Day 5 - Sunday, September 14
A fairly slow start after a lateish night and checked out after breakfast.
This was a very special day - I think it's the first time that I have ever, ever, gone to a church service without it being a special occasion - wedding, funeral etc - or, when I was a child, at the insistence of my parents.
There was a good reason though - we attended the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis where the main man is the legendary Al Green - now Reverend Al Green.
They seem to get quite a few overseas visitors at their sunday morning services and were welcomed at the door and shown inside the very modern church.
We were lucky to get four seats on the end of an aisle very close to the door so that we could make a discreet exit when we felt ready - we'd read that the services can go on for a very long time.............
There were a number of women of a certain age dressed in their colourful Sunday finery - and more arrived one by one during the service, we felt to maximise impact, some carrying tambourines and all carrying bibles. I suppose the make-up of the audience was about 50:50 locals:visitors.
The service started with some great gospel singing from the choir supported by a band comprising keyboard, guitar bass and drums. Then some solos from the deacons with backing from the choir - all very enjoyable stuff.
Then there was some dancing from a group of young girl church members, some very heavy prayers from a couple of the ladies I mentioned above - these were also very ostentatious in their singing and dancing during the musical interludes.
Then the Rev AG started - firstly identifying visitors and asking where they came from and then moving on to a couple of gospel songs with the band and choir, and then to a sort of sermon which I'm afraid was a bit rambling and incoherent.
Despite that, it was fascinating - he first identified the biblical source he would use and the ladies immediately located it (to be fair, that may be normal - I don't know) and proceeded to murmur along with him whenever he used direct quotes - often getting ahead if he paused for effect.
He digressed frequently - often saying "somebody say "amen" " or "somebody say "hallelujah" " - and somebody always obliged.
The most interesting part was when he talked about the Islamic State people - saying that they were barbarians and how he would love to shoot the lot of them.
As visitors and non-believers we didn't feel able to ask how that sat with forgiveness and 'turn the other cheek".
After a couple of hours the collection was taken - a very practiced and efficient process - and then we got the impression that he was about to ask for people to come to the front to be "saved" and that there was quite a while to go before the end. So we quietly slipped out.
In the car park we met another couple from UK doing the same thing - they were from Potters Bar, only a few miles from us. What are the chances.
And then we set off out of Memphis and onto the famous Highway 61 heading south into the Mississippi delta region.
The first stop was Tunica for lunch at a small deli for a sandwich made by very friendly people. As we came out it was just on 3pm and at the First Security Bank across the square a carillon started to play "Old Man River" swiftly followed by "Proud Mary" - both linked to the nearby Mississippi. A hugely pleasant diversion for a few minutes.
We continued south, often getting close to the river but unable to see it from the road because it's entirely contained within enormous "levees". We stopped at Friar's Point which had been a significant river port at one time but is now seriously declined.
This was interesting from Wikipedia.......
" Muddy Waters said the only time he saw Robert Johnson play was on the front porch of Hirsberg's Drugstore in Friars Point. A crowd had gathered around Johnson, who was playing ferociously. "I stopped and peeked over," said Waters, "and then I left because he was a dangerous man." In a 1937 recording, Johnson sang, "Just come on back to Friars Point, mama, and barrelhouse all night long." In Johnson's Traveling Riverside Blues he sang, "I got womens in Vicksburg, clean on into Tennessee, but my Friar's Point rider, now, hops all over me." "
Hirsberg's Drugstore is still there but closed and sad.
that's our car in the photo - there was no sign of anyone else around.
And, even sadder, we saw this in one of the windows.................
Nearby there's a Blues Trail Marker for Robert Nighthawk who lived in Friar's Point at various times.
And we noticed a red marker for Conway Twitty who wrote "It's only make believe" and who came from here.
During the journey we passed many cotton fields. We'd never seen one before....
On to Clarksdale, past the Stovall Plantation, where Muddy Waters lived in the 1920s and 1930s, and where we stayed at the wonderful Shackup Inn.
This on the site of the Hopson Plantation which, in 1944, was the first one to produce a crop of cotton planted, harvested and baled entirely by machine. This mechanisation reduced the need for manual labour and was one of the main factors behind the enormous migration of black americans from the South to the northern cities (incidentally leading to "Chicago Blues").
The piano player Pinetop Perkins lived here during the 1940s and drove a tractor. He also played in Muddy Waters' band and worked with Sonny Boy Williamson, and apparently taught Ike Turner to play piano.
The Shackup retains some of the original Hopson buildings including the splendid commissary where John Lee Hooker played occasionally and where they still have regular live music.
They have also moved intact onto the site a number of authentic sharecropper shacks which they have converted into hotel rooms - it's not luxurious but perfectly clean and comfortable and very atmospheric.
There was to be a series of guitar/bass workshops over the next few days so the place was fully booked and we hadn't been able to get one of the shacks, but we had interesting rooms in the main building.
We had a lovely time sitting on our porch with a beer in the late afternoon and again with coffee and doughnuts the next morning.
We saw a number of these "bottle trees" in the delta area - apparently there is a belief that "evil spirits" are attracted to, and captured by, the bottles at night and then destroyed by the sunlight the next day.
There is also a large bar area with lots of memorabilia and a stage for live music - it was a shame there was nothing on while we were there - it looked like a wonderful venue.
It was Sunday evening so there was not much available in the way of food, so we went to Pink restaurant which had an OK but limited menu.
And then on to Red's Blues Club - one of the few remaining juke joints. It's a small dingy place with nothing on offer except big bottles of cold beer, a great four-piece blues band and loads of atmosphere. Magic place.
