Day 6 Mississippi Delta Blues Music

Today I drove into Clarksdale, the home of the Delta Blues. Everything here is about the blues - streets, shops, venues and people. I visited the Delta Blues museum and saw some great old guitars. These instruments belonged to people with names like T-model Ford, Sonny Boy Williams, Son House, Muddy Waters and T-Bone Walker. I stopped into the Cat Head and dropped Larry Grimes' name and had a long conversation with the owner,  Roger Stolle, about some of the parallels in music evolution between blues and bluegrass. He is a wealth of knowledge on blues history. Check out his books at http://www.cathead.biz/

I checked into the only guitar shop in town, Bluestown Music. I caught owner Ronnie Drew working on an old Gibson banjo. He, local drummer Trey Monty, and I sat around for over an hour talking about things like digital drum kits and how to repair loose necks on old archbacks. Ronnie had a great collection of vintage guitars and I had a chance to play some rare guitars. I played an old Silvertone that was identical to my first guitar that we ordered from the Sears catalog. He put my Reborn Guitars card on his wall and mentioned it to everyone that came through the door. Nice guys!

I met a couple on the sidewalk, Danny and Debbie Brooks, that were from Canada but were now living in Texas. Danny is a musician and was on a 3-week tour with over 50 gigs through the south, into Canada and back down the East coast. He was playing tonight at Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero blues club. They invited me there for dinner. I met them there about dark. I ate some very tasty fried green tomatoes while Big Dave and his band played some mean blues. Danny took the stage and the guy is as full of soul as a white guy can be! He played a really mean slide guitar and had a huge voice. At the end of the evening, he gave me his newest Cd and insisted I come visit them in Texas and check out their dirt-floored Cowboy church. You can check out his music at www.dannybrooksmusic.com

Big Dave

Big Dave's Slide-guitar man. They called him Doc. He is a medical student about to finish his degree

Danny Brooks

So I still haven't seeen the Mississippi River. Tomorrow, seriously!