Highway 82 West

I am following my dream

The landscape has now changed. The flat open lands of the delta have replaced the forests of southern Mississippi. This was the last area to be settled in Mississippi and it is where many of the freed slaves moved to after the Civil war. The wet lands between the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers known as the Delta was subsequently drained to provide some of the most fertile agricultural land in the world. This is the land where cotton was king. It was great to be driving along with the sun shinning, the windows open and Taj Mahal singing Elmore James’ “Dust My Broom” We are in the Delta proper now and Blues landmarks are everywhere.

Some of the Blog followers have asked about our form of transport. I suppose that many of you expect us to be travelling on Harley Davison’s or in an open vintage Cadillac. I hate to disappoint you but we are 21^st travellers and we have decided to travel in a fitting style in out hybrid Toyota Prius

The 21st century Cadillac

Our first stop was at Belzoni on 49W. This sad run-down town was the home to Sonny Boy Williamson. Robert Johnson and Elmore James played here often. We visited the old jail where Charley Patton spent some time and wrote about in “High Sheriff Blues”.

Charley Patton's jail in Belzoni

Across to 61North again to Hollandale. All these towns have suffered badly in the recession. Most of the shops are vacant and I can’t see how they will ever be revived again. We looked for Sam Chatmon’s grave. Chatmon was born in 1911 and moved to the town in the 1940s

An original Juke Joint in Hollandale

61 meets the other famous blues road 82 at Leland. The town was known as the “Hell Hole of the Delta” when 10,000 cotton workers would descend on the town at weekends. Local bluesmen included the great Jimmy Reed, Willie Foster, Little Milton and James “Son” Thomas. Johnny and Edgar Winter also come from the town. We visited the Highway 61 Blues Museum. This is a small, poorly resourced museum but well worth visiting. We were fortunate to meet James “Son” Thomas’ bluesman son, Pat Thomas. Pat played for us and before long the boys were jamming with Pat. Watch the video below.

The boys jamming with Pat Thomas (son of James "Son" Thomas)

We moved on to visit Charley Patton’s grave who died in 1934. He was one of the original fathers of Delta Blues. Try and listen to some of his work if you can, especially “High Water Blues”. It was great to leave a pebble on his gravestone.

We moved on to Indianola, the home of BB King to visit the BB King Museum. BB is well known to all you music fans out there and I will just say that it was a museum not to be missed. What a great man and ambassador for Mississippi and the Blues. Just try and imagine what a treat it was.

Charley Patton's grave on the flat delta land

Drove on to Greenwood where we leave from tomorrow to visit the legendary Robert Johnson’s grave.

The boys Jam with Pat Thomas

The flat delta land with Charley Patton on the radio