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CLARKSDALE , the first significant town south of Memphis, has an unquestionable claim to consider itself the home of the blues. Its quite phenomenal roll call of former residents - stretching from Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf and Robert Johnson up to Ike Turner and Sam Cooke - is celebrated in the Delta Blues Museum , housed at 1 Blues Alley (Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, closed Sunday; $6; tel 662/627-6820, ). The centerpiece among the photos, instruments, personal possessions, videos and recordings is the "Muddywood" guitar, created by ZZ Top using wood from Waters' old cabin. Each year, around the second weekend in August, the town holds the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival (free; tel 1-800/626-3764).
Clarksdale's strangest accommodation has to be at the Riverside Hotel , 615 Sunflower Ave (tel 662/624-9163; $35-50), which, until the early 1940s, was a hospital, famous as the site of Bessie Smith 's death in 1937 after a car crash. Now it's a basic hotel/rooming house, on the wrong side of the tracks in the town's black "New World" district, which, nonetheless, has hosted more than its share of notable guests. If you do stay, be sure to talk to "Rat," the son of the original owner, and learn the "true history of the blues". You can find accommodation with more amenities, albeit less character, along US-61, known in town as State Street, at the Econo Lodge at no. 350 S (tel 662/621-1110, fax 662/621-9838; $50-75), the Hampton Inn at no. 710 S (tel 662/627-9292, fax 662/624-4763, ; $75-100), and the Southern Inn at no. 1904 N (tel 662/624-6558; $35-50). A good central restaurant is Abe's , a barbecue joint at 616 S State St (tel 662/624-9947). Sarah's Kitchen , 208 Sunflower Ave (tel 662/627-3239), is open irregular hours, but has a great blues jukebox. The most famous of Clarksdale's jook-joints , The Red Top Lounge (aka Smitty's ), 377 Yazoo Ave (no phone), still has occasional live music. |
Clarksdale 