Jerry Lee's Ranch

Once last stop before we left the Delta—we had to make a pilgrimage to Jerry Lee Lewis’s Ranch in Nesbit, Mississippi. Until his divorce from wife #6, Jerry Lee would allow tours through the house and grounds (evidently complete with piano shaped pool. Ex-wife # 6 stopped the tours and painted over the graffiti on the fence surrounding the ranch.

We had a belated anniversary dinner at The Hollywood Café (Home of the Fried Dill Pickle). John Grisham was a regular and mentioned cafe several in “A Time to Kill".

And, the song "Walking in Memphis" mentions the café:
“Now Muriel plays piano

Every Friday at the Hollywood

And they brought me down to see her

And they asked me if I would --Do a little number

And I sang with all my mightAnd she said --"Tell me are you a Christian child?"

And I said "Ma'am I am tonight"

We walked in to a virtually empty restaurant- but the owners were sitting at the bar, so we joined them and not only had a great dinner, but a real ear-full on the history of the restaurant and the Delta.

More Delta Scenes

A few classic Delta scenes....

Driving down old Highway 61


The Clarksdale RV Park....



Highway 61 house- note the Roy Rogers full size mural


Lula City Limits--Bullet ridden sign...

Where the Southern Cross the Dog

“Lord, I’m going to Rosedale, gon’ take my rider by my side”.

We headed to Rosedale, driving on the Great River Road. In the 1930’s and 40’s the town was typical river town- with juke joints, loose women and bootleggers serving the riverboat men. Today, it’s another Delta town with boarded up storefronts and no activity.

South of Rosedale is the Delta town of Greenville. It's claim to fame-- the place where the levee burst causing the Mississippi River Flood of 1927.Floodwater covered 26,000 square miles of the Delta, killing hundreds and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
Today, the city is fairly lifeless. We read all the warnings about the infamous “Nelson Street”- once the prime commercial street of Greenville’s black community- now most of the businesses are abandoned and daytime is definitely the preferred travel time.

At the far end of Nelson Street is Doe’s Eat Place.

Normally open at 5:30 PM, we saw the door open and peeked in.

The cook was there getting ready for the evening crowd and told us that we could order some homemade tamales for take-out. They were the best tamales we have ever had. It’s hard to believe that this grocery store, turned restaurant is listed as one of the 10 best steakhouses in the country. You walk in the front door and think that you’ve accidentally walked into the kitchen. The sign on the refrigerator:
After a great meal, we wandered over to Walnut Street – where they claim the live music scene has been revived – we found Jim’s Café.

It’s a local meeting place with walls covered with photos of Greenville in better times. Jim not only serves up good food but also makes his own hot sauce, bottled in old quart whiskey bottles.

"Jim"
Heading east, we found the town of Leland – home of Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets—and the Highway 61 Blues Museum (closed, like most everything else in town).

Leland Murals
Just outside town we found the gravesite of James “Son” Thomas – a Delta blues musician (and grave digger and sculptor). His tombstone inscription was fabulous: “Give me Beef-steak when I’m hungry, Whiskey when I’m dry, Pretty Women when I’m living, and Heaven when I die”.

B.B. King is the biggest thing to happen to little Indianola. He was actually born outside of Itta Bena, but moved to Indianola at the age of 13 and they have embraced him as their favorite son. They’ve put a mural at B.B.’s favorite busking spot when he was an unknown teenager singing gospel and blues.

He learned quickly that singing blues earned him more tips. In 2008, the B.B. King Museum and Interpretive Center opened. Part of the museum is in the brick cotton gin where B.B. used to work.

It was getting late and we’d been on the road most of the day, but we had one last stop to make in Moorhead—“Where the Southern Cross the Dog”.

According to blues legend, W.C. Handy first heard this line at the Tutwiler train station in 1903. It refers to the intersection of the Southern and the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley railroads. The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley was known as the Yazoo Delta (nicknamed the “YD” or “Yellow Dog”).

"Where the Southern cross the "white" dog"

Unfortunately, the Yellow Dog Café has closed…but we did manage a photo on the front porch.

Happy hour at the Commissary and the Shack Up Inn.

The Commissary

The Shack-Up Inn

"Prepare to meet Thy God"

“Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues in the middle of the pouring rain”

Our anniversary—and we spent the day in the middle of Tornado Alley. The rains kept up all day and then when the sun went down, we heard the tornado siren. After seeing what a tornado can do to a motorhome, we spent several hours watching the Weather Channel, monitoring radar on Accuweather.com and listening to our weather radio. May Day, May Day!

