Mississippi’s ‘Juke Joint Hall of Fame’

The official state motto here is Virtute et Armis (“by valor and arms”).

But if you’re a music fan fascinated by the roots of rock, we’ve got a perfect slogan for every license plate here-- Home of the Blues.

For a blues fan, the drive along U.S. 49 and U.S. 61--through the swampy, flatlands of the Delta region west of here--is like a trip through the Juke Joint Hall of Fame. It seems as if virtually every town or hamlet, no matter how tiny or how impoverished, has spawned a favorite blues son.

U.S. 49 meets U.S. 82 at Greenwood, where Guitar Slim was born. Farther west on U.S. 82 is Indianola, B. B. King’s birthplace. Farther north, in the Delta, are tiny villages like Marksville (home of Little Walter), Glendora (Sonny Boy Williamson) and Aberdeen (Howlin’ Wolf).

And finally, just off Mississippi 1 outside of Clarksdale (where John Lee Hooker was born) is Stovall, an old plantation site where sits a battered cabin that was Muddy Waters’ childhood home.

Waters’ old homestead is badly in need of restoration--and doesn’t even have a marker to commemorate it. But if the state has--so far--been remiss in honoring some of its native sons, that doesn’t mean the blues has been forgotten.

In fact, no one has done more to honor the spirit of the blues--and keep its musical flame alive--than the Center for the Study of Southern Culture here on the campus of the University of Mississippi. Operating out of a frayed 19th-Century building just off Sorority Row called the Barnard Observatory, the center has sponsored everything from an annual William Faulkner Conference to a symposium on “The Media and the Civil Rights Movement.”

But thanks to center Director Bill Ferris, a longtime blues enthusiast who was away last week lecturing on a river boat, music is studied with equal seriousness. “Black culture is an intrinsic part of Southern culture, so it’s a big part of the work we do here,” explained Associate Director Ann Abadie, who noted that one scholar--and blues fan--affiliated with the center is Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, who is writing a paper comparing India’s untouchables with the poor blacks of Mississippi.

“We also publish Living Blues magazine, which is probably the only magazine devoted entirely to the blues, while our Blues Archives is a major research facility with all sorts of records, film and memorabilia, as well as B. B. King’s private record collection.”

(One of the Ole Miss classes affiliated with the center is “The Roots of Rock ‘n Roll,” which is taught each Thursday by Robert Palmer, a New York Times critic and author of the musical history book “Deep Blues.”)

“There’s a whole generation of younger bluesmen coming out of Clarksdale and its surrounding towns,” said Living Blues editor Peter Lee, a South African native who went to school at Ole Miss. “You can see people like Earnest (Guitar Junior) Roy and Lonnie Shields, who are really good guitarists, and Big Jack Reynolds, who has a new album out called ‘The Oil Man.’

“The music is very much of a living culture, especially in this state,” said Lee, whose office is decorated with flyers of local blues bands and a poster of the Parchman Prison Rodeo that shows inmates lassoing a steer. “It’s still a big part of the black community’s life, and that impact is spreading to young white people as well. We have a Delta Blues Festival in Clarksdale each September--and each year it attracts more and more of a younger audience, of both whites and blacks.”

Lee would like to see the state take a more active interest in the blues--and its history. “I’d like to see them establish some markers or plaques. The only grave you can really find is Sonny Boy Williamson’s, which is in Tutwiler, on Highway 49, and that was donated by his old record company and is kept up by his relatives, not the state.”

BLUES POWER: Jim O’Neal, one of the founding editors of Living Blues, recently moved to Clarksdale, where he is writing a book on Delta blues and building a recording studio where he can make albums for his new label, Rooster Records. (He’s already released 45s by Shields, Roy and Boobea Barnes, a Greenville-based guitarist/harp player.)

“In a lot of ways the Delta feels like it hasn’t changed at all,” O’Neal explained, after giving a visitor directions to Waters’ childhood home. “They still farm cotton, even if it’s mechanized now. And there are juke joints everywhere. You can get a pretty good idea of what crop means the most around here by their names--the Cotton Exchange, the Cotton Inn, the Cotton Club. There’s also the Blue Diamond, the Red Top, the Harlem Inn--a fancy black show club that just celebrated its 48th anniversary--and Monkey’s, which is down the street from me.”

