Delta Culture

THE BLUES
The Delta region has left an indelible mark on American music as the birthplace of the Blues. This gritty merging of negro spirituals, slave work songs and field hollers sprang from African American experiences in plantation cotton rows, grove church services and back roads juke joints. The Blues has heavily influenced American popular music styles over the last century from country and jazz to rock and roll and hip-hop. When American music comes to mind, Delta blues strongholds like Clarksdale, Mississippi, home of the Delta Blues Museum, Memphis, and New Orleans take center stage with other music meccas like Chicago and Detroit.

Photo courtesy Mississippi Delta Tourism Association, visitthedelta.com

Today, blues clubs and juke joints throughout the region still grind out the sounds of local and nationally known blues musicians and are an essential part of the Delta experience. These clubs and music venues also contribute to breaking down ethnic and economic divides that still exist in the region as patrons – both white and black, southerner and "yankee" – socialize in a way not found in other arenas of Delta life.

Source: Some information obtained from www.wikipedia.org, article tite: "Mississippi Delta;" and interview with Bill Luckett (co-owner of Ground Zero Blues Club) conducted by Haley Montgomery, 4/15/08.
Text by Haley Montgomery

Blues Musician at Ground Zero Blues Club, Clarksdale, Mississippi
Photo courtesy Coahoma County Tourism Commission.