fairly small, but big enough to have fun. The front room contains a pool table, a jukebox and the bar, where chicken wings and burgers can be ordered. The stage is at the back of the club, and there is a third room to the side of the stage. Although the dance floor is small, it is large enough for folks to get out of their seats and party. A typical night features not only Big Don, but female vocalists Sunshine and/or Joyce Henderson, and guest singers such as Sonny Holley and Charles Cason. Between band sets, DJ Chill Will plays the latest Southern Soul and some oldies.
Technically, Saine’s is a private club and members only. In reality, $10 will get you in the door, and the club’s owner Terry Saine, who was an important figure in the county during the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1960s, is always on hand to ensure that everyone behaves themselves and enjoys themselves. Come ready to party and you can have the time of your life….a slice of rural America that is rapidly disappearing.
Fayette County, in the part of West Tennessee that we might call the state’s Delta region, was for most of its history a highly rural county. Primarily an area of large cotton plantations before the civil war, it had few large towns. Even its county seat, Somerville, was and remains tiny by most perspectives, with only about 2,000 residents. However, in recent years, the proximity to Memphis has begun to take its toll, and many of the old rural scenes and locations are disappearing into a realm of tract subdivisions and shopping centers, particularly in the western parts of the county nearest to Memphis and its suburbs.
Still, in the northwestern corner of the county nearest to Mason, Tennessee, one can find reminders of the county’s past. On nice and warm days, I still occasionally ride the backroads in these areas, looking for things to photograph before they too disappear to new development.
Rossville, Tennessee, in Fayette County, was once called Lafayette Depot, but there was another Lafayette in Middle Tennessee, so sometime during Reconstruction, the town was renamed Rossville. For most of its history, it has been a small, quiet settlement of three or so streets, with some historic homes. A frozen foods plant came in the 1970’s, as did a Federally-funded community health clinic, which the Reagan administration eventually removed from the control of local community activists. Although proximity to Collierville is fueling a fair amount of suburban growth in Rossville, the main attraction is still the Wolf River Cafe, a local eatery famous for catfish that opened in 1989.
What people may not know is that the Wolf River Cafe is a great place for breakfast, too. They serve it until 10:30 AM, and on a summer morning, the place is fairly crowded. Like many rural cafes, prices are low, and the biscuits, omelettes and breakfast potatoes are truly amazing, and worth a drive from Memphis.
Also worth the drive is the little town itself, shady but full of historic houses. Little signs in front of some of them name them and give their dates. Some were built in 1860 or 1869, and some have dates that show they have been continuously added onto or improved. Rossville is best traversed on foot, as the historic district is only a few blocks wide. There is also a battlefield of sorts, the site of a small Civil War skirmish at what was once Lafayette Station, as well as a city park and a sort of boardwalk leading back across a creek to a lake behind the cafe. Altogether, Rossville makes a pleasant destination for breakfast and exploration.
Mason, Tennessee, located in Tipton County by geography, but more socially and culturally linked to adjacent Fayette County, is the dead center of what might be considered West Tennessee’s Delta region. As a market town for both whites and Blacks in the surrounding cotton country, Mason became a place of recreation for Blacks on weekends, as most of the other towns were far more restrictive with regards to nightlife. In Mason, town officials turned a blind eye to the numerous juke joints that were euphemistically called “cafes.” With no closing ordinances, Mason cafes could literally run all night long, and attracted Blacks from a hundred-mile radius. People came from as far away as Cairo, Illinois and Blytheville, Arkansas, because in Mason, usually nobody cared what you did as long as you didn’t kill anybody. In the mid-sixties, things became even more energized, because a man named William Taylor shuttered his Chicago nightclub called Club Tay-May and then opened two Club Tay-Mays in West Tennessee, one south of the railroad tracks on Main Street in Mason, and the other one on Keeling Road near the antebellum Oak Hill mansion. These clubs attracted legendary performers like Little Milton, Little Johnnie Taylor and Rufus Thomas.Â
