From the Publisher:
The music season of the Delta now begins
If you’re interested in blues music, this is your time of the year in the Mississippi Delta as the various blues festivals will soon get underway. For those who follow it,
B.B. King’s yearly homecoming concert in Indianola is the official kickoff. In fact, this festival is so important to Mr. King, he postponed eye surgery this summer in order for the event to go on. In the early Fall, The King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena and the Delta Blues Festival outside of Greenville close the “season”.
For the past 20 years, I have watched in amazement at the development of these various blues festivals and how popular they have become. In fact, almost every county in the Delta now has some form of a festival. When I was at Ole Miss, I started to hear about the Delta Blues Festival in Greenville from all of my friends who were from Dallas. Late one September, they convinced me to go. It was the year the late Stevie Ray Vaughn performed. We stood 20 feet from Stevie Ray that night watching his performance as a cold wind blew across the cotton fields. He burned up his guitar with his fast finger work. I’ll never forget that night and as a guitar player myself, I was even more appreciative of his performance. We all had such a good time we decided to return the next year. At the festival that following year within a few hours, half of my friends either went to the hospital or to jail. Fifteen years passed before I attended another blues festival!
Blues music has never moved me like it has others. Growing up, I had a sister eight years older who constantly listened to The Deltans and all of the Motown music. As with most younger siblings, whatever she was involved in, I also found it to be interesting.
I also remember watching The Beatles’ live appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show while they were on their first tour in this country. These were the golden days of “pop-rock music” as they called it then.
Later, music grabbed me even more during the heyday of the greatest rock bands in history which took place in the seventies. That music not only moved me, it knocked me down because it was so fantastic. I was lucky that all of this fine music was being produced during my childhood and into my early teens. Great lyrics, great melody lines, and thought provoking. Most rock music created today is incredibly bad. There has never been anything new about the talentless selling to the tasteless and that is what we have today.
Many of us here in the Delta have missed out by dismissing the significance of blues music. Although this music was right under our noses, somehow we couldn’t see it. Blues music has made an enormous impact on many around the globe and for me, it has taken friends from California to introduce me to it, to open my eyes and ears, and more importantly, to open up my business mind. This music has spread like a wildfire all over the globe and it is more popular than ever. This I can appreciate. Five years ago, I realized the role blues music could play in moving the Delta forward. I now embrace it and will never dismiss it again. In fact, I am thankful for it.
If you ever have the opportunity, stop by the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale and take a look at the sign-in register. With little advertising, an average of 1,500 people are signing in every month at that blues museum. This is amazing. It makes me wonder how many more are passing through without voluntarily signing the register. And, perhaps the most promising part of this blues odyssey is the upcoming B.B. King Museum that will soon be built in Indianola - at an approximate cost of $10 million, this multifaceted facility could be the hub of all things blues in the Delta.
I always cringe when I hear people repeat the line from the movie, Field of Dreams, because has been used so many times. But, in this case, it is appropriate - “... if you build it they will come...”. I really believe that if everyone will get on the same page in regard to blues tourism, and that means the creation of more blues festivals, more museums, more attractions - people will come in great numbers bringing dollars to the Delta.
Branson, Missouri is a good example of what can take plac
e when the right planning occurs.
If you like this form of music, good for you. If you don’t, keep one thing in mind: if you want the Mississippi Delta to move forward, if you want your business to do well, if you want your land values to increase and not decrease, then don’t just support other economic development efforts, support this effort as well because it is also economic development. In order to build the Delta, we need a variety of tools.
Blues music, created here in the Mississippi Delta, is the root to all rock music. Without it, the world would have never seen an Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, or anyone else. This is the affect this Delta-born music has had on the rest of the world. Now, people want to come see where it was created. What a great asset.
Enjoy the season. DBJ
Scott Coopwood
Publisher
