About Clarksdale, Mississippi
Clarksdale Mississippi is the Birthplace and World Capital of the Blues and location of the famous Crossroads intersection of Highway 61 and 49.
During the 1920’s, 1930’s and 1940’s Clarksdale was home to Charlie Patton, Bukka White, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Ike Turner, to name just a handful of great bluesmen who staked their claim in Clarksdale.
By the 1950’s Clarksdale was also host to a now-legendary down-home radio station, WROX, which, like other stations in the region, hosted a number of popular bluesmen. Sonny Boy Williamson, most well-known for his King Biscuit Flour program on Helena, Arkansas’ KFFA, often broadcast on Clarksdale radio, as did Dr. Isiaih Ross and so many others.
Consequently, Clarksdale became the first urban center of the blues and it makes the most of that fact even today. The Mississippi Delta’s first blues museum, The Delta Blues Museum, and one of its first yearly blues festivals, The Sunflower River Blues Festival, are both located there, as is the Delta’s first motel made from discarded farm laborers' shacks, The Shack Up Inn. If you believe in the Crossroads myth, between the town of Clarksdale itself and the site of The Shack Up Inn, there is a rather grandiose marker at the intersection of Highways 61 and 49 where the dubious deal was deemed to have been devined.
A great deal of blues activity has occurred in Clarksdale in the last few years. In addition to all the above, there is a grand juke joint in Morgan Freeman's & Bill Luckett’s Ground Zero nightclub. It features blues and other forms of music many nights a week and plays host to some of the South’s great entertainers. - info from COAHOMA COUNTY TOURISM COMMISSION
The Birthplace of the Blues - Start your tour of Clarksdale's rich blues history at the internationally-acclaimed Delta Blues Museum, and move on from there to WROX museum, historical markers around town, the famous Riverside Hotel, and then to downtown music and retail shops
Delta Blues Museum - Dedicated to creating a welcoming place where visitors find meaning, value, and perspective by exploring the history and heritage of the unique American musical art form of the blues.
Shack-up Inn - Blues lovers making the pilgrimage to the cradle of the blues, the Mississippi Delta, should not miss the unique opportunity to experience Hopson Plantation, located only three miles from the legendary Crossroads, Highways 49 and 61. Virtually unchanged from when it was a working plantation, you will find authentic sharecropper shacks, the original cotton gin and seed houses and other outbuildings.
The Rock n' Blues Museum -The museum is packed full of music memorabilia from the 1920's through the 1970's. Follow the evolution of America's music from blues, R&B, and rockabilly to rock 'n roll and soul and see how it influenced people all over the globe.
Shopping - Browse and shop your way around downtown full of gift shops, record stores, unique locally made products and more!
Golf - Clarksdale has a 9-hole course and just up the road is Tunica National
Resthaven - breakfast, lunch, dinner, American, Italian and Lebanese
Yazoo Pass- bistro, bakery, breakfast, lunch, espresso bar
Abe's Bar-B-Que - famous barbeque located at The Crossroads
Hick's Tamales - world famous tamales and bbq
Ramon's - seafood and Italian
Rust - fine dining, American, Seafood and International, full bar
The Ranchero- America, burgers and barbeque
Stone Pony - pizza, sandwiches, subs, full bar
Oxbow - open for lunch, gourmet American
Lady On The Levee - hot plate lunch, seafood and American, full bar
Delta Amusement - breakfast, burgers, hot plate lunch
Hopson Plantation - live music, full bar
Ground Zero- Morgan Freeman's blues club, lunch, dinner, live music, full bar
January - Clarksdale Film Festival
April - Juke Joint Festival
May - Friday at the Stage, Blues Alley Stage
May - Clarksdale Caravan Music Festival
June - Delta Jubilee
August - Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival
October - Cat Head Mini Blues Festival
October - King Biscuit Festival (Helena, AR)
October - MS Delta Tennessee Williams Festival
October - Hambone Festival
December - Holiday Festival Parade
Community Calendar
Clarksdale Chamber of Commerce |
