My Mississippi Manifest Destiny: Blues Trail

Among conservatives, there is the belief that the National Endowment for the Arts is a waster, however modest, of taxpayer dollars. Rather than rail about, in the words of the late Jesse Helms, about "homo-EE-rotic" art and whether it should be funded--I'm of the school that the federal government shouldn't fund the arts at all. Subsidizing the arts is a holdover from the days when the crowned heads ruled Europe.

Here me out on this: There is no shortage of art in America, and American artists dominate movies, books, music, and television. Nations such as my wife's native Latvia have reason to fear that their local culture will be overwhelmed Yankee artistic imperialism.

There is some balance in the fields of painting and sculpture compared with other nations, but there are thousands of galleries across our nation selling the latest abstract masterpieces.

But...I've found a project of the National Endowment for the Arts that I like and support--the Mississippi Blues Trail.

Begun in 2005, the Mississippi Blues Trail is the primary project of the Mississippi Blues Commission. Unlike the Natchez Trace Parkway, the trail is not one you can drive or bicycle on, but it's metaphorical in nature. The goal of the Blues Trail is to have 120 markers, such as the James Cotton one pictured, marking the state's great blues artists and historical blues sites, such as Clarksdales's Riverside Hotel.

Markers 1 through 9 were partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the trail has placed 43 of them throughout the state. Not surprisingly, most of them are in the western half of Mississippi--where the Delta Region is. In the "non-blues" half, two of Mississippi's greatest artists, although not-bluesmen per se, are honored. There's a marker for the "Father of Country Music," Jimmie Rodgers in Meridian. And of course "The Hillbilly Cat," Elvis Presley, earned himself a marker in front of his birthplace in Tupelo.

North of Clarksdale, on Highway 61, I found the Cotton marker, who was born to the west in Tunica. One of the greatest blue harp players, Cotton, who is 72, still performs, although throat problems have prevented him from singing since the 1990s.

Cotton was mentored by Sonny Boy Williamson II, and he played with Muddy Waters before going solo.

For this post, I thought I'd throw in one more Highway 61 picture.

Until my final post, this will be my last Mississippi entry. After I took my picture of the Cotton marker, I took Highway 61 into Memphis, and took an interstate into Arkansas, where I hooked up again with the storied road. But that was after a night in a West Memphis motel room.

Next: Johnny Cash's boyhood home.

Technorati tags: Americana byways travel travel blog history photography photos Mississippi Highway 61 music blues delta blues Muddy Waters Jimmie Rodgers Sonny Boy Williamson James Cotton Elvis Presley National Endowment for the Arts