Clarksdale, MS - Covid has shut most of it down 😩

When I started planning my trip, once I decided to ride in both Tennessee and Arkansas, it dawned on me that a slight routing change between The Dragon and my rides in Arkansas would allow me to visit Clarksdale, MS. I’m a huge fan of Blues music and I felt that Clarksdale would be a perfect stopping point. Unfortunately, the Covid situation limited my activities in Clarksdale. 

Clarksdale was kind of a bust. The two hotels  I wanted to stay at were unavailable.  One of which, was the John Clark Mansion. Clark was the founder of Clarksdale and the Mansion is now a bed and breakfast Inn, but operating on a low occupancy plan. My hotel ended up being just a bit higher in status than a hotel where rooms are rented by the hour. 

Because of Covid, the town was dead and there is no live music during the week. I’m bummed because I missed seeing Watermelon Slim play live on the weekend before I arrived 😡. Some bars/venues stream “live” music during the week and I have watched a few and they are hit or miss.

Though I was not able to see live music, there were some highlights: I went to the Delta Blues Museum and because I booked an early viewing time, I had the entire place to myself. Amazing collection of information, pictures, guitars, clothing and other Blues-related stuff. I saw posters from the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz festivals which took place in the early 70s. There was a great section devoted to McKinley Morganfield, aka Muddy Waters, including the amazing story of how Alan Lomax “discovered” Muddy and introduced him to the world and ultimately great fame and fortune.  It is worth googling Alan Lomax and reading about his work with the Library of Congress (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Lomax). Unfortunately, there are many stories of other blues musicians who, became recognized/famous, but never received much compensation for their pioneering work.

Besides the visit to the Delta Blues Museum, I stopped and took pictures of a number of  “music venues”, and then finished the morning with a “late breakfast” at Abe’s bbq.  Worth the detour? Yep. Will go back when things open up a bit.