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The Program
Day 6, Wednesday
Vicksburg - Oxford 256 miles / 412 km
We'll follow the Mississippi River and make
our first stop at Rolling Fork, the birthplace of the man considered to
be the most central figure in the modern (post war) Blues, Muddy
Waters. We are in the middle of the "Cotton Belt" of Mississippi. Our
next stop is at the grave site of Charley Patton, the "King of Delta Blues"
(see link "others" a few lines down) in Holly Ridge. We pass Indianola,
B.B. King's birth place,
and further north, in Ruleville, we turn left onto state road 8, and stop
at, for Blues fans, holy ground, the Dockery
Farms. Back onto "49W North" we pass Parchman Farm, Mississippi's infamous
state prison, that one way or the other had a tremedous influence on early
Blues and its interprets. Shortly thereafter we arrive at Tutwiler, where
in 1904 W.C. Handy supposedly heard the first Blues song, and Sonny Boy
Williamson II, harmonica player and singer, lays to rest. At Clarksdale
(the birthplace of the Blues, so it's been said) where, among others,
John Lee Hooker was
born, we'll stop at the Delta
Blues Museum. We will arrive at today's final destination, Oxford, Mississippi,
in the late afternoon. The home of the "Ole Miss", the University of Mississippi,
is not a poor town, and the difference of appearance compared to some other
Mississippi towns, is downright astonishing.
Day 7, Thursday
Oxford - Tupelo - Memphis 169 miles / 272 km
Before leaving Oxford, we take a tour of
the Ol' Miss, the University of Mississippi at Oxford, where we are especially
interested in the Blues Archive. We get to Tupelo after lunch, visit Elvis
Presley's birth house, and make it to Memphis
in the late afternoon.
Memphis’ Beale Street is great. B.B. Kings’
Blues Club, the Rum Boogie Café, that street is full of Blues,
seven nights a week!
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