Aquarium Drunkard Presents: Blues Heaven, Pts I And II

In October of 2007 my wife and I set out from Los Angeles on what would become the first of four research trips to the Mississippi Delta to research our travelogue/guidebook on the Delta Blues Trail. All told, we traveled around the region approximately two and half months; the longest, six-week stretch ended on May 30th 2008. For those unaware, the Mississippi Delta is famously said to begin in the lobby of The Peabody Hotel, in Memphis, TN, and end on Catfish Row in Vicksburg, MS. That’s a loose approximation to be sure, but close enough for government work.

Outside of Memphis, the majority of our travels were off the beaten path – scratch that - many of the locales we scouted out were straight up off the grid, found only by word of mouth. One night we would find ourselves in a dilapidated, rusted out juke joint down an unmarked dirt road surrounded by cotton fields, and the next we’d be crashing in a 150-year-old mansion on the Mississippi river. Bob Dylan laments the death of American regionalism is his memoir Chronicles Vol. I, but I can assure you that it is alive and well in the Delta. Maybe not for too much longer, but right now you can get in your car-get off the main highway-and time travel without the time machine. There is a reason the area is known as the most Southern place on earth.

The past two entries of the "Clifton's Corner" column on Aquarium Drunkard have dealt in the blues: Volumes One and Two. This is the Rhinofy version.

ABOUT AQUARIUM DRUNKARD

Based in Los Angeles, Justin Gage is the founder of the long-running, eclectic music blog Aquarium Drunkard. In addition to the blog you can catch his weekly radio show, Fridays, on SIRIUS XMU satellite radio -- noon-2pm EST.

Gage is also the founder of Autumn Tone Records and works as a music consultant and supervisor.

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