Here lies Mr. Johnson in Little Zion's graveyard. (Davis 7/12)
Robert Johnson is a man of many mysteries. The supposed deal with the devil is only one of them and probably the easiest to dismiss as a bunch of nonsense.
It's called guitar lessons.
Who killed Johnson? Who knows?
But most folks think that the murder had something to do with a woman.
Where is he buried? One of three graves. That's where.
I'm inclined to believe that he's buried in the graveyard of
Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church.
That's where the Blues Trail marker says he is anyway.
And where are the "crossroads"?
Not in Clarkesdale, even though there's a big ol' garish pair of guitars there.
There's a crossroads closer to Dockery Farms
that seems like a plausible place to hitch a ride.
Ask Dr. Brown to point you there.
If you want to spend some time on Johnson's trail, I recommend that you accompany John Hammond in his investigations. There's also an interview with a man who has heard someone confess to killing Johnson.
Here's a section from the documentary "In Search of Robert Johnson."
When will it be okay to hail from the South? When you flip through your kazillion television channels, do you ever get the feeling that southerners are the last group of folks that it's okay to lampoon as a a matter of course? Now I'm not saying that we all don't deserve a little satire and ribbing now and again. What I'm wondering is...who's telling the rest of the story?
When a southern character appears in a television show, do you expect him or her to act in a certain way? Are you 99.9% sure that the conflict of racism will feature in 99.9% of the plot? I'm speaking hyperbolically here, I know.
When a southern character does not appear in a television show, do you wonder where he or she is? How cool would it have been to have a Mississippian for a physicist on "The Big Bang Theory"? Way cool.
Specifically, what's it like to be from the Mississippi Delta? Before the casinos rolled into town in Tunica, Tunica was the poorest county in America. It's okay. Read that sentence again. Can you imagine being a citizen of the poorest county in America? I'll bet we've all been exposed to impoverished communities, but the poorest? I know that "poor" doesn't always mean "miserable." On the other hand, what does it feel like to wonder what the future will hold when you are a child in such a town?
This brings me to a legion of Swiss bikers. Really, it does. Hang in there. You've heard about highway 61...the Blues Highway. Well, basically there's old 61 and middle-aged 61. If you visit today, you will travel the latter. There are plans to create a new 61. Guess which hallowed blues site was in the path of this new plan. Dockery Farms...possible birthplace of the blues. Yes. Now, this sounds incomprehensible to us. How could this be?
Here's my opinion on the matter. When your state always seems to be on the bottom rung of the ladder and when you're fighting to keep your head above water in an area that is suffering severe economic depression, perhaps you are not thinking clearly. Where was the community outrage? Perhaps they were uninformed, broke and preoccupied with the daily business of living. Perhaps they never got the message that their culture and heritage was of great value to the world outside their doorstep. I imagine that it's easy to misjudge your Mississippi town's importance when you are living that far below the poverty line without a direct link to the rest of the universe. Here come the bikers in Cecil Vick's article, "How Swiss Bikers Saved the Blues."
"...a group of 30 bikers from Switzerland arrived at Dockery Farms on Harley-Davidson motorcycles to stage a blues sing-in and to support the preservation of the Dockery site and buildings... The Swiss bikers had traveled to America, rented bikes in New Orleans, and were touring Delta Blues sites. They spent the entire morning protesting and singing the blues--often in German. Biker Phillip Franchiser told the Bolivar Commercial that Dockery is a very important and well known blues site to European blues fans: Dockery Farms is very prestigious in Switzerland. It’s a big mysterious legendary place. Anyone who knows anything about the blues knows about people like Charlie Patton and Will Dockery. I’m really glad to be here.'"
Dockery Farms is safe for now. New 61 will skirt the site. You may find it using the free Blues Trail app. The Blues Trail Markers are designed to help bring money into the Delta. Unlike the grey plaques that dot our main highways, these markers were placed off the beaten track in order to bring money and visitors right to where history was made.
If you do get to visit the Mississippi Delta, you'll fall in love with the people right away. They are friendly and genuinely happy to see you, especially when you tell them that you are enjoying their town. If you have been blessed with some disposable income, spend freely and always tip a little extra when you can. If you are unable to visit and are looking for a charity to support, Dr. Luther Brown gives glowing recommendations for Mound Bayou's Sisters of Mercy.
