Page 98 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2019

MISSISSIppI BlueS

TraIl pIlgrIMage

By Jim O’Neal
Mississippi is a prime destination for traveling blues correct such grave injustice by erecting a monument to Robert
aficionados eager to see the historic sites associated with Johnson – also in 1991.
Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Muddy Waters and Mississippi blues has since been covered in many
many others, as well as to witness the modern-day exponents of newspaper and magazine travel articles, and in books such
the blues still performing in juke joints, clubs and festivals. Tourists as Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues. The Delta Blues
can find points on their paths with the convenient aid of internet Museum in Clarksdale, which has played a key role both in
sites, guidebooks, electronic apps and almost 200 Mississippi documenting and perpetuating the blues, saw its visitor count
Blues Trail markers. grow and grow. As the word spread, plenty of blues pilgrims
Not so long ago, a blues trip to Mississippi was much more overcame fears of Mississippi and found themselves welcomed
of a hit-and-miss adventure. Travelers had to search on their own, in a state where enlightened citizens had been working hard to
or hope for tips or directions from locals, until Christiane Bird, a overcome dark episodes of the past. Mississippi was also taking
woman traversing the country on a motorcycle, published the note of the stream of out-of-state and foreign visitors stopping for
first guide to Delta blues sites as a chapter of The Jazz and Blues photographs of Highway 61 signs and looking for juke joints
Lover’s Guide to the U.S. in 1991. I was co-owner of a record and blues artists’ gravesites. While the state had placed many
store in Clarksdale then, and after hoping inquisitive visitors historical markers, the sites were often connected to the Civil War,
could find their way from my directions, in 1991 I decided to do prominent residents, businesses and churches – but not to the
a Delta Blues Map Kit, printed on our Xerox machine and stapled blues. Only the "Father of the Blues,” W.C. Handy, was honored
together, with descriptions of sites, travel tips and maps of the with a state marker at his former home site in Clarksdale.
area. Included in the Kit were sites where some of Mississippi’s As the blues momentum grew, the state Senate finally
major blues artists reportedly lay buried with no headstones, until established the Mississippi Blues Commission in 2004 “to
the Mount Zion Memorial Fund launched its ongoing mission to develop a plan to promote authentic Mississippi ‘blues’ music
and ‘blues culture’ for purposes of economic development”
and “to purchase and erect ‘Mississippi Blues Trail’ historical
markers with the assistance of the Mississippi Department
of Transportation.” On December 11, 2006, the first three
Mississippi Blues Trail markers were dedicated at the cemetery
in Holly Ridge where Charley Patton is buried, on Nelson Street
– the historic blues hub of Greenville – and at the site of WGRM
radio in Greenwood where B.B. King began performing with a
gospel group. A committee of scholars and representatives of
the state’s heritage trails proposed a list of 100 more markers,
although it’s probably fair to say that no one really thought the
project would last long enough to see nearly that many markers
go up. But the markers proved so popular with both tourists and
locals, more towns and counties sought markers of their own,
and the state continued to approve funding. The state followed
up with a Mississippi Freedom Trail dedicated to civil rights
Jim O’Neal, cofounding editor of Living Blues magazine, research director with history and a Mississippi Country Music Trail to honor the state’s
the Mississippi Blues Trail and this feature’s author, with the Sam Cooke marker in country stars such as Charlie Pride, Conway Twitty and Tammy
Clarksdale, MS. Photo by Brenda Haskins Wynette. The Blues Trail has expanded far beyond the state line

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