Take a Delta Blues Trip to "Where the Blues Began"

Rosedale Juke, photo by Susan Klopfer




I stroke it to the North, I stroke it to the South... (Clarence Carter)




"Junior" is a cultural anthropologist who lives in the Mississippi Delta, Louisiana side, and spends lots of time in Delta juke joints. His popular link allows blues lovers to take a trip inside the places where the blues began.

"I'm not talking about white people blues bars filled with college students. I'm talking about edge-of-a-cotton-field juke joints filled with real Delta folks," he says.

Here's his link -- Junior's Juke Joint

Filmmaker calls on public, FBI to solve Emmett Till's murder & other cold cases

Keith Beauchamp speaks to an audience in Philadelphia, Miss., about the 1964 murders of Michael Schwerner, Paul Goodman and James Chaney. Only one man, Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen, of potentially dozens of suspects, was ever convicted for the crimes.


Kelly Peters, reporter for the Daily Orange, writes that when Keith Beauchamp saw the photograph of Emmett Till's brutally beaten face, run ran on the cover of a 1964 Jet Magazine, he became a civil rights activist.

"Till, a black boy from Chicago, Ill., was murdered in Mississippi in 1955. His mother insisted on an open casket to show the world the brutality in his death.

"Today, Beauchamp is still an activist, but Till's murder has yet to be solved. Beauchamp said he is committing his energy to solving Till's and other murders of the time."

Peters's story continues ...

Robert Johnson, Delta Bluesman

I went to the crossroad, fell on my knees ... Asked the Lord above, "Have mercy, save poor Bob, if you please."

Robert Johnson's first recording session, November, 1936 -- speculation remains about that session and where it took place.

The Delta Blues: Robert Johnson Recording Set Up and Location

Robert Johnson, Delta Bluesman

I went to the crossroad, fell on my knees
I went to the crossroad, fell on my knees
Asked the Lord above, "Have mercy, save poor Bob, if you please."


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We all know that good old Robert Johnson had his first recording session that faithful day in November, 1936. But still, a lot of speculation has recently emerged about that session.

Of course, there are the rumors of turning his back to the audience (the next group of musicians to record), and now there is peculation as to where this recording was actually done.

Continued, The Delta Blues --