Last year O’Neal got a call from ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons, a die-hard blues fan who wanted to cruise through the Delta. “We went out to Muddy’s house and just poked around, mainly to see if there were any old (slide guitar) bottlenecks still around,” O’Neal said. “Billy really seemed to be moved by finding the place and you could kind of tell that he had this idea of taking a piece of lumber and turning it into a guitar, so if anyone asked him what his instrument was made out of, he could say ‘Muddy’s house.’ ”

O’Neal also took Gibbons to Clarksdale’s Blues Museum, which is situated in the city’s Old Carnegie Public Library. According to O’Neal, it’s only a part-time affair--in fact, you usually need to request a key just to get in to see it.

That should change soon, thanks to ZZ Top, who were made honorary citizens of Clarksdale during an April 21 celebration honoring Muddy Waters and the Blues Museum. The fete, which kicked off a $1-million fund-raising drive for the museum, featured a catfish dinner and a ceremony where the band donated a white electric guitar made out of a cypress log from Waters’ home to the museum (Gibbons had a second guitar made, which he’ll play on ZZ Top’s tour).

Museum staffers say the ZZ Top appearance (which featured a wee-hours live performance at the Cotton Exchange by ex-members of Waters’ band) was the start of several projects aimed at raising money for the library, which will eventually be rebuilt with a performing auditorium, surrounded by blues exhibits.

After receiving his key to the city, Top’s Dusty Hill quipped: “Does this mean we have to pay taxes now?”

BOPPING THE BLUES: The blues is all over the airwaves in this state too. From 10 p.m. to midnight every Saturday, you can hear Bill Ferris’ “Highway 61” blues show on nearly a dozen outlets of Mississippi Public Radio. But you’ve never heard blues radio until you’ve heard Early Wright (a.k.a. the Soul Man), who broadcasts weeknights from about 8 p.m. to midnight on WROX-AM in Clarksdale. A Delta institution, Wright has been on the air nearly 40 years--and sounds as if he hasn’t changed his down-home, country-lickin’ style a bit since he first sat in front of the mike. Speaking in a lazy, often impenetrable Delta drawl, he played all sorts of obscure blues hits, read death notices (offering quips about deceased citizens he happened to know personally), hyped visiting circuit preachers, touted the fresh produce at local grocery stores (“If you could see the lima beans I brought home the other day from Melvin’s”) and was at a loss for words only when he took a sip of water and nearly choked. “Damn!” he growled. “I nearly swallowed a roach! What’s he doin’ in my glass?”

Soul Man couldn’t be located for an interview, but according to O’Neal, Wright was one of the first black deejays on the radio in the South. “He’s a treasure--he’s been on the air continuously since 1949,” O’Neal said. “He’s easily in his 60s, but he’s still going strong and really is a great link to an earlier era. We wanted to do something to show our appreciation, so we’re planning to start a scholarship in his name at Ole Miss later this year.”

CBS UPDATE: Remember those rumors we mentioned about CBS Records top exec Al Teller leaving the company--reports that CBS wouldn’t dignify with a comment? Consider them dignified. CBS has “regretfully” announced Teller’s departure--and confirmed that top rock manager Tommy Mottola is moving in (under company president Walter Yetnikoff) as new president of the CBS Records division. Even though the move is official, Yetnikoff still refused to comment about why the industry’s biggest company is playing musical chairs. However, CBS insiders praised the move, saying it was a Yetnikoff maneuver aimed at boosting morale at the company. The switch is also said to make a strong statement about CBS’ industry future, with Mottola, 39, being the youngest top exec ever to serve at the company. What’s next? Expect CBS to fill the long-vacant post of head of Epic Records (which serves, along with Columbia, as a key CBS label) by hiring Dave Glew, who recently resigned as general manager of Atlantic Records.