Sons of the Delta - Clarksdale, Mississippi, 2004

The Gigs - The Recording Session - The Shack Up Inn - Links

Juke Joint Festival 2005

Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival 2006

NOTE: All photos copyright Mark Cole unless stated otherwise.
No unauthorised reproduction please!

First Visit, October 2004

We would like to start by thanking all the people we met in and around Clarksdale, Mississippi, for making our stay as wonderful as it was. The whole experience far exceeded our expectations. A special thank you to (in no particular order) Pinetop & Pat, Sam & Patty, Big T, Eric & Jeff, Jimbo & Will, Stan & Dixie, Doc & Glenda, Roger, Ronnie & Richie, Bill, Jim, Guy, James, Phil, Jim, Adrian, Amy, Ali, Bill & Ernst, Sonny, Joni, John Alex, BJ, Wolf, T Model, Steve, the Chamoun family and (last but certainly not least) Mr Tater.

We hope you enjoy everything here and please be sure to check out the links to our friends at the bottom of the page.

The Gigs

One of the many nice surprises of the visit was the opportunity to play at a number of venues around Clarksdale. Roger Stolle at Cat Head was the prime mover in organising these shortly before we arrived.

Our first gig was at Big T's Spot, a small but friendly and well run juke owned by Clarksdale bluesman Terry "Big T" Williams. We were joined by Eric "Bassfingers" Lanier who instantly clicked in with what we were playing (the level of musicianship we found during our stay was exceptionally high) then later by Dixie on drums. There was a good crowd which included plenty of local musicians who, throughout the evening, took turns in coming up and playing. It was great for us to be able to let others play now and again so we could talk to people and hear what the other musicians could do. One of the guitarists who played a few times was Steve, a young Italian guy who was traveling around Mississippi looking for the blues. He certainly found it in Clarksdale that night!

The following night the two of us played our regular set to a small but equally appreciative audience at the Hopson commissary - a nice easy venue for us to get to as we were staying in the Crossroads shack at the wonderful Shack Up Inn, part of the Hopson plantation and situated just a few yards away. There are a number of great places to stay in Clarksdale but if you want to experience living in a sharecropper's shack and soak up the atmosphere and history of a cotton plantation the Shack Up Inn is the place for you! You can book online too so visit their website and start planning your stay.

Thursday night saw us playing at Ground Zero, the venue co-owned by Morgan Freeman. Many blues fans that night were over in Helena, Arkansas for the first night of the King Biscuit Festival but there was still a decent sized crowd there. The volume and pace of the gig grew as the night went on. Our first set was acoustic and just the two of us, in the second set we were joined by local drummer BJ and in the third set we were joined by Eric on bass with the man himself, Big T, getting up to play a few numbers towards the end. Wolf did a good job of mixing the sound and kept busy with all the personnel changes through the gig.

Morgan wasn't there for our gig but we managed to meet him later on at a great gig featuring the Marshall Drew Band (Marshall is the son of Ronnie who owns the excellent Blues Town music store in town). When we told Morgan that the people we had met during our stay were the warmest, most friendly people we had met anywhere he just smiled and said "Welcome to Mississippi".

Our last 'official' gig was at the Cat Head Minifest on Sunday, the day after King Biscuit. It was a short one hour set and local sensation Mr. Tater joined us for a few numbers. Roger Stolle and his wife Jennifer who run the Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art store have worked very hard since they arrived in Clarksdale a few years ago to help promote blues and develop the tourist trade in the area. They are also happy to sell you CDs, t-shirts, books and art via mail order so visit their website and start spending! If you need any more encouragement then they also have the best listing you will find anywhere of upcoming blues events - essential information if you plan to visit. We shot some lo-fi video while we were there so click the Cat Head logo to the right to see a short clip from the gig.

Click logo for video clip

These two photos show Red's on the outside and inside. You don't need fancy lighting - the glow from one neon sign is perfectly fine! Shortly after we arrived the crowd stood and applauded as a very special person entered - Pinetop Perkins. At 92 he still has an amazing amount of energy. We should know because he had been working hard that afternoon playing with us in the recording session.

