Delta Sites
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Muddy Waters said that the only time he actually saw Robert Johnson was on the front porch of Hirsberg's Drugstore in Friars Point, Mississippi. A crowd of people had gathered around Johnson, who was playing ferociously. Waters became intimidated by the older man's musicianship and quickly left. | |||
Tutwiler train station is where W.C. Handy first heard a man play the blues on a slide guitar. A historical marker identifies the spot - only the foundation remains | |||
In the graveyard of Whitfield Church, off of Highway 49, is the final resting place of harmonica legend Aleck "Rice" Miller, better known as Sonny Boy Williamson. Aleck Miller's grave looks out across the hot and dusty Delta cotton fields. | |||
Parchman Farm is the Mississippi State Penitentiary, a large work farm where convicts formerly raised cotton and staples. Once notorious for squalid conditions and inhumane treatment by gun-toting trustees, it housed Son House, Bukka White, and several other bluesmen that had been incarcerated by the state of Mississippi. In 1939, folklorist Alan Lomax recorded White and others at Parchman Farm for the Library of Congress. | |||
On Drew's town square, Charley Patton, Tommy Johnson (who lived on the nearby Webb Jennings Plantation), and Willie Brown played for tips from farmers who had come to town. A young Howlin' Wolf, who was heavily influenced by these men, did the same during the late 1920s and early 1930s. | |||
Howlin' Wolf moved to the Young & Myers Plantation near Ruleville when he was thirteen. During the late 1920s and early 1930s Wolf played the streets of Ruleville for tips. The town still has juke joints, some of which are pictured here on 4th Street, also known locally as Greasy Street. | |||
The Dockery Plantation was home to Charley Patton for many years, and it was here that he learned from bluesman Henry Sloan. Patton's friends Willie Brown, Son House, and Tommy Johnson played parties, picnics, and fish fries in the tenant quarters at Dockery. Howlin' Wolf moved to Dockery Plantation in 1929 to work and soak up Patton's music. | |||
Charley Patton's grave is in Holly Ridge, Mississippi. The graveyard is surrounded by cotton fields and next to a large cotton gin. The New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church, where Charley Patton performed his religious songs, is nearby. | |||
In Indianola, Mississippi, south of the railroad tracks, sits the venerable Club Ebony (formerly Jones Night Spot) where a young B.B. King saw Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Robert Nighthawk, and other great performers. | |||
In the small town of Moorehead, the Southern Railway line crossed the tracks of the Yazoo Delta Railway, or Yellow Dog in local parlance. A sign commemorates the spot "Where the Southern Crosses the Dog", a site often referred to in blues lyrics and made famous by W.C. Handy in his song "Yellow Dog Blues." | |||
Robert Johnson's grave is behind the Payne Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Quito, Mississippi. The stone was erected in 1991, though there is some dispute whether Johnson is buried here or in Morgan City. | |||
The Three Forks Store, where a jealous husband reportedly poisoned Robert Johnson, has been moved to this location beside Highway 7. | |||
The Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church near Morgan City maintains the Robert Johnson Memorial, which was donated by Columbia Records. According to Johnson's death certificate, he's buried in the Mt. Zion graveyard. However, bluesman David "Honeyboy" Edwards, who was with Johnson when he died, claims that Johnson's sister moved his remains to Payne Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in nearby Quito. | |||
This Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Greenwood, Mississippi, depicts the shotgun house at 109 Young Street where Honeyboy Edwards claimed Robert Johnson died. That house has been torn down and another currently occupies its place. |
Delta Sites
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