The 14th Annual Clarksdale Film & Music Festival
Clarksdale, Mississippi, January 26-28, 2024
“Clarksdale's in the South, and lays heavy on my mind…”
Eddie “Son” House, “Clarksdale Moan” (Paramount 13096-B, 1930)
A place will lay claim to you, and you will become part of that place, once you have taken it for granted.
The Mississippi Delta region began to grow in my imagination after the tandem experience of having first listened to Robert Johnson’s King Of The Delta Blues Singers (Columbia, 1961) and reading Samuel Charter’s The Country Blues (Rinehart & Company, 1959). There is something mythical and romantic about the region and its gravitational pull is very real. It is the birthplace of America’s subatomic, indivisible music, the blues.
Central to the region is Clarksdale, Mississippi, the county seat of Coahoma County located in the northwest part of the state against the Mississippi River. The city is historically significant in the history of the blues. It is the birthplace of many prominent blues and early rock and roll artists, like Jackie Brenston, Willie Brown, Sam Cooke, cousins Earl Hooker and John Lee Hooker, Eddie “Son” House, Junior Parker, and Ike Turner. It is also the home of the Riverside Hotel, where Bessie Smith died following an auto accident on Highway 61 on September 26, 1937 (then called the G. T. Thomas Afro-American Hospital). The hotel later housed Ike Turner and Jackie Brenston when they were creating rock and roll by writing “Rocket 88.”
Today, Clarksdale is skeletal, like many such Delta towns. The poverty and privation are palpable. But so is the rich history that continues to spring up in the form of local festivals like the Clarksdale Film and Music Festival or the annual Juke Joint Festival. It is functions like these that provide context for the complex and conflicted history of the American South, erring on the side of realizing the good and beauty of the region.
The 14th annual edition of the festival was held over the rainy, cool weekend of January 26-28, 2024 at the Stone Pony’s Tack Room "pop-up theater" located at 226 Delta Ave. in the old downtown district. The Tack Room is reminiscent of Oxford, MS’s Hoka Theater, located next door to The Gin restaurant, both venues having burned down in the best “barn burning” tradition of a William Faulkner short story. The Tack Room is in development with the Stone Pony as a performance venue, once small enough to be cozy but large enough to accommodate.
The Tack Room was home to all of the Festival activities which included performances by Terry “Harmonica” Bean, James “Super Chik’” Johnson, Jimbo Mathus, and Watermelon Slim (a real character). Then, there were the films. Corey Hart’s thesis film, “The Land Of The Blues” opens the festival with Jefferson Mello’s “African Reasons” a discussion of the ancestry of the blues from contemporary practitioners. Johnny Palazzotto’s “King Bee: The Slim Harpo Story” was a highlight of the festival, detailing the life and art of Lousiana artist James “Slim Harpo” Moore, featuring a rare 1968 interview with Susan Cassidy Clark at Steve Paul's Scene in NYC. Harpo’s wife Lovell, his stepson William Gambler, and his original King Bee bandmates James Johnson, Rudy Richard, and Jesse Kinchen contribute to this expose of the original King Bee.
Not everything happened at the Tack Room. Downtown Clarksdale is riddled with small holes in the wall with big personalities. Hambone Art & Music (111 E 2nd St), owned by musician Stan Street, always has something going on. This weekend, Reverend Robert (Reynolds) held court there, running the bar and playing guitar. Rev Robert performed two one-hour sets at the Bluesberry Cafe (111 E 2nd St) featuring the music of Charlie Patton, Mance Lipscomb, Son House, and Blind Willie Johnson. But it was not the Reverend’s facility with the blues that was so illuminating. He also performs a complete repertoire of Island tunes originating in the Caribbean. Among these songs were: “Johnny Too Bad” by the Slickers, “Perseverance” by Desmond Decker, and Wilmoth Houdini’s “Uncle Jo’ Gimme Mo’!”
The true spirit of Clarksdale manifests in the generosity of musicians like Rev Robert who shared his set and instruments with a Dutchman who just arrived, Bernard van Delft. Delft performed spirited versions of “Goin’ Down Slow,” “Sweet Home Chicago,” and “Little Red Rooster.” On the latter song, Delft was joined by Kansas City harmonica player Otis Roper. Roper, a minister as well as a musician, performed with standard and chromatic harmonicas. He continued to perform with Rev Robert for the end of his set. Roper was moved to tears by his opportunity to perform this music in this place. Talk about “…laying heavy on my mind.”
In addition to the Clarksdale Film and Music Festival, the city plays home to the Juke Joint Festival (April 11-14, 2024), the Clarksdale Caravan Music Festival (May 11, 2024), Deak’s Harmonica Block Party (May 25, 2023), the Bad Apple Blues Festival (May 26, 2024), the Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival (August 9-11, 2024), and The Mighty Roots Festival (September 13-14, 2024) and this is just a piece of them. Robbie Robertson of The Band once said of the area, that one need only roll down the car window to hear music in the Delta.