The Recording Session

Forget any pre-conceived ideas about how albums are recorded. At the Delta Recording studio in downtown Clarksdale, run by jimbo Mathus, everything is done old-school style. Most of the studio equipment is state of the Ark with only the essential final parts of the process being hi-tech. There are ancient mics, amps and guitars and the tube, quite rightly, is king in this establishment.

Buy the album that came out of this session, 'Made in Mississippi', here!

Only that very morning were we able to confirm that both Sam Carr and Pinetop Perkins would be joining us later. We were obviously very keen to have these blues legends play with us on the recording and had been trying to confirm things for a while. We forgot that everything runs on 'Clarksdale time' over there. We shouldn't have worried - as Guy Malvezzi (Jimbo's uncle) told us, things usually have a habit of working out fine. We were so impressed by Eric's bass playing and Jeff's drumming at the gig at Big T's that we asked them if they would be our rhythm section for the session. To our great delight they happily agreed.

Three songs into the session the sprightly 92 year-old Pinetop Perkins arrived. We had booked him for one song but when that one ended, and we were all still in stunned awe at having just played with one of the greats, he shouted "C...this one's in C" and started playing. Suddenly he started singing! Mark said "I had the presence of mind to realise that this was something extra special, so I wrestled with the leads that were over the mic stand and moved the mic next to Pinetop as quick as I could." Will Dawson, the very talented engineer at the studio, realised what was going on and made sure the input from that mic was just right in a matter of seconds.

Pinetop started the second verse and from that point on we all joined in. Not too many people can say that they had Pinetop Perkins play piano AND sing on their albums! Pat, Pinetop's manager, said he must have been really enjoying himself because he wouldn't have played another song or started singing unless he was having a good time. Then the second legend of the day came in to the studio - drummer Sam Carr. We had a break while Pinetop recorded a number with Mitch Woods, a great piano player who had showed up with Pinetop, Pat and a few music journalists eager to see what was happening in the studio. Then Sam adjusted the drum kit and it was time to record another three tracks.

Just as we thought we were done and Sam, Pinetop, Pat and the journalists had left, Big T arrived and kindly agreed to play on a track with us. All in all, a wonderful day which will never be repeated except in play-back form on CD players when the album is released. Speaking of which, we also recorded the gigs we played and a handful of acoustic tracks in the Crossroads shack and one, of course, sat on the porch. We had help with two of those.

The Shack Up Inn

As we said above, if you want to enrich your Delta experience by staying in a sharecropper's shack on a cotton plantation the Shack Up Inn is the only place to stay! It is run by Bill 'Shackmeister' Talbot, helped by co-owners Jim Field, Guy Malvezzi and James Butler (who runs the Hopson Commissary, a great place to hear live blues most Wednesday and Thursday evenings).

We stayed in the Crossroads shack, a small but very comfortable 'shed' which, although still retaining it's original shabby appeal, boasts double-glazing, a shower, a fridge-freezer, air conditioning, microwave and TV. Bill and the others are so helpful and friendly that it's no surprise people keep coming back to stay, with some even relocating to Clarksdale permanently.

We met some great people staying there, some who we have already mentioned, including Stan and Dixie (guests while their flat downtown was being finished), Doc Williamson and Glenda (Doc is a great piano player from Florida - he played at the King Biscuit Festival and at the Pinetop Perkins Homecoming), Bill and Ernst (the Florida journalists) and Phil Wooten from Kansas. We also met Jim Bradham there who designs some of the local blues t-shirts and is a great cook!

If you ever find yourself there in October, around the time of the King Biscuit Festival, look out for us because we'll be back!

The Juke Joint Festival & Planters Celebration, 2005

Mark returned to Clarksdale in April 2005 to catch up with everyone there and also made some new friends.

