Traveling Through The Delta - Summer, 2022 Edition

More CD reviews next week......this week we'll take a little side trip through the blues.  Each summer, my brother and I try to make a day trip through a section of the Land Where The Blues Began, checking out Mississippi Blues Trail markers or grave sites or other blues-related attractions.  This year, we opted to travel to Leland and work our way back home through several different towns.  

On the way to Leland, we stopped at Holly Ridge at the New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery, where Charley Patton was buried in 1934.  There are actually three blues men buried in this cemetery on Long Switch Road....Patton, Little Willie Foster, and Asie Payton.  All three artists made memorable contributions to the blues.      

Charley Patton, of course, is considered the "founder" of the Delta blues (his blues marker was the very first one placed) and his recordings are readily available from several different sources.  He influenced as many future blues performers with his showmanship as he did with his voice.

Willie Foster played with many of the genre's local legends.....T-Model Ford, Frank Frost, and Asie Payton, among others.  His At Airport Grocery album is essential listening for Delta blues fans.

Asie Payton recorded later in life, spending most of his life driving a tractor.......getting off just long enough to record two memorable albums released posthumously on Fat Possum Records, Worried and Just Do Me Right.

A few miles away, we found a blues marker for Jimmy Reed, located near his birthplace on Dunleith Plantation.  Reed grew up here and developed his signature sound (he had more hits on the pop charts than any other bluesman) with Eddie Taylor (see last week's post).  His songs have been covered by countless blues artists.

We found several markers in Leland....we had intended to visit the Highway 61 Museum downtown, but it was closed, and has been for quite some time....not sure why.  The markers we located were for Johnny Winter (whose dad was a native of Leland, actually served as mayor), Tyrone Davis (whose aunt and uncle ran a store where Davis' marker is located), and James "Son" Thomas.  We also traveled down to Bogue Memorial Cemetery, south of Leland to see Thomas' grave.  Sadly, the headstone had been knocked over recently.  We missed a few markers in Leland, but we'll go back through and catch those later.

Johnny Winter made his mark in the blues and rock genres, with a lengthy stint for Columbia Records in the late 60's through the late 70's, plus recordings for Alligator in the 80's, Point Blank in the 90's, and continued to record until he passed away in 2014.  He also produced Muddy Waters' final albums in the late 70's/early 80's.

Tyrone Davis was a major figure in the soul genre, recording such hits as "Turn Back The Hands Of Time," "Turning Point," and "Can I Change My Mind," all number one hits.  He made his mark on the blues and soul charts from the late 60's until shortly before his death in 2005.

James "Son" Thomas' marker is in front of the old Montgomery Hotel in Leland, where Thomas worked as a porter.  In addition to being a musician, he was also a folk sculptor and his primitive art was very popular (his son, Pat, is also a musician and sculptor in the Leland area).  He recorded several fine albums during his lifetime, including my favorite, Beefsteak Blues.

We were disappointed to find Thomas' headstone in such dire straits.  During our travels, I've found several blues markers that have been vandalized, but this was the first headstone I'd seen like this.  I'm assuming that it was just kids being kids.....Thomas' marker was the largest in the cemetery and that was probably what attracted the attention.

From Leland, we ventured south on Highway 61 to Hollandale, where we found Sam Chatmon's blues marker in the middle of town.  Chatmon played and recorded with his brothers during the 1930's....the Mississippi Sheiks, who were based in Hinds County.  He spent most of his life in Hollandale and later launched a solo career in the 1960's.  Some of his recordings can be heard on the Arhoolie collection I Have To Paint My Face.  He is also buried in Hollandale, but we didn't realize that until after we had gotten home.  

South of Hollandale on 61 is Rolling Fork, which Muddy Waters claimed as his birthplace.  If you're reading this, you don't really need to be told about Muddy Waters, do you?  Waters was influenced by many Delta artists, notably Patton, Robert Johnson, and Son House, but that's really just scratching the surface.....maybe we'll explore his influences more deeply in future posts.

The town of Rolling Fork (which has some other history involving the Teddy Bear) has a nice little park dedicated to Waters, where the blues marker is located (background) and this neat little sculpture.

All in all, it was a very eventful trip and we got to see a lot of sites that we had not seen before.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to check out the Highway 61 Museum as planned and we had problems finding a good place to eat (we were either too early or too late coming through).  We're already excited about our next blues journey and we might even go earlier than planned.