Beautiful weather yesterday as we arrived in Clarksdale and spent the day immersed in the blues. The town's downtown area is pretty run down but the blues brings in a lot of visitors. We looked at the Sam Cooke blues marker and other blues sites and I bought some more 45s. My friend Alan and I were accosted by local bluesman Razorblade who spun us a story about the dollar sign and persuaded Alan to buy his C D. We enjoyed some southern home cooking in Delta Amusements and had a beer in the Stone Pony.
In the evening we went to the New Roxy to see the excellent Robert 'Bilbo' Walker. The place is a shell with no roof but as a music venue it's pretty good. Pity there weren't more people there to see a varied set which ranged from straight blues like Big Boss Man to Chuck Berry's Johnny B Goode and Memphis Tennessee, There Is Something On Your Mind, Lucille and Sam Cooke's Let's Go Steady Again. Bilbo is a good guitarist and sometimes walked around the sparse audience, and was joined on stage for a few numbers by his wife Audrey who plays bass guitar. Later we went to Red's juke joint to see Deak Harp, a very good one man band. Red's is the real deal and provided a suitable ending to a blues filled day.
Nick Cobban.
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