Unfortunately, as agriculture declined, and as people (particularly Blacks) moved to the cities, Mason fell on hard times. The cafes, largely adapting to a rap music and a younger clientele, became a focal point for violence. Club Tay-May burned and was never rebuilt, and the city passed closing ordinances to require clubs to shut down at 2 AM. Since this made Mason no different than Covington, Dyersburg or any other town in West Tennessee, those who had formerly come to Mason to party stayed at home instead. The downtown buildings where the cafes had been began to collapse and were condemned by the city.Â
Although Mason has fallen on hard times, there is still something of a unique culture in the community. Two of America’s best restaurants, Bozo’s Bar-B-Que and Gus’s World-Famous Fried Chicken are located in this little town of only about 500 people, and a few juke joints still remain on Front Street near the railroad track. Each fall, the town sponsors a Mason Unity Fall Festival, which sponsors activities for the young people, an opportunity for vendors and food trucks, and live music performances. At the initial festival in 2011, there had been no stage, only a DJ, and a few gospel choirs performed out in the street a cappella. This year, the city had brought out a full stage, and a good blues/soul band was on it when I arrived. The vocalist performing was named Charles King, but the band proved to be from West Memphis, Arkansas and was known as the Infinity Band. Unfortunately, compared to previous years, the crowd was fairly small due to the extremely cold, grey weather we were having. Even so, Saul Whitley was firing up the barbecue grill in front of his cafe The Blue Room, and the young men from the Whip Game Car Club were setting up a tent and cooking food as well. Several people knew me from social media, and thanked me for the historic photos of Mason I had put up online that I had taken back in 1991.Â
One of the sadder things was that so many of the cafes are gone, most recently The Black Hut having been torn down. A pile of cinderblocks remains where it was. Behind The Green Apple, which seems to be out of business, is an old abandoned hotel. Even the former Mason City Hall and Police Department have been abandoned and condemned. But I got an opportunity to talk to a woman who said that Ocie Broadnax of the Broadnax Brothers Fife and Drum Band was her great grandfather, and that he used to play for horse races at a place called Booster Peete’s on the Tabernacle Road north of Mason. Another older man told me that the Broadnax Brothers would beat the drums on the back of a wagon, and ride all around Fayette County to advertise that they would be having a picnic on the Saturday. He said the picnics used to be held at a place called Buford Evans’. So despite the chilly weather, I enjoyed myself immensely.Â
I came away from the event with the belief that Mason has an important legacy, and possibly a future. Clarksdale, Mississippi is living proof that blues tourism is a real phenomenon and very lucrative. It simply took leadership there with a vision to make it a reality. Mason has historic landmarks like Old-Trinity-In-The-Fields, historic houses like Point-No-Point and Oak Hill, and world-famous restaurants like Bozo’s and Gus’s. What if the old hotel behind The Green Apple was remodeled, modernized and reopened for business? What if a blues and heritage museum were opened on Front Street? What if the Lower End was declared an entertainment district and allowed to stay open later as Beale Street is in Memphis? What if the historic houses were occasionally open for tours? All it will really take is for someone with the vision to make Mason a destination for tourists looking for authentic culture in an authentic setting. It really doesn’t get any more authentic than Mason.Â
Somerville, Tennessee is not exactly close to the Gulf of Mexico, and yet the new Big Fish restaurant at Highway 64 and Jernigan Drive effectively creates the ambiance of a waterfront seafood restaurant in Destin or Panama City Beach. The restaurant, built by an architecht around his formerly-mobile food truck, has only outdoor seating, but the dining area is covered with a sort of roof, and the whole area is attractively landscaped in a way that suggests the beach is not far away. On my first afternoon visit, great New Orleans music was playing over the loudspeakers. I had come with the intent of trying a shrimp po-boy, but I was soon intrigued by the special, a Surf ‘N Turf Burger. This proved to be a 100% Black Angus burger, topped with cheese, lobster, shrimp and crab. It would have normally been topped with cole slaw as well, but I am not a fan of cole slaw and asked them to omit it. As strange as the concept might sound, the Surf ‘N Turf burger was absolutely amazing, and a decent value at $8.99. It came with equally delicious french fries. The weather was pleasant, and at my table, it was easy to forget Highway 64 off to the north, or the shopping center across the street at my back. It felt like being in Florida. I finished off my meal with a slice of key lime pie, which was also delicious. I don’t think it is made in-house, but it is still really good.