Being a student and a tourist has kept me from blogging, but I'm going to get back to letting you know the highlights as soon as I can. It will probably be all out of chronological order, but as we know in the South, the past is never past. It's just that Dockery Farms and the marginalization of the poor, rural South's contributions to American culture were on my mind this morning. You know what they say about a prophet in his own land. Sometimes we need to remind those lands that we value their people and history.
Ohmygoodnessitishot. I bet you know what I'm talking about. We're trying to tie up loose ends around here with the house, lawn and garden. The almost-new heating element on my dryer has stopped working, but we don't really need it right now. There's sun tea brewing outside the kitchen door. I've impatiently picked a few of our black cherry tomatoes early. Our neighbor's kitties have been checked out by the vet, and I pick up the runt of the litter tonight. Locally roasted coffee beans are on the way to share with folks at Delta State. My parents have been given the official caretakers' instructions.
I'm trying to re-read some of the required materials that I read months ago at the laundromat, back when the dryer wasn't working last time. I'm also trying to add in extra reading and watching to prepare for the coursework. Last night we enjoyed the documentary "M for Mississippi. "
I'm looking forward to hearing Bill Abel tell us all about the blues. You can see him right here.
Y'all, I don't know how I'm going to survive the Delta heat without wearing a headscarf every day. I am going to be a fashion don't from sun up to sun down. I'll be wearing a bathtub or hotel pool in the evening. Don't worry...I won't mention your name while I'm a hot mess.
Albuquerque Stuart on mandolin, Bill Abel and Memphis Clint on guitar. Mr. Abel seemed to enjoy playing with our teacher participants. (Davis 7/12)
Since I have a cooking-from-scratch hangover, it's Farm Fresh paninis, Northern Neck ginger ale, leftover three-bean salad, Betty Crocker walnut brownies (with chopped pecans added in) and vanilla ice cream for dinner. I settled into bed to work on my required reading and promptly fell asleep for a half hour.
Now I'm awake to tell you about a book I finished earlier this year as part of the syllabus, since I didn't get very far with today's selection. First, let me say that I have strong biases when it comes to the music that I enjoy. Words, in general, I need to have words in my songs. I understand that computers are used to mix music, but I don't want to hear their heavy footprints in the way of letting a vocalist hit certain inhuman notes and blending the band into a tasteless background hum. I'm not a musician, so I don't have the appreciation for classical music that I should. And I'm not working it out on the dance floor, so techno has got to go. Which brings me to...
That's how I like my music. Thank goodness for people like Alan Lomax and William Ferris who had the sense to capture and preserve roots music. Ferris spent his time traveling to new places, making new relationships and documenting traditional sounds. He talks about the hard lives of black sharecroppers and the stories of Chicago's money trees that lured Mississippians north.
Ferris also explores the fact that, "Music was one of the few avenues to success available for blacks, and because blues records were sold to black audiences, recording success reflected how well a singer expressed the feelings of his or her audience. The blues singer became a spokesman for the black community" (9).
Ferris writes about being a white outsider who needed to develop a rapport with the locals in order to gain access to the musicians and their blues. This allowed the men to speak freely about sometimes contentious relationships with white men, and those stories are included here.
I'm partial to the section on the male/female call and response songs because I like some rowdy sass sometimes. It makes me think of Joe Tex and Carla Thomas carrying on in Stax's "The Same Things it Took to Get Me".
I also enjoyed the historical context of the "one strand on the wall". If you want your own, Jack White will show you how, but you don't need to plug yours into an amp.
There's tension between blues and gospel music, solo and band performances, old and new blues musicians, men and women, black and white and humankind and nature. In addition to broader stories, Ferris recounts his visits with a handful of blues performers and transcribes the lyrics and conversations of interviews as well as house party performances. This technique brings the reader right inside the experience that Ferris is enjoying firsthand.
If you think you want to be a blues performer, Mr. Ferris would want you to know that you better be quick on the draw. Blues lyrics should be flexible and impromptu in order to please the audience at hand. But if people are trying to dance because your audience is no longer a house party but a big venue, you've got to make that happen by playing the recorded and familiar version.
Now listen up to Howlin' Wolf to see if you've got what it takes.
