Page 52 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2016

More than 2,000 people attended the GRAMMY
Museum Mississippi’s grand opening celebrations
®
Photo courtesy GRAMMY Museum Mississippi,
Photographer Rory Doyle

GRAMMY Museum

Opens in Blues Epicenter

By Tim Parsons
It’s been said, “If you don’t dig the blues, you have a hole in museum, there are several 17 to 22-minute films offered in a 130-
your soul.” The movers and shakers at the Recording Academy seat theater, along with countless artifacts and extensive archives
also say: If you don’t know about the blues, you don’t know the to peruse – so visitors might want to plan their trip for a full day.
whole history of American music. “The response from the public has been overwhelming,”
On March 5, 2016, the Recording Academy opened the Havens said. “We’ve had visitors from all over the world. And
doors of the GRAMMY Museum in Cleveland, Mississippi, the students of all ages have come from as far away as Lawrence,
epicenter of where blues music and its offshoots – jazz, rhythm KS, to experience it and to learn where American music was
and blues, and rock and roll – began. The museum is the second born in this state, in all of its different forms.”
GRAMMY Museum in the nation, the first opened in Los Angeles The blues was born on the Mississippi Delta, and the site of
in 2008. the GRAMMY Museum is a most appropriate location. It’s just
The outside of the museum is adorned like a metal five miles from Dockery Farms cotton plantation where Charlie
sharecropper’s cabin and the expansive front porch and lobby Patton, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf and Pops Staples had
are decorated in tile that emulates cypress wood. It is a blend lived.
of modern and historical Mississippi. More than 5,600 people The site is also located on the Delta State University campus,
visited the museum in its first five weeks. a school with just 4,000 students but offers a Bachelor of Science
“Many people are surprised by how many items and degree in Entertainment with 90 different majors. Students can
exhibits are interactive with touch screen and audio, and can be minor in Blues Studies, which someday will be offered as a major,
experienced by listening, touching and reading,” said Executive according to the Director of the Entertainment Industry Program,
Director Emily Havens. “The Music Table is probably our biggest Trisha Walker, who played an integral role in the creation of the
success. You can explore music and discover where different GRAMMY Museum.
forms of music in Mississippi come from, as well as the artists, “This is the academic home of the blues and all that surrounds
songwriters and people in the music industry who have shaped it – heritage, foods, landscapes – everything that contributed to
what Mississippi has given to the world. The technology is really the blues,” said Walker.
unbelievable.” A native of Mississippi, Walker was a songwriter and
The 15 permanent exhibits include Mono To Surround, entertainer in Nashville, TN, for 26 years before moving back
which allows visitors to hear the evolution of sound; History home nearly a decade ago. Shortly after her return, she and
Of Dance, featuring a touch-sensitive, multicolored dance floor civic leaders brainstormed the idea of building a music museum
and tutorial video; and an interactive exhibit allowing visitors of some kind in Cleveland. They had a donor with artifacts, but
to produce a record with contemporary bluesman Keb’ Mo’. that project didn’t come to fruition. However, blues preservation
Others, such as the Mississippi Music Legends, Mississippi Music advocate Allan Hammons was undaunted.
Bar and Mississippi Music Trail And Timeline exhibits, explore Hammons was the person behind the creation of the
Mississippi’s musical heritage and contribution to American interpretive Mississippi Blues Trail which opened in 2006 and
music culture. While some visitors spend an hour or two at the continues to grow. He was also the main visionary for the B.B.

50 Blues Festival Guide 2016