
Behind the W.C. Handy historical marker in the picture above is the former Wade Walton's Barbershop.
From Marlo Carter Fitzpatrick's Mississippi Off the Beaten Path:
A personal friend of W.C. Handy, Sonny Boy Williamson, and John Lee Hooker, the late Wade Walton was given to impromptu blues performances and gifted story-telling sessions. Patrons who spent time in Walton's chair left with not only a spiffy new look, but a better understanding of the lifestyle called the blues.
It was closed, except for one restaurant, by the time I arrived in town, but a must-see that I was unable to see was Clarksdale Station, an old Illinois Central depot, and like the bus station I blogged about last week, this was undoubtedly a major exit point for the circa 1917-1970 black diaspora. Inside the old station is the Delta Blues Museum.
What remains of the cabin McKinley Morganfield grew up in can be found inside the museum. Never heard of Morganfield? He's best known by his stage name, Muddy Waters.
When I reach Arkansas, I'll have a post about a house--still lived in--that may end up in a museum one day.

Brenston, who was born in Clarksdale, sang and played saxophone on the song. however, many believe credit for "Rocket 88" should go to Ike Turner,
The blues still lives in Clarksdale. Every Friday in April, May and June, there are live concerts at the Blues Alley Stage. I was there on Friday, May 23, and the band was packing up--I wish I had arrived earlier.
Actor Morgan Freeman moved around a lot as a child, but he spend much of his early years in the Mississippi Delta region--he graduated from Greenwood High School, a town southwest of Clarksdale. Freeman still has roots in the Delta, he is co-owner of a blues club, Ground Zero, pictured on the right, which is just a block from Clarksdale Station.
Clarksdale is a great town, one I would have spent more time in, had I not spent a big chunk of that afternoon in Leland. Such is the way of byway adventures.
Next: The Mississippi Blues Trail
Previous My Mississippi Manifest Destiny posts:
- Mound Bayou, a town founded by freed slaves
- What Mike Espy is up to these days
- Churches
- Teddy Bear
- Coca-Cola museums
- Prison laborer in Louisiana
- Corinth
- Carl Perkins
- The Varsity Theatre in Martin, Tennessee
- Lincoln and Kentucky
- Metropolis
Shiloh posts:
Tupelo posts:
- $aving$ in Tupelo
- Elvis Presley's birthplace
- Where Elvis bought his first guitar
- The Battle of Tupelo
- The Natchez Trace Part One
- The Natchez Trace Part Two, Indian Mounds
- The Natchez Trace Part Three
- The Natchez Trace Part Four, Ghost Town
- Logging
Vicksburg posts:
- Vicksburg Battlefield, Part One
- Vicksburg Battlefield, Part Two, State Memorials
- Vicksburg Battlefield, Part Three, Illinois Memorial
- Vicksburg Battlefield, Part Four, The USS Cairo
- Vicksburg Battlefield Part Five
- Mississippi River at Vicksburg
- Memorial Day tribute to our ally Australia
- Memorial Day--a time to remember
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