Clarksdale, Miss.

Clarksdale, Miss.: Birthplace of the Delta Blues.

Pure Blues Express accomplished something none of the other—mostly rock—bands could. The traditional blues trio got people out of their lawn chairs and up to the foot of the stage, clapping, swaying, and some even dancing at a recent music festival a few miles outside Clarksdale, Miss. (pop. 19,381).

Now, it’s understandable that giants like B.B. King or Buddy Guy or any of dozens of other seasoned bluesmen (and women) could have that kind of effect on an audience, but the average age of Pure Blues Express is 15.6.

“I started on keyboard and then bass. My teacher wanted me to play guitar,” says lead guitarist and vocalist, Vanessia Young, 17, who after three years on the guitar is playing music that would make any aspiring guitarist envious.

“I play the clarinet in the school band, but this is better,” says Fazenda Young, 13, who’s been backing her older sister on bass for the past year.

The siblings and their drummer, Lee Williams, 17, are students of Michael “Dr. Mike” James, instructor of blues music at Clarksdale’s Delta Blues Museum, established in 1979 and housed in the old freight station along the train tracks that bisect downtown Clarksdale.

“They’re just about ready to go out and play with just about anyone playing the blues,” James says.

Not only is Pure Blues Express an ambassador for the blues, having played in Norway, Nashville, Tenn., and twice in Washington, D.C., (once for President Clinton to satisfy his curiosity about the music), but also the group embodies Clarksdale’s quest to embrace the blues as never before.

“Blues Alley is in progress,” says Tony Czech, director of the Delta Blues Museum, of Clarksdale’s burgeoning Historic Blues District. “It is to include the old Greyhound Bus Station and the Clarksdale (passenger) train station.”

Both places are important in blues history because they offered the main modes of transportation for bluesmen into and out of western Mississippi. The railroad station also served as a primary performance hall for scores of traveling musicians.

The museum features exhibits of such Delta blues greats as W.C. Handy, the “Father of the Blues,” as well as native son John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Mama Thornton, James “Son” Thomas, and McKinley “Muddy Waters” Morganfield.

In the gift shop of the museum, a large model of Blues Alley shows a transformed, multi-block area that will be a mecca for blues fans. Plans call for at least one venue in the recently renovated passenger station to be a spot for regular live performances.

The blues music found in Clarksdale today, as in decades past, is likely to be played on the opposite side of the tracks from Blues Alley, in a section of town that saw its prime a half-century ago. Places like Red’s, at the corner of Sunflower Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive, and Shangri La on Sunflower are outnumbered by former nightspots whose windows and doors were boarded up long ago. But the music is still strong here and growing stronger with the emergence of new musicians.

With Blues Alley as the main stage, Ron Hudson, executive director of the Clarksdale Chamber of Commerce, says Clarksdale has placed blues-based tourism on a high priority.

“We don’t have a hard time selling the blues to outsiders,” says Hudson. “Sometimes it takes people from outside the Delta to make you realize what you’ve got.”

Hudson, 55, says blues was common in the early 1900s and was known locally as “black music.” The “blues” moniker was attached later on, after white musicians began exploring the genre.

Blues—and it comes in many forms—evolved from African rhythms, slave work songs, spirituals, and other influences. The Delta blues, unlike Chicago blues and St. Louis blues and other city-specific forms, was born from a society of agrarian workers.

The lyrics are simple and deal with the disappointments and joys of everyday life.

“My family would play the records passed down from the parents to the children,” says Katherine Young, Vanessia and Fazenda’s mother—and their biggest fan. “We love it.”

Frank L. “Rat” Ratliff owns and runs the famous Riverside Hotel on Sunflower, where legendary singer Bessie Smith died after a car wreck in 1937, when the hotel was still the local hospital for African Americans. His mother, Z.L. Hill, converted the hospital to a hotel several years after Smith’s death.

“Nothing ever changes in this building,” says Ratliff of the old structure’s staying power.

The Riverside Hotel would seem to be like the blues—never changing. But then again, the music does change—it’s still evolving. Except for the most important part.

“The blues is just a feeling,” Vanessia Young explains. “I can play it when I’m happy, I can play it when I’m sad.”

“I just like to play it,” adds Fazenda.

C. Richard Cotton is a Saltillo, Miss.-based writer.

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