It was very small and quite full so we had to walk past the front of the band to find some seats at the far end of the room. We sat down quickly to minimise the disruption of our entrance and after a while a guy near us leaned over waving a bottle and said in a deep growly sort of voice " hey, if you want a beer - Red don't deliver.......".
A fairly slow start after a lateish night and checked out after breakfast.
This was a very special day - I think it's the first time that I have ever, ever, gone to a church service without it being a special occasion - wedding, funeral etc - or, when I was a child, at the insistence of my parents.
There was a good reason though - we attended the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis where the main man is the legendary Al Green - now Reverend Al Green.
They seem to get quite a few overseas visitors at their sunday morning services and were welcomed at the door and shown inside the very modern church.
We were lucky to get four seats on the end of an aisle very close to the door so that we could make a discreet exit when we felt ready - we'd read that the services can go on for a very long time.............
There were a number of women of a certain age dressed in their colourful Sunday finery - and more arrived one by one during the service, we felt to maximise impact, some carrying tambourines and all carrying bibles. I suppose the make-up of the audience was about 50:50 locals:visitors.
The service started with some great gospel singing from the choir supported by a band comprising keyboard, guitar bass and drums. Then some solos from the deacons with backing from the choir - all very enjoyable stuff.
Then there was some dancing from a group of young girl church members, some very heavy prayers from a couple of the ladies I mentioned above - these were also very ostentatious in their singing and dancing during the musical interludes.
Then the Rev AG started - firstly identifying visitors and asking where they came from and then moving on to a couple of gospel songs with the band and choir, and then to a sort of sermon which I'm afraid was a bit rambling and incoherent.
Despite that, it was fascinating - he first identified the biblical source he would use and the ladies immediately located it (to be fair, that may be normal - I don't know) and proceeded to murmur along with him whenever he used direct quotes - often getting ahead if he paused for effect.
He digressed frequently - often saying "somebody say "amen" " or "somebody say "hallelujah" " - and somebody always obliged.
The most interesting part was when he talked about the Islamic State people - saying that they were barbarians and how he would love to shoot the lot of them.
As visitors and non-believers we didn't feel able to ask how that sat with forgiveness and 'turn the other cheek".
After a couple of hours the collection was taken - a very practiced and efficient process - and then we got the impression that he was about to ask for people to come to the front to be "saved" and that there was quite a while to go before the end. So we quietly slipped out.
In the car park we met another couple from UK doing the same thing - they were from Potters Bar, only a few miles from us. What are the chances.
And then we set off out of Memphis and onto the famous Highway 61 heading south into the Mississippi delta region.
The first stop was Tunica for lunch at a small deli for a sandwich made by very friendly people. As we came out it was just on 3pm and at the First Security Bank across the square a carillon started to play "Old Man River" swiftly followed by "Proud Mary" - both linked to the nearby Mississippi. A hugely pleasant diversion for a few minutes.
We continued south, often getting close to the river but unable to see it from the road because it's entirely contained within enormous "levees". We stopped at Friar's Point which had been a significant river port at one time but is now seriously declined.
This was interesting from Wikipedia.......
" Muddy Waters said the only time he saw Robert Johnson play was on the front porch of Hirsberg's Drugstore in Friars Point. A crowd had gathered around Johnson, who was playing ferociously. "I stopped and peeked over," said Waters, "and then I left because he was a dangerous man." In a 1937 recording, Johnson sang, "Just come on back to Friars Point, mama, and barrelhouse all night long." In Johnson's Traveling Riverside Blues he sang, "I got womens in Vicksburg, clean on into Tennessee, but my Friar's Point rider, now, hops all over me." "
Hirsberg's Drugstore is still there but closed and sad.
And, even sadder, we saw this in one of the windows.................
Nearby there's a Blues Trail Marker for Robert Nighthawk who lived in Friar's Point at various times.
And we noticed a red marker for Conway Twitty who wrote "It's only make believe" and who came from here.
During the journey we passed many cotton fields. We'd never seen one before....
This on the site of the Hopson Plantation which, in 1944, was the first one to produce a crop of cotton planted, harvested and baled entirely by machine. This mechanisation reduced the need for manual labour and was one of the main factors behind the enormous migration of black americans from the South to the northern cities (incidentally leading to "Chicago Blues").
The piano player Pinetop Perkins lived here during the 1940s and drove a tractor. He also played in Muddy Waters' band and worked with Sonny Boy Williamson, and apparently taught Ike Turner to play piano.
The Shackup retains some of the original Hopson buildings including the splendid commissary where John Lee Hooker played occasionally and where they still have regular live music.
They have also moved intact onto the site a number of authentic sharecropper shacks which they have converted into hotel rooms - it's not luxurious but perfectly clean and comfortable and very atmospheric.
There was to be a series of guitar/bass workshops over the next few days so the place was fully booked and we hadn't been able to get one of the shacks, but we had interesting rooms in the main building.
We had a lovely time sitting on our porch with a beer in the late afternoon and again with coffee and doughnuts the next morning.
There is also a large bar area with lots of memorabilia and a stage for live music - it was a shame there was nothing on while we were there - it looked like a wonderful venue.
It was Sunday evening so there was not much available in the way of food, so we went to Pink restaurant which had an OK but limited menu.
And then on to Red's Blues Club - one of the few remaining juke joints. It's a small dingy place with nothing on offer except big bottles of cold beer, a great four-piece blues band and loads of atmosphere. Magic place.
It was very small and quite full so we had to walk past the front of the band to find some seats at the far end of the room. We sat down quickly to minimise the disruption of our entrance and after a while a guy near us leaned over waving a bottle and said in a deep growly sort of voice " hey, if you want a beer - Red don't deliver.......".
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