Within five minutes of arriving at Clarksdale I'd bumped in to Bob Long from the UK. I knew Bob from talking to him at gigs we'd played in Southampton, UK, where Bob had been there in the crowd. I soon found out that he plays some very tasty guitar!

I sat in with Bob at the Greasy Man Gas Stage (left) and later we got a chance to reprise our show on the Main Stage (below)

Mark with the Quazimojo Blues Band and BJ at Cat Head

I'm really looking forward to heading back there as soon as possible - hopefully with Rick in October for the King Biscuit Festival."

Sons of the Delta plus guests performing at the Biscuit

Thanks to Kokomo at the Blind Man's Blues Forum for this pic!

The Gigs - The Recording Session - The Shack Up Inn - Links Juke Joint Festival 2005 Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival 2006 Back to main website NOTE: All photos copyright Mark Cole unless stated otherwise. No unauthorised reproduction please!
First Visit, October 2004 We would like to start by thanking all the people we met in and around Clarksdale, Mississippi, for making our stay as wonderful as it was. The whole experience far exceeded our expectations. A special thank you to (in no particular order) Pinetop & Pat, Sam & Patty, Big T, Eric & Jeff, Jimbo & Will, Stan & Dixie, Doc & Glenda, Roger, Ronnie & Richie, Bill, Jim, Guy, James, Phil, Jim, Adrian, Amy, Ali, Bill & Ernst, Sonny, Joni, John Alex, BJ, Wolf, T Model, Steve, the Chamoun family and (last but certainly not least) Mr Tater. We hope you enjoy everything here and please be sure to check out the links to our friends at the bottom of the page. The Gigs One of the many nice surprises of the visit was the opportunity to play at a number of venues around Clarksdale. Roger Stolle at Cat Head was the prime mover in organising these shortly before we arrived.
Our first gig was at Big T's Spot, a small but friendly and well run juke owned by Clarksdale bluesman Terry "Big T" Williams. We were joined by Eric "Bassfingers" Lanier who instantly clicked in with what we were playing (the level of musicianship we found during our stay was exceptionally high) then later by Dixie on drums. There was a good crowd which included plenty of local musicians who, throughout the evening, took turns in coming up and playing. It was great for us to be able to let others play now and again so we could talk to people and hear what the other musicians could do. One of the guitarists who played a few times was Steve, a young Italian guy who was traveling around Mississippi looking for the blues. He certainly found it in Clarksdale that night!
Finally, in the early hours, a new face came into the place - Jeff from Portland, who had literally just driven down from his flight into Memphis. He took his place behind the drum kit and injected some fresh energy into the sound, keeping the musicians rolling on until around 2.00am. Not bad for a Tuesday night in sleepy Clarksdale! We were to see a lot more of Eric and Jeff (who we discovered were Big T's rhythm section) as they were going to play a crucial part in our recording session later in the visit. Adrian, a fellow visitor from the UK, shared the same feeling as us when he said that it had been a very special night and one to remember for a long time. Also at the gig were Bill and Ernst, two journalists with the Ledger newspaper in Florida. For us especially, it was the words of praise from the local musicians which confirmed that what we have been playing these last few years (and for many years previously as individuals) was the 'real deal'. Mark said "It doesn't matter how well you are received in the UK, in the end it's the people who live and breath the blues in the land where it was born - it's their opinion that to me validated what I have been doing stylistically for the last twenty years".
		The following night the two of us played our regular set to a small but equally appreciative audience at the Hopson commissary - a nice easy venue for us to get to as we were staying in the Crossroads shack at the wonderful Shack Up Inn, part of the Hopson plantation and situated just a few yards away. There are a number of great places to stay in Clarksdale but if you want to experience living in a sharecropper's shack and soak up the atmosphere and history of a cotton plantation the Shack Up Inn is the place for you! You can book online too so visit their website and start planning your stay.

