Early in the morning on May 7th, 2008, we headed out to rent a car to take us on our journey through Mississippi, Ten nessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and finally back to New Orleans, all in eight days. This was a pilgrimage to see where the blues and many great blues artists were born. We travelled the major byways, the old highways and the small country roads in search of the past and to look at the present state of the Blues. It was a journey the began in New Orleans and took us to places like McComb, Clarksdale and little towns like Friars Point and Lula. We saw many performers and groups along the way and ended the journey with the King of the blues in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. To read all the details of this journey click below.
First stop McComb Mississippi to the Blues trail marker for Mr. Bo Diddley. Located in the city center near the rail station. In Natchez Mississippi, where we stopped by the river and went to Natchez under the hill, we went to see the blues marker "Natchez Burning” commemorating a terrible fire in a blues club in 1940. We then had lunch at Vaughn's were Amy and Turgay marked Istanbul on the map of where you come from. 
Natchez was very quaint and definitely deserves more time than we were able to spare it. The in was on to Port Gibson and the Blues Marker for the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, not much else in Port Gibson except the Gage Agency. After Port Gibson we headed north to Vicksburg, to find the Blues Marker for Willie Dixon, after finding it on Willie Dixon Avenue (the shortest avenue I've ever seen) we all went in search of the house where Willie Dixon was born. After much searching we found the correct street and the correct block and the empty lot where a house once stood. We drove around Rolling Fork, the birthplace of Muddy Waters and where he lived until he was three, there wasn't much to see, a mural outside a bar and a gazebo in the town center dedicated to Muddy Waters (we learned about this later). Our next stop was to visit the Grave of Sam Chatmon in Sanders Garden Memorial in Hollandale.
It was getting dark so we headed to Greenville, MS and took a walk along the levee and down the renovated Walnut Street where we found our hotel, The Greenville Inn and Suites. After settling in we drove over to Nelson Street to Doe's Eat Place, where Turgay had an "unbelievably good" steak and Amy had shrimp swimming in butter and lemon. We went to the Walnut Street Blue Bar to see some live music. Along Walnut Street there is a blues walk commemorating area blues artists. In the morning we wandered down Walnut Street and met John Moore an iron worker who is currently working on a project for the new Welcome to Greenville signs. Later we headed back to Nelson Street to see the blues marker and take a few photos of this historic Street.
After Greenville it was on to Leland probably Amy's favorite stop along the Blues Trail because the people were so friendly. We stopped in the Highway 61 Blues Museum and after taking a look around were lucky enough to meet, Randy Magee who gave a guided tour of the museum including many personal stories. In Leland there are also several well done Blues Murals and a blues marker for the intersection of old highways 61 & 10. Leland is also the home of Kermit the Frog or rather the birth place of Jim Henson.
Holly Ridge Mississippi was next up, here we visited the graves of Charlie Patton, Willie James Foster and Asie Payton as well as the Blues Trail Marker for Charlie Patton. Following information provided by Randy Magee we also visited the Gas Station in front of which many old blues legends sat and played and we also saw the market behind which Charlie Patton lived.
Then it was on to Indianola "Home of Blues Legend B.B. King" and the site of the Ebony Club, one of the best know juke joints in the state of Mississippi, recently purchased by B.B. King. We also visited the corner where B.B. King got his start. Amy and Turgay both placed their hands in the imprints of B.B. King's (Turgay's hands were the same size) . In Greenwood we visited the Blues Museum which is housed in the building that originally housed WGRM Radio. WGRM Radio aired gospel groups on Sundays in the 1940s, one of the few stations at the time to air African American music. WGRM is where Riley King was a regular performer with the famous St. John's Gospel Singers of Inverness Mississippi. The station is commemorated with a Blues Trail Marker and the station's studio is preserved inside the Blues Museum with the hope of one day turning it into a recording studio. Also in Greenwood we saw the Blues trail marker for the ELKs Hart Lodge No. 640, one of the most important venues in the delta for rhythm and blues music from the 40s through the 60s.
Outside of Greenwood in the graveyard beside Little Zion M.B. Church is what is now considered by most to be the final resting place of Robert Johnson. The Blues Trail Marker was mysteriously missing but the grave marker that was placed under a large tree recently and the giant mosquitoes were there. On the way to Tunica for the Blues Music Awards in the evening Amy made a sudden U-turn scaring all of us, but it was necessary as we had just passed the Blues Trail Marker for James Cotton. James Cotton a very popular and unique harmonica player was a member of Muddy Water's band and was born in the Mississippi Delta.
The Blues Music Awards, which took place at the Grand Casino in Tunica, started at 7 and lasted well into the night, featuring performances by many nominees as well as many up and coming artists. It was a great show, but due to organizational problems it went on a little too long for Amy, who head back to the hotel to sleep at 1 a.m. For more detailed information on the Blues Music Awards and the winners please check out the Blues Foundation website.
The following day we headed back down to Clarksdale stopping off near the hotel along the highway to see the Son House Blues Trail Marker. Son House, a major influence on both Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, was torn between the church and the blues. A sometimes preacher following the call of God he was also pulled by the call of Blues. 
Next up was the Livin at Lula Blues Trail Marker in Lula Mississippi. Lula was home to many blues legends; Sam Carr, Charly Patton and Son House and is also referred to in several Blues songs. After that we went in search of the famous crossroads of Highways 61 and 4 just outside of Clarksdale. This is no longer where the highways meet but the old crossroads is marked with a large tacky sign.
Upon arrival in Clarksdale we took a look around, saw a Mississippi marker commemorating W.C. Handy. Then we headed over to the Delta Blues Museum . In the museum there is an extensive collection of Blues memorabilia and paraphernalia. Included in the collection is the cabin in which Muddy Waters was born. We followed the music out of the museum and down Blues Alley to the Ground Zero Blues Club, out in the parking lot there was an old truck that had been converted into a stage and performances for the All Star Blues Revue had already started. After lunch at the Club we headed down to see the Riverside Hotel, where many famous blues artists have stayed when they have come to perform in one of the clubs or juke joints here. Prior to being a hotel it was a hospital and it is where Bessie Smith died after a fatal car crash in 1937.
We then headed out to the surrounding countryside around Clarksdale in search of the Blues Trail Marker marking the original site of Muddy Water's house. The actual house we had seen earlier in the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale. Finding the site was an adventure in it self but was well worth it. Friars Point was next to see Robert Nighthawk's Blues Trail Marker. Though he was a drifter Robert Nighthawk called Friars point home many times during his life and even sung about it in one of his songs.
That was then end of journey in Mississippi and we headed back on the road making it though Northern Mississippi into Tennessee where we stayed for the night. The next day we drove straight through to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. That Night to end our Blues Pilgrimage we all attended a B.B. King concert at the House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach. The concert was amazing everything was just as we had hoped it would be, Amy was even able to push her way through the crowd at the end of the concert and get B.B. Kings autograph on an original photograph. The photo was a wedding present from Bruce Polonsky he took in San Francisco in 1976.
This was the journey of a lifetime and we hope that we can repeat it again at a more leisurely pace. There are so many more markers, towns and juke joints to explore.
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