Story by Neala McCarten
Gateway to the Blues Museum. Photo by Tunica Convention and Visitors Bureau
FOLLOWTHE BLUES TRAIL Museums bringmusic andmusicians of theMississippi Delta to life
Next, head about an hour south to the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale. While you’re there, stop in for real Blues at Ground Zero (co-owned by Morgan Freeman). Finally, go one hour further south to the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in King’s hometown of Indianola. Tunica The Gateway to the Blues Museum opened in 2015. It has become a must-stop for anyone interested in this uniquely American music, providing a thoughtful introduction to the music and the men and women who sang it. It isn’t large, only 3,500 square feet, but it is visually exciting and packed with information, memorabilia, and with music. Don’t miss the videos from local historian Willy Beardon and blues singer/musicians Preston Shannon and Eden Brent who explain, play, and sing the Blues at the interactive kiosks. Visitors come away with a deeper understanding of the problems faced by the early musicians, including the Chitlin’ Circuit, the clubs throughout the south where black performers could entertain. You’ll also learn why W. C. Handy is considered the Father of the Blues. He wasn’t the first to play it, but he certainly nurtured it. Don’t miss their extensive guitar collection, or the chance to compose your own blues.
The Blues was born in the rich soil of the Mississippi Delta, growing like the crops tended by field hands. The music reflected their lives, their hopes, and their sorrows, but it was also transformed by the men and women it inspired. The Blues became the mother of folk and of rock and roll. Or, as Muddy Waters sang it, "The Blues had a baby and they named him Rock 'N' Roll." In 2006 Mississippi created the Blues Trail, a series of markers placed at historic Blues-related sites throughout the state. Their website, msbluestrail.org/, lists the markers and includes downloadable maps and apps. The markers are fascinating, but there are three Mississippi museums that focus on the sorrowful music and its Bluesmen and Blueswomen. You can’t know the Delta and the Blues without visiting these state-of-the-music museums. Start with the Gateway to the Blues Museum, located in an 1895 train depot in Tunica at the northern end of Mississippi on the road known as the Blues Highway, Route 61. It was the major route out of Mississippi and the one used by the music and the people as they migrated north. As with many roads, there’s a new version of Highway 61, but the original still exists in bits and pieces as Old Highway 61.
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