“Greenwood is a big drinking town,” burly chef Lee Leflore said, parting the booth’s curtains to deliver a platter of baked oysters topped with sizzling Benton’s bacon. Bessie Smith breathed her last at what is now the Riverside Hotel. If Poe is not recording live, he’s likely to answer right away with a big smile on his face. Here you will find a variety of towns with deep roots in the Delta Blues that are sure to inspire your imagination.
But as a daughter of the South, on my own weeklong journey through the Magnolia State, I found that the rhythm of the region was embodied in three small towns—Clarksdale, Greenwood, and Oxford, all about a 90-minute drive apart—that tell the rootsy story of Mississippi best.Technically, Oxford is in Mississippi’s hill country, not the Delta. “You can get loud and act up in here.”I looked down at the remnants of my lemon icebox, baked in the kitchen that morning, and reluctantly shook my head. “But I’m still just as sexy.”Duwayne Burnside was on fire. Perhaps it helped that his minister and members of his congregation were representing down in front. As a result of stepping inside the station you will know why the Mississippi Delta is so special. In the center is Sunflower County, which serves as an example for the region. Belzoni is a city in Humphreys County, Mississippi, United States, in the Mississippi Delta region, on the Yazoo River.
The music has a little more twang to it, and the food (thanks to chef John Currence of City Grocery) is slightly more refined, but this college town has become a crucial repository of Deep South customs. From the Depression on, this Mississippi Delta town has been the heartbeat of the blues. Annie and Brittany Zeleskey, a pair of twentysomething sisters who run a sweet little bed-and-breakfast near the center of town called the Z, looked at me and started giggling.“I used to be a lot bigger before going on a diet,” he said, winking as he spooned a shucked tamale onto my plate. Nearby Parchman Farm, an infamous state penitentiary, deserves dishonorable mention for its chain-gang work chant and field-holler traditions. It’s also the setting for America’s most elaborate tailgate parties. Our Views: Challenges for small towns toughest in Mississippi Delta parishes STAFF EDITORIAL. That’s when I noticed some late-night celebrant had left an Ole Miss go-cup on the trunk of my car.Classes are taught by star chefs like Susan Spicer of Bayona Restaurant.“What’s a Hotty Toddy?” For some reason, I thought it must be a cocktail, because most Southerners of my acquaintance are fond of strong drink. Ike Turner was a native son. “Maybe I’ll book him for the Juke Joint Festival,” he said.The Zeleskeys grew up in Texas but decided to stick around after graduation to manage the three-bedroom guest bungalow that their parents bought and renovated so they could have a place to stay during gridiron season. We’ve been living full time in our truck camper for the past 2 years as we’ve traveled throughout North America. The heritage of the Deep South is celebrated here in various ways: music, food, and architecture, whether of the antebellum or tar-paper variety. And Red’s Lounge, on Sunflower Avenue, remains one of the last true juke joints, where old-school acoustic musicians like Robert Belfour play almost every night as owner Red Paden turns rib tips on his pit smoker outside the front door.Act the southern gentleman on the upstairs porch at City Grocery by ordering a "Just North of South" bourbon mojito.We were witnessing an artist with an uneven past suddenly finding his groove.