Thursday night saw us playing at Ground Zero, the venue co-owned by Morgan Freeman. Many blues fans that night were over in Helena, Arkansas for the first night of the King Biscuit Festival but there was still a decent sized crowd there. The volume and pace of the gig grew as the night went on. Our first set was acoustic and just the two of us, in the second set we were joined by local drummer BJ and in the third set we were joined by Eric on bass with the man himself, Big T, getting up to play a few numbers towards the end. Wolf did a good job of mixing the sound and kept busy with all the personnel changes through the gig.

		Morgan wasn't there for our gig but we managed to meet him later on at a great gig featuring the Marshall Drew Band (Marshall is the son of Ronnie who owns the excellent Blues Town music store in town). When we told Morgan that the people we had met during our stay were the warmest, most friendly people we had met anywhere he just smiled and said "Welcome to Mississippi".
Our last 'official' gig was at the Cat Head Minifest on Sunday, the day after King Biscuit. It was a short one hour set and local sensation Mr. Tater joined us for a few numbers. Roger Stolle and his wife Jennifer who run the Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art store have worked very hard since they arrived in Clarksdale a few years ago to help promote blues and develop the tourist trade in the area. They are also happy to sell you CDs, t-shirts, books and art via mail order so visit their website and start spending! If you need any more encouragement then they also have the best listing you will find anywhere of upcoming blues events - essential information if you plan to visit. We shot some lo-fi video while we were there so click the Cat Head logo to the right to see a short clip from the gig.		Click logo for video clip
We went along to a few gigs as part of the crowd and one in particular stands out. After our recording session we were tired but elated and keen to unwind with some great music. Word on the street was that something special was happening at Red's so that's where we headed. Sure enough when we walked in there was T Model Ford, backed by Monique de Jong and Hein Meijer - two Dutch musicians who visit each year. T Model was just passing through and decided to put on a show that night.

		These two photos show Red's on the outside and inside. You don't need fancy lighting - the glow from one neon sign is perfectly fine! Shortly after we arrived the crowd stood and applauded as a very special person entered - Pinetop Perkins. At 92 he still has an amazing amount of energy. We should know because he had been working hard that afternoon playing with us in the recording session.

The Recording Session Forget any pre-conceived ideas about how albums are recorded. At the Delta Recording studio in downtown Clarksdale, run by jimbo Mathus, everything is done old-school style. Most of the studio equipment is state of the Ark with only the essential final parts of the process being hi-tech. There are ancient mics, amps and guitars and the tube, quite rightly, is king in this establishment. Buy the album that came out of this session, 'Made in Mississippi', here!
Only that very morning were we able to confirm that both Sam Carr and Pinetop Perkins would be joining us later. We were obviously very keen to have these blues legends play with us on the recording and had been trying to confirm things for a while. We forgot that everything runs on 'Clarksdale time' over there. We shouldn't have worried - as Guy Malvezzi (Jimbo's uncle) told us, things usually have a habit of working out fine. We were so impressed by Eric's bass playing and Jeff's drumming at the gig at Big T's that we asked them if they would be our rhythm section for the session. To our great delight they happily agreed.

Three songs into the session the sprightly 92 year-old Pinetop Perkins arrived. We had booked him for one song but when that one ended, and we were all still in stunned awe at having just played with one of the greats, he shouted "C...this one's in C" and started playing. Suddenly he started singing! Mark said "I had the presence of mind to realise that this was something extra special, so I wrestled with the leads that were over the mic stand and moved the mic next to Pinetop as quick as I could." Will Dawson, the very talented engineer at the studio, realised what was going on and made sure the input from that mic was just right in a matter of seconds.

		Pinetop started the second verse and from that point on we all joined in. Not too many people can say that they had Pinetop Perkins play piano AND sing on their albums! Pat, Pinetop's manager, said he must have been really enjoying himself because he wouldn't have played another song or started singing unless he was having a good time. Then the second legend of the day came in to the studio - drummer Sam Carr. We had a break while Pinetop recorded a number with Mitch Woods, a great piano player who had showed up with Pinetop, Pat and a few music journalists eager to see what was happening in the studio. Then Sam adjusted the drum kit and it was time to record another three tracks.