The Delta Blues Trail

We continued our pilgrimage to the Holy Sites of the Blues—with a stop at the Delta Blues Museum. They wouldn’t allow photos- but we could bring our dog in…go figure. The museum is a collection of guitars, harmonicas, posters, costumes and photos of the great blues artists. They’ve saved Muddy Water’s cabin from the Stovall Plantation and restored the cabin to its original outer appearance.

Muddy Waters cabin- Photo courtesy of Flickr

A scrap of the newspaper used as wallpaper was saved and framed. Quotes from Muddy line the walls: “When you say blues, you know what the average guy is looking for –half-slouching, raggedy, bottle of wine in your pocket. I wasn’t that kind of blues singer. I stayed sharp…They might say I can’t play or can’t sing, but damn it, they’ll say I’m a gentleman”.

Following Highway 49 south out of Clarksdale, past miles of cotton fields, you arrive in Tutwiler. Another almost deserted one road town, its claim to fame is the “Birthplace of the Blues” (one of many towns claiming the moniker).

The story goes that, in 1903, W.C. Handy was waiting for a train in Tutweiler. He saw a man, “a lean, loose-jointed Negro plunking a guitar. His clothes were rags, his feet poked out of his shoes. His face had on it some of the sadness of the ages. As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings…and the effect was unforgettable”. The man was singing a song about ‘goin’where the Southern meets the Dog”. (This referred to a point where the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railroad (the Yellow Dog) crossed the Southern Railroad). W.C. Handy had discovered the blues!

The murals in Railroad Park depict this chance meeting and scenes of the town’s history. One of the murals provides a map to Tutweiler’s other claim to fame -- the grave of Sonny Boy Williamson II. (See below)

Following 2nd Avenue through “town” leads you to a small graveyard. Near the back is the grave of Sonny Boy. Fans leave beer cans, whiskey bottles and harmonicas as tribute to this blues legend.

Driving out of Tutweiler, we came across a huge correctional facility—we thought we had passed the infamous Parchman Penitentiary (a state pen), but it was a county facility. About 5 miles further on, the State had their own facility. How is it possible that in this sparsely populated area they need two huge penitentiaries. We eventually did drive by Parchman, known for it’s famous “residents”—Sonny Boy Williamson, Elvis Presley’s father, Son House.

“The Midnight Special” (the old Creedence Clearwater song -an original Leadbelly song) was about the train that brought weekend visitors up from New Orleans.

On the road to Cleveland, you pass by Dockery Farms.

From the road you can see the old cotton gin, the commissary and the Baptist Church for the plantation workers. Charley Patton (“King of the Delta Blues”) was one of the workers here.

Just north of Cleveland, outside the town of Merigold, we were on a mission- to find the last of the traditional juke joints- Po Monkeys.

Down a dirt road, following a creek, we finally came upon this ramshackle building- a true classic. On Thursday nights, the DJ, Dr. Tissue, plays from 8PM-2PM.

It was time to head north-with a stop at the Clarksdale Lebanese restaurant and a talk with the owner. He was amazed to find that we’d been to his home town in Lebanon. We got our stuffed kibbe, grape leaves and hummus and decided to stop for a glass of wine at the Hopson Plantation Commissary.

Inside the Commissary- Elvis will never leave this building!

We had a great conversation with the bartender/local blues historian, Robert Birdsong. He entertained us with stories about Clarksdale history and encounters with the blues greats. (He knew Ike Turner and told us that he wasn’t anywhere as bad as he was portrayed in the movie, “What’s Love Got to do with it”.)


They even have the last of the original "Bluesmobiles" in their parking lot.

Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit! (courtesy of Paula Deen)

On the recommendation of the Cajuns, we had to visit the “casina” (casino, for those of us non-Cajuns), lose a bit of money in the slots (I had to play Super Jackpot Party),

and, although we hate buffets- we had to try the Paula Deen Buffet at Harrah’s. $19.95 for all you can eat was probably a bargain for most of our fellow diners who went back for multiple heaping plates of B-Bqued meat, smoked meat and hoe cakes. The servers wore shirts proudly claiming, “Our hoes are free”. And, of course, there was the full array of “Southern vegetables” - cabbage, boiled okra, yams, mashed potatoes, squash, purple hull peas, butter beans, northern beans, lima beans, green beans, coleslaw, corn, sweet peas, black-eyed peas, greens, and two of the favorite soul food "vegetable," macaroni and cheese. Yes, in the south, mac and cheese is a vegetable. What’s not to love? And the desserts—gooey butter cake- check out the recipe- only 2 sticks of butter and a box of powdered sugar!