Unfortunately, on a more recent visit, the food was still amazingly good, but the owners told me that they will be closing at the end of October. With no indoor dining options, I had wondered how they would deal with the onset of cold weather, and what I learned is that they had decided to close altogether, during which time they will be renovating an old house on the premises. The project will result in an indoor dining area, and should be completed by April of 2019, at which time they plan to reopen. In the meanwhile, I strongly recommend that you get out to Big Fish for at least one last time here in October before they close for the winter.
On a Friday evening, after meeting a friend for dinner in Memphis, with nothing in particular to do, I headed out Poplar Avenue through Collierville and into Fayette County, which is the Tennessee county that most resembles the Mississippi Hill Country. Mississippi Fred McDowell was from Fayette County (Rossville to be exact), and if there is any fife and drum activity left in Tennessee (and there does not seem to be), it would likely be in that county. So I often venture out there to ride the backroads, take photographs, and see if I come upon any events, or flyers announcing events on the various stores along the roads. People in Fayette tend to be old-school and don’t use social media much to promote blues or gospel events.Â
One of the reasons that this has taken on such urgency with me is that the western portion of Fayette County is undergoing a process of suburbanization, as people move away from Memphis into the country. The resulting growth and subdividing has the net effect of destroying historic locations and buildings, so I want to photograph what is still around while I can.Â
Posters on the outside of stores in Rossville and Moscow announced a barbecue festival in Rossville and a car show in Somerville, as well as a Jubilee Hummingbirds concert at a church south of Moscow in Slayden, Mississippi. There was a also a poster announcing some kind of rap show at Saine’s, which is ordinarily a blues club. Signs along Highway 57 also announced that Terry Saine, the club’s owner, was running for the state legislature.Â
Out on the Cowan Loop between Moscow and LaGrange, I came to an old and somewhat historic-looking church called Anderson Grove. The place, set far back off the road in a grove, looked almost abandoned, but the area was fairly peaceful. Further west along the same road was another church, obviously abandoned, with no sign to indicate what its name might have been. Not far away, back on Highway 57 was an abandoned grocery store that must have at one time been a bustling place indeed. But I found no evidence of juke joints, ball fields or picnic spots.
North of Moscow, along Highway 76, I came to Saine’s Blues Club, and stopped there, in the hopes of perhaps catching up with Terry Saine. Saine was a civil rights activist in the 1960’s, and in my belief likely old enough to have been aware of Black fife and drum bands in Fayette County during his youth, and perhaps also able to fill in some gaps about the Fayette County blues musician Lattie Murrell. But Saine was not there, perhaps out campaigning for office, so I headed on into Somerville.Â
There, around the square, young people were setting up stages, booths and barricades, getting ready for the Cotton Festival, which was to be held the next day. Nothing was going on at the moment however, so I headed over to Betty’s After Dark blues club, but found it fairly quiet, although open. They were having a large T. K. Soul show the next night, after the Southern Heritage Classic game in Memphis. Nearby, however, was a restaurant with outdoor tables and colorful lights, that seemed to be packed with people. It looked like something transported from Destin or Orange Beach to Somerville, and proved to be a new seafood restaurant called Big Fish that I realized will deserve a future visit.Â
On out Highway 59, Fayette-Ware High School was clearly playing a football game at their stadium, but I wasn’t particularly interested in that, and I headed on to Brewer Road where I knew there was a club. But all I found was a group of young people at the end of the road on four-wheelers just hanging out, and if there was anything going on at the club, it was obviously a hip-hop event geared to youth.
