MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2017l if e st yle

T R A V E L

The Mississippi Delta has no shortage ofmuseums, historic attractions and clubsdevoted to the blues. But visitors will find theregion has many other stories to tell, from the cot-ton plantations where African-American familiesworked and lived in desperate poverty to culinarytraditions that reflect a surprising ethnic diversity.

The blues trail and museumsYou can’t miss the big blue guitars marking the

famous crossroads of Highways 61 and 49 inClarksdale. This is where, according to legend,Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to learnhow to play the blues. Roadside signs for theMississippi Blues Trail make it easy to find othersites as well, from Clarksdale’s Riverside Hotel,where Bessie Smith died, to the Dockery Farmscotton plantation in Cleveland, where many pio-neering bluesmen lived, worked and made music,among them Charley Patton, Roebuck “Pops”Staples and Howlin’ Wolf.

A sign in a field at Clarksdale’s StovallPlantation notes that Muddy Waters’ songs wererecorded here in 1941 by musicologist AlanLomax as he collected folk music for the Library ofCongress. The sharecropper’s shack that Waterslived in has been restored and relocated to thenearby Delta Blues Museum . In Indianola, the B.B.King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center paystribute to King’s life and legacy. He’s buried thereas well. These museums and others use photos,artifacts, videos and other exhibits to explore theblues’ roots, beginning with African musical tradi-tions brought to the South by slaves. BecauseDelta cotton plantations were relatively isolated,musical styles developed here uninfluenced bytrends elsewhere. But eventually many African-Americans who barely eked out a living workingfor white landowners in the decades after the CivilWar migrated away from the South, seeking eco-

nomic opportunity elsewhere along with anescape from segregation and racial terror.

Muddy Waters left the Delta for Chicago in1943. BBKing left Mississippi for Memphis, wherehe got his big break at radio station WDIA. Theseand other bluesmen were worshipped by 1960smusic giants like Bob Dylan and the RollingStones. “Muddy Waters’ music changed my life,”said Eric Clapton. As the title of one of Waters’songs puts it, “The Blues Had A Baby And TheyNamed It Rock And Roll.”

Cat head, clubs and festivalsStop in Cat Head, a Mississippi blues music and

gift store in Clarksdale, for a chat with ownerRoger Stolle, a blues fan who moved there to“help pull the blues scene together in a way thatwould get people to come.” Local clubs staggertheir schedules so you can hear live music everynight. Stolle keeps a list online of who’s playingwhere. Clarksdale’s best-known club is GroundZero, co-owned by actor Morgan Freeman andClarksdale Mayor Bill Luckett, but blues fans maybe disappointed by party-vibe bands playingsongs here like “Sweet Home Alabama.” A moreinteresting venue is Red’s. Don’t be fooled by itsrundown appearance and tiny, informal livingroom-style interior. Red’s showcases under-the-radar, brilliantly talented musicians like LuciousSpiller whose performances will make you realizewhy the blues still matter. Delta festivals includethe Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival, Aug11-13, and the Oct 12-15 Deep Blues Fest. Nextyear’s Juke Joint Festival will be April 12-15, 2018.

Food, lodging and curtained boothsMississippi cuisine isn’t just catfish and barbe-

cue. Doe’s, in Greenville, where a security guardwatches over your car as you dine and walks youto the parking area when you leave, is known for

steaks the size of your head and has been recog-nized by the James Beard Foundation.Chamoun’s Rest Haven in Clarksdale, founded bya Lebanese family in the 1940s, serves some ofthe best kibbe you’ll find outside the MiddleEast. At Larry’s Hot Tamales, ask owner Larry Leeto share stories of how Mexican tamales becamea scrumptious Mississippi staple. For upscalebistro fare like ceviche and roasted vegetables,try Yazoo Pass in Clarksdale.

To learn more about culinary traditions inMississippi and elsewhere in the South, visit theSouthern Foodways Alliance website. Deltaaccommodations range from motels to theAlluvian, a luxury boutique hotel in Greenwood.The city, once a major shipping point for Deltacotton, is also where the movie “The Help” wasfilmed. Today Greenwood is headquarters forViking Range, the kitchen appliance manufactur-er, and a Viking cooking school (classes fill up fast

so book ahead). Other Greenwood spots includethe excellent Turnrow bookstore and the tastingroom for the Winery at Williams Landing, whichspecializes in wines made from Mississippi-grownmuscadine grapes. Pick up a bottle for dinner atLusco’s, a BYOB restaurant famous for wholegrilled pompano fish and for curtained boothsthat offered cotton traders privacy for businessdeals, romantic liaisons and alcohol consumption.

A unique lodging option in the Delta is spend-ing the night in a preserved sharecropper’s shackat the Shack Up Inn in Clarksdale or at TallahatchieFlats in Greenwood. Some travelers may find theconcept offensive as a sugarcoating of the miseryexperienced by those who had no choice but tolive this way. But for others, a night spent in a rus-tic cabin that rattles with the howling wind orshakes to its foundations in a thunderstorm mayevoke the very vulnerability that makes the bluesso haunting. — AP

For blues fans,

Mississippi Deltahas many stories to tell

Photo shows the B.B.King Museum andDelta Interpretive

Center in Indianola,Miss. — AP photos

Photo shows guitars marking the famous crossroads in Clarksdale, Miss.

Photo shows a preserved sharecropper’s cabin at Tallahatchie Flats in Greenwood, Miss.

A sign, right, in a field in Clarksdale, Miss, marks the site of the Stovall Plantation, where Muddy Waters’ songswere recorded in 1941 by musicologist Alan Lomax as he collected folk music for the Library of Congress.

Photo shows cypress trees in the Mississippi Delta.

Photo shows the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Miss.

Photo showsDockery Farms inCleveland, Miss,with a sign from theMississippi BluesTrail askingwhether theDockery cottonplantation mightbe considered the“Birthplace of theBlues.

Photo shows steaks being prepared at Doe’sEat Place in Greenville, Miss.