Gooey Butter Cakes.
· Cake
· 1 (18.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix
· 1 egg
· 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
· Filling
· 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
· 2 eggs
· 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
· 1 (16-ounce) box confectioners' sugar
· 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well. Pat into the bottom of prepared pan and set aside.
3. Still using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth; add eggs and vanilla. Dump in confectioners' sugar and beat well. Reduce speed of mixer and slowly pour in butter. Mix well.
4. Pour filling onto cake mixture and spread evenly. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Don't be afraid to make a judgment call on the cooking time, because oven temperatures can vary. You want the center to be a little gooey, so don't bake it past that point!
5. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares. Just remember that these wonderful little cakes are very, very rich, and a little will go a long way-even for piggies like me!

Cajuns and the Blue and White Donut Tower

John and Brenda left Katie- still in the hospital, but due out on Monday—and they joined us in Tunica for the evening. We heard their tales of the tornado—amazing!

In the morning, we took them to the Blue and White in Tunica. Our waitress- Deborah Kaye- was a real charmer. By the time we left, we knew everyone in the restaurant.

Their local legend, 89 year old Ralph Sharp ,the first crop-duster in Tunica County, posed for us by his photo from the 1949 National Geographic.

Ralph Sharp ,the first crop-duster in Tunica County

Brenda interviewed the 84 year old retired mayor to get the scoop on the casino’s impact on Tunica.

Brenda interviewing the Mayor

John, Brenda, Deborah Kay-our waitress and the Blue and White Donut Tower

After a hearty Blue and White breakfast of 2 eggs, hash browns (or grits), bacon (or sausage), biscuits (or toast), we decided that we had to try the infamous “Blue and White Donut Tower”—two caramelized donuts filled with whipped cream then topped with ice cream and chocolate syrup”.

If that wasn’t enough, the chef, Ike, brought out a sampler of her famous creole sauce. Time for a nap!

Clarksdale – Home of the Delta Blues

“You can’t spend what you ain’t got and you can’t lose what you never had”…..Muddy Waters

Finally- our trip to the home of the Delta Blues, Clarksdale, Mississippi. Muddy Waters lived and worked here, John Lee Hooker was born just outside Clarksdale and Ike Turner and Sam Cooke were born and raised there.

At the intersection of Highway 61 and 49, the “Crossroads are marked with a monument to the place where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil.
"I went to the crossroad Fell down on my knees I went to the crossroad Fell down on my knees Asked the Lord above "Have mercy now, Save poor Bob, if you please"
"Crossroad Blues" - ROBERT JOHNSON

The Sidewalk Scene in the "New World District" - Uncle Jessie's Little Greedy Pig Soul Food!
The Riverside Hotel, originally the GT Thomas Afro-American Hospital where singer Bessie Smith died, opened as a hotel in 1944 and was home to most of the blues musicians traveling to Clarksdale.

The Riverside Hotel

The town still has its share of juke joints. (The term supposedly came from a West African word that survived in the Gullah language spoken by some southern blacks. The word “juke” means wicked and disorderly.” When records became the rage, the term ‘jukebox’ was coined).

"Red's" - juke joint - Out front- a Pig Griller and a Toilet

"Red Top Lounge" Juke Joint
Morgan Freeman has made his mark in town with his own pseudo-juke joint, Ground Zero.
"Ground Zero"

Outside of town, on the Stovall Plantation, was the site of Muddy Water’s home (shack).

Several years ago, the folks from the Hard Rock bought the building and moved it to the Blues Museum in town.
An amazing place, a few miles south, is the Shack Up Inn , located at the Hobson Plantation.

Hopson Plantation- The Commissary

The owner of the Hopson Plantation turned his farm buildings into a commissary where you can get a cold brew and listen to the blues (and spend hours looking at his collection of everything from a complete barbershop and an old post office to old farm machinery). The country’s first cotton crop produced entirely by machine (from planting to bailing) was grown and harvested in 1944 here---Hence, the "Cotton Pickin Blues"

Inside the Commissary- The Bar (above) and the Back Porch (below)

"Ceiling Art"
At the Shack Up Inn next door, you can stay in sharecropper shotgun shacks. Their tag line-- Mississippi's Oldest B & B est. 1998(Bed & Beer)

Check out their photo gallery at: http://www.shackupinn.com/pictures.html

The Shack-Up Inn