Likewise at Mason, the Log Cabin and Blue Room had large crowds, but just DJ’s as best I could tell, and by now I was thoroughly tired. So I gave up looking for anything to get into and began driving back toward Bartlett on Highway 70, as lightning and rain began to develop.Â
Fife and drum music once flourished in West Tennessee, but similar to what happened in Georgia, disappeared rapidly in the 1970’s. The last evidence we have of any fife and drum activity in West Tennessee is the recordings made of a Fayette County band in 1980, although I have always considered it likely that some fife and drum activity took place in Tipton and Haywood Counties as well. Last summer, the Tennessee State Department of Archives and History decided to sponsor a mentoring project that seems intended to reintroduce the fife and drum band style to West Tennessee, by having a Mississippi fife and drum musician mentor a young Tennesseean. The program ended up hiring Como, Mississippi bluesman R. L. Boyce and having him work with a young female drummer in Brownsville named Kesha Burton. Boyce is a nephew of the late Otha Turner, and began his music career as a snare drummer for various fife and drum ensembles in Panola and Tate Counties in Mississippi, so he was a good choice to teach the drumming styles of this music to young people. On December 12, 2017, we carried him up to Brownsville for his first lesson with Kesha, which took place at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville. After the lesson, I had an opportunity to walk around Brownsville taking pictures of the square and nearby streets and neighborhoods. I especially enjoyed walking down South Jackson Avenue, which had once been the heart of the Black community in Brownsville, although there are no longer any juke joints or cafes still operating. Perhaps the oddest visit of the day was to a massive outdoor art installation called the Mindfield, the long-term work-in-progress of folk artist and visionary Billy Tripp. Somewhat in the same vein as the Watts Towers or St. Paul’s Spiritual Temple in Memphis, the Mindfield is an autobiographical work, although it also contains bits of slogans and symbols that indicate something of Tripp’s philosophies about life and society. Next door to it is a restaurant called the Mindfield Grill that seems to warrant a future visit.
Braden, Tennessee is a small village in northwestern Fayette County, roughly halfway between Gallaway and Mason. Unlike those towns, Braden never really developed, basically consisting of some houses, a church, a cemetery an elementary school and the C. T. McGraw General Store. When that store closed in the early 2000’s, it soon became home to a catfish and seafood buffet restaurant called Braden Station, yet in all the years it had been open, I had never taken the opportunity to try it. So on a beautiful September evening, a Thursday, I decided to check it out before heading to Somerville for another installment of Music on the Square. Braden Station is a bright and cheerful space on the ground floor of the historic general store building, whose walls are covered with historic signs and photos, many of them related to the area. The old, wooden shelves on the northern wall that once held all kinds of general merchandise now hold old board games, toys, books, photos and other knickknacks. On a Thursday night, the restaurant was fairly busy, with most of the patrons enjoying the large all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, which costs $18.99. Not believing that I could eat enough to justify the price, I chose instead to order a catfish dinner with french fries and hushpuppies. This is a meal that I have ordered frequently from a number of restaurants over the last year, and Braden Station’s stacks up fairly well. With lots of catfish choices in the Mid-South, the field is fairly competitive, so restaurants that offer catfish have to put their best foot forward. Unfortunately, where Braden Station fails is in affordability. They are just very expensive. A three-piece catfish dinner is $14.99. The full buffet, as mentioned above, is four dollars more. Of course, seafood costs a little more, but the prices sadly make Braden Station more of a special occasion restaurant than a regular go-to. That being said, it is certainly a place that everyone should take the time to experience at least once. The friendly service, great food, and cheerful atmosphere are worth the splurge, at least every now and then.
Braden Station
189 Highway 59
Braden, TN 38049
(901) 594-5959
Due north of Marshall County, the quintessential county of the Mississippi Hill Country is Fayette County, Tennessee, which perhaps could be considered Tennessee’s only Hill Country county as such. Geographically and demographically similar to the county in Mississippi below it, Fayette should have been a hotbed of blues, and apparently was, but was much less studied than its Mississippi counterpart. Otherwise, the two counties are remarkably similar, right down to their charming county seat towns with courthouse squares that could be the setting for some epic movie of the American South. Holly Springs in Marshall County is known for its Blues in the Alley events each Thursday night in July and August, so when Fayette County began announcing Music on the Square events on Thursdays in September, I decided to drive out to Somerville and see what was going on. The weather was beautiful and perfect for such an event, and a crowd of about a hundred people had gathered on the northwest corner of the courthouse square along Market Street, where a stage had been set up. There were cookies and lemonade provided by local business sponsors, and some custom cars and trucks had been parked closer to Fayette Street on the west side of the square. Unfortunately, the band that had been chosen to play on this particular Thursday was a country band, and country music is not my cup of tea, but at least this particular country band was from Fayette County, and had a certain rock edge to their style. Somewhat disappointed in the music, I spent the rest of the evening walking around the tiny downtown in Somerville, snapping pictures of a number of landmarks before heading back to Memphis. Even so, the court square makes an excellent background for live music performance, and those who attended had a great time.
