Page 62 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2012

Showcasing The museum features permanent
exhibits and artifacts of blues
artists such as Joe Williams’
Blues Heritage guitar, seen in the foreground

The Delta

BLUES

M u s e u m All photos courtesy of Delta Blues Museum

by Shelley ritter and set out on a series of performances aptly dubbed “The Muddy
Since the early 20th century, people have been coming to Wood Tour,” which raised money and awareness for the museum.
Clarksdale, Mississippi to hear and document blues music. In 1979, This resulted in a new wing being added to the library and more
Sid Graves, the director of the Carnegie Public Library, recognized space for the museum. Quickly fi lling up that space, the museum
the need to tell Clarksdale’s blues story and persuaded his board to and the library recognized it was time for yet another expansion. In
open the Delta Blues Museum in the library’s Myrtle Hall Branch, a 1999, the museum moved up the street into Clarksdale’s renovated,
location near the fabled “Crossroads.” The museum quickly outgrew historic, railroad freight depot, where it has continued to grow. In
the location and was relocated to the Carnegie Public Library in 2001, the House of Blues Foundation rescued and donated to the
downtown Clarksdale. This natural relationship soon became even museum, a portion of Muddy Waters’ actual cabin where he lived
more complicated as the popularity of the Delta Blues Museum grew. on Stovall Plantation until his move to Chicago in 1942. Today,
Library patrons’ reading and research was often disrupted by the construction on a 7,300 sq. ft. wing known as the “Muddy Waters
sounds of blues music, an excited conversation about the music, or Addition” is near completion.
an all-out uproar when a local performer made an appearance in The museum hosts temporary exhibits two to three times a year,
the museum. The museum’s increasing popularity caught everyone usually in conjunction with a festival or event. This year, the museum
by surprise, prompting one library board member to quip at a will host “25 Years of the Sunfl ower River Blues and Gospel Festival”
meeting, “I’d like to remind everyone that we’re still in the book to celebrate the festival’s silver anniversary. Posters, artifacts from
business.” headliners and other performers, and photographs will be featured.
In the late 1980s, Billy Gibbons and other members of ZZ Top, In addition to exhibitions, the museum offers many educational
frequent visitors to Clarksdale and avid blues fans, recognized the programs. The museum’s website features a special “Explore
museum’s need for expansion. They fashioned a guitar out of a and Learn” section designed to give a vivid, graphic overview of
cypress plank taken from the cabin where Muddy Waters grew up the essential facts of a blues master’s life and musical highlights.

A partial view of the museum’s extensive guitar collection Interior view of “Muddy’s Cabin” with a life-like figure of Muddy in his trademark suit

62 Blues Festival Guide 2012