Last year, my wife and I moved from the Rocky Mountains to Mississippi. We miss the mountains. However, we’ve enjoyed the food and the music. I’ve even been able to hear our local blues man, Terry “Harmonica” Bean play surrounded by friends and neighbors in a small intimate setting … a pie shop.
We’ve visited the delta a couple times now to bathe in the history of it all since it’s only a couple hours away. If you ever find yourself in Clarksdale, Mississippi, I would definitely recommend stopping in to visit the Blues Museum there. Great exhibits featuring all the blues greats that hail from the delta. I enjoyed looking at a little exhibit there that featured several of Sony Boy Williamson II 's harps.
Just around the corner from the Blues Museum sits Deak’s Mississippi Saxophones & Blues Emporium. I was fortunate to find Deak Harp there on my last visit. I must of spent about an hour in the little store visiting with Deak and looking at the enormous amount of memorabilia packed into such a small space. I also took him up on his “The Juke Special” level of customization on a new MB harp. I recommend stopping in if you find yourself in Clarksdale, Mississippi … .
Sounds like my kinda place. I really love intimate little settings. It would be Cool to be lucky to jam a little with some other harp players. A lot can be learned from an experience like that.
And there’s Red’s Juke Joint and the Bluesberry Cafe and the Ground Zero Blues Club (co-owned by the Clarksdale mayor and Morgan Freeman). My FB wall paper is me onstage at Ground Zero playing into a HarpGear amp via a Bulletini mic - which is now my ‘gig rig’. Beers on the club’s front porch with RJ Mischo, Hash Brown, Watermelon Slim and Jon Gindick afterwards. What a night!
And just down the road is the Shack Up Inn with the Juke Joint Chapel (home of The Harmonica Experience, a one-week live-in harmonica workshop run by Cheryl Arena - used to be Jon Gindick).
And if you’re in the area (or tuned in over the Internet), don’t miss James Poe – general manager and radio format creator – over at WABG - “the Awesome AM” in Greenwood, Mississippi, the voice of the Mississippi Delta. A unique mix of Delta blues, modern blues, soul, R&B, etc.
I’m pretty sure this is the museum you are talking about. This was just I played a few songs with the resident guitar man Patt, in the lobby, 2019. My wife and I were on a cross country road trip and when I realized where we were I couldn’t just “pass through.” I dont see the picture here but hopefully you can see it if you click on the coding.
I’ve still got my Clarkdale Bullfrog badge from the last time I was there. I played with Terry ( or Bean as every one seemed to call him) brilliant player and a really fun dude. I doubt he’d remember me. But he was very generous to me in regards to playing
Cool to be lucky to jam a little with some other harp players. A lot can be learned from an experience like that.