Clarksdale, Mississippi

Earlier this evening we were watching "60 Minutes" (which started a little late because of the football game, as expected) and they had a segment about things going on in Clarksdale, Mississippi.  When I was asked if I was familiar with the town, and I had to say yes.

No, I have never been there, but anyone who knows anything about blues music is familiar with the town, one of the central points of blues music as we know it.  Clarksdale is one of the bigger towns that was part of the Mississippi delta region, origin of a lot of blues music. It is listed as the birthplace of many blues legends, and it seemed like most of the famous and influential bluesmen hailed from the town, either born there (or the vicinity), or grew up there, or spent time there.  People like John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, BB King, etc.  Robert Johnson, who I have mentioned quite a bit on this blog, had been a resident.  In fact, the story tonight mentioned that the famous crossroads he visited is in the area, now marked with all kinds of markers, a tourist attraction.  A few weeks ago I mentioned on this blog something about that, a legend that Johnson did nothing to discourage, that said he travelled to a near by crossroads one night and sold his soul to the devil in exchange for learning how to play the guitar and write great songs.  At the opening reception for my current show in Ocean Grove I was asked about that and told people that what I knew was that there was a legend about it, and since he had no known talent before then, and suddenly became great at both those things, people of his era were inclined to believe it.  His influence on many later musicians in indisputable.  

Another thing I know about Clarksdale is that it was a stop on the Illinois Central and Gulf train line, which once traveled from New Orleans to Chicago.  It was also the train line that passed by the Good Luck Glove Factory in Carbondale, Illinois, where I had my studio space in my SIU years.  The famous City of New Orleans was part of that line, and was still passing through Carbondale when I was there, but at that point was being run by Amtrak.  (my understanding is that the whole rail line was sold to a Canadian company since then)  When Johnson was singing his song Love in Vain, he was probably singing about a train on the Illinois Central line. (my source for the passenger car in the above woodcut about that song was an internet photo of a vintage Illinois Central train car)

These days Clarksdale looks pretty run down, like so many towns in the south and midwest. A large number of the residents live below the poverty line, businesses are mostly closed, and the downtown looks largely abandoned.  However, it is a music capital of sorts, and there are a lot of blues clubs and a lot of tourists who come through to see the places where legends once stood.  The story tonight showed a few people who had come from there and had enough reputation to make it out, but also showed even more people who had come from far away places and stayed, attracted by the music made so well long ago.  The music that gave birth to rock and roll, r&b, country, metal, punk, hip-hop, and everything else that followed.