Just as we thought we were done and Sam, Pinetop, Pat and the journalists had left, Big T arrived and kindly agreed to play on a track with us. All in all, a wonderful day which will never be repeated except in play-back form on CD players when the album is released. Speaking of which, we also recorded the gigs we played and a handful of acoustic tracks in the Crossroads shack and one, of course, sat on the porch. We had help with two of those.

		Stan Street, a talented artist and musician, played harmonica on one track. He also played with us on sax at the Big T's gig and can been seen playing harmonica and sax at many of the venues around town. You can check out his wonderful artwork at his website. On another track we were joined by Phil Wooten on guitar. Phil recently moved to Clarksdale from Kansas after passing through on a 1000 mile bicycle tour from kansas to Florida.

The Shack Up Inn As we said above, if you want to enrich your Delta experience by staying in a sharecropper's shack on a cotton plantation the Shack Up Inn is the only place to stay! It is run by Bill 'Shackmeister' Talbot, helped by co-owners Jim Field, Guy Malvezzi and James Butler (who runs the Hopson Commissary, a great place to hear live blues most Wednesday and Thursday evenings).
		We stayed in the Crossroads shack, a small but very comfortable 'shed' which, although still retaining it's original shabby appeal, boasts double-glazing, a shower, a fridge-freezer, air conditioning, microwave and TV. Bill and the others are so helpful and friendly that it's no surprise people keep coming back to stay, with some even relocating to Clarksdale permanently.

We met some great people staying there, some who we have already mentioned, including Stan and Dixie (guests while their flat downtown was being finished), Doc Williamson and Glenda (Doc is a great piano player from Florida - he played at the King Biscuit Festival and at the Pinetop Perkins Homecoming), Bill and Ernst (the Florida journalists) and Phil Wooten from Kansas. We also met Jim Bradham there who designs some of the local blues t-shirts and is a great cook!

		If you ever find yourself there in October, around the time of the King Biscuit Festival, look out for us because we'll be back!

The Juke Joint Festival & Planters Celebration, 2005 Mark returned to Clarksdale in April 2005 to catch up with everyone there and also made some new friends.
"What a great time I had! I met up with all my old friends from the last visit - Bill, Jim, Guy, Jimbo, Will, BJ, Stan, Dixie, Roger, Jennifer, Jim, Phil, Ronnie, Rich, Ali, Joni, Shelley and, of course, Mr. Tater plus others too numerous to mention (sorry if your name's not here!) It was great to get back to the best music town in the world! Had a great time at Red's, Ground Zero, Hopson and many of the other clubs. Also had a great day at the Planters Celebration in downtown Clarksdale. It was great to see so many families out enjoying themselves at the various stalls and watching Robinson's Racing Pigs!

		I had a chance to sit in with some of the bands that were playing at the Juke Joint Festival & Planters Celebration, including the excellent Quazimojo Blues Band (pictured left) which featured 'blues brothers' Mike 'Mossman' Myers (gtr & vocals) and Steve Myers (bass) who'd driven all the way down from Ottawa, Canada to play at the festival. I also saw some great acts including the wonderfully raw and driving Trainreck (pictured below) and Jimbo Mathus played a great acoustic set joined by the wonderful Odell Harris (below left)



		Within five minutes of arriving at Clarksdale I'd bumped in to Bob Long from the UK. I knew Bob from talking to him at gigs we'd played in Southampton, UK, where Bob had been there in the crowd. I soon found out that he plays some very tasty guitar! I sat in with Bob at the Greasy Man Gas Stage (left) and later we got a chance to reprise our show on the Main Stage (below)

I managed to spend a little time with Will and some of the other guys at Delta Recording, where Rick and I recorded back in October. It really is a fantastic recording studio. From the frontage you wouldn't even know it was a studio (below) I spent more than a few minutes looking at a 3D book of 50s American nude pin-up girls (below right - caught in the act by Will)



Roger at Cat Head put on another superb mini-fest on the Sunday and on Monday the Quazimojo Blues Band played there plus one - me being the additional member for the session (right) And many a night's end saw me with all the other serious party people having a ball at Red's - often jamming with the band (below)	I'm really looking forward to heading back there as soon as possible - hopefully with Rick in October for the King Biscuit Festival."

The Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival, 2006 Rick and Mark both returned to Clarksdale in October 2006 to play at the Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival - formerly known as the King Biscuit Festival..

"It's King Biscuit Time folks! After going along to the festival as members of the audience back in 2004, it was an honour to be invited back as performers this year. We played on the Emerging Artists stage on the Saturday afternoon in front of an enthusiastic crowd who enjoyed our 45 minute set. We were thrilled to be reunited with Eric 'Bassfingers' Lanier on bass and Jeff 'Drummerboy' Hayes on drums, the wonderful rhythm section who played on our latest CD 'Made in Mississippi'.	Thanks to Kokomo at the Blind Man's Blues Forum for this pic!

© Tim Holek 2006	We were sponsored by Ronnie Drew at Bluestown Music in Clarksdale. He supplied the guitars we used and they really sounded great through the Fender twins supplied by the festival organisers. Joining us on the stage for the last few numbers was our very special guest 'Little' Mark Gowland on harp. Mark is one of the finest harp players in the UK and it was a real pleasure to have him with us for the whole trip.	© Tim Holek 2006

		On one of our days off we all spent a few hours in this wonderful shop and came out a few hundred dollars lighter but with the most fantastic bluesman outfits you could ever wish to own. Think pimp suits in pale gold, bright blue and black, and snakeskin shoes in pale blue, bright blue, pale gold and bright purple and you've got the general idea! So if you see any of us looking super-sharp and super-cool at a gig, you know where we bought the clothes! You can just make out Rick in the picture, browsing through the clearance shirts rail.

Once again, mainly for 'Little' Mark's benefit, we visited the grave of Sonny Boy Williamson II. When he approached the grave a bird swooped down and pecked his head! Maybe the spirit of Sonny Boy was playing tag with him? Hey 'Little' Mark - you're it!

		No visit to Clarksdale would be complete without a visit to Red's juke joint! If you're ever in town, be sure to visit. Red needs your business to get that leaky roof fixed. In case you're wondering who that is playing guitar in the middle of the room - it's T-Model Ford. And finally, three more pictures from the trip: Mark and Rick in Abe's BBQ at the legendary Crossroads, a Helena side street, and 'Little' Mark and Rick outside Stax studios, Memphis.




Links Shack Up Inn The best place to stay in Clarksdale as you will see for yourself while browsing their many photos Delta Recording Studio The best place to record in Clarksdale - just ask Elvis Costello who went there to record his single "Monkey to Man" Cat Head Delta Blues and Folk Art Great music and art and if you want to know what's on, look no further than Roger's excellent gig listing. Also the most comprehensive links page for delta blues and Clarksdale ANYWHERE! The Delta Blues Museum A must-visit place in Clarksdale and they do mail order too! Blues Town Music If you want to make music in Clarksdale but don't want to take your own gear this is the best place to buy or rent guitars, amps and more! Call in anyway - Ronnie and Richie are great guys and would love to see you Ground Zero The biggest and arguably most popular venue in downtown Clarksdale. We had a great time there - you will too. Make sure you take a marker pen to add your name to the wall (chair, pooltable, lamp shade, etc...) Stan Street See some of his wonderful artwork here and find out more about this talented artist and musician Doc Williamson Great blues piano player from Florida. Full of enthusiasm and larger than life, you'll find it hard to find a more entertaining show. Jeff Hayes Excellent drummer both live and in the studio. Be sure to look at Jeff's photos from the recording session and various gigs he played while we were there. King Biscuit Festival The best free three day blues festival you will ever attend! Quazimojo Blues Band Ottawa's best blues band fronted by the Myers brothers - Mike 'Mossman' Myers and Steve Myers. Mark guested on harmonica with them at the Juke Joint Festival.