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
Juke Joint Festival
Nashville blues singer Tullie Brae on the Hopson Commissary main stage, Juke Joint Festival, 4/14/12
Mississippi Delta Railroad Excursion Train, Juke Joint Festival 2012
The Mississippi Delta Railroad runs a special excursion train during the Juke Joint Festival, carrying people between Hopson and the Shack Up Inn and Clarksdale depot. 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
The Baby Blue Drumline on Delta Avenue, Clarksdale, Juke Joint Festival 2012
The Baby Blue drumline performing on Delta Avenue, Clarksdale, MS, Juke Joint Festival, 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
Walking south down Sunflower Avenue from Red’s Juke Joint, I came to another juke joint that I had never seen before called Pete’s Bar and Grill. I was hot from walking, and stopped in to sit at the bar and enjoy a cold coke, listening to some great southern soul music on the speakers inside.