A diverse crowd including blues artists, tourism officials and community members converged on the site of Bradfordville Blues Club in Tallahassee, Florida, for the unveiling of the newest marker on the Mississippi Blues Trailer on November 20.
Yes, the location was northern Florida, not Mississippi. Why? The musical ties between Florida and Mississippi run deep. North Florida’s urban clubs and rural roadhouses, including clubs that have operated at the historic Bradfordville location, have played an important role in the history of the Gulf Coast “chitlin circuit” for touring African American blues, jazz and R&B musicians. Mississippi-born artists B. B. King, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker and many more have performed and recorded in Florida while some Floridians, including bluesman Benny Latimore, recorded at studios in Mississippi as well.
Also, Florida has long provided work for traveling musicians with its many entertainment centers. Seasonal jobs in agriculture and other fields also drew itinerant bluesmen from Mississippi and other states. Several Mississippi musicians have recorded in Florida: John Lee Hooker and his cousin Earl Hooker, Ike Turner, Johnny O’Neal and Little Sammy Davis. Floridians who recorded in Mississippi include Pensacola bandleader Wally Mercer and Homestead native Tommy Tate, a vocalist/songwriter/drummer at Malaco Records in Jackson, where Miami’s Benny Latimore made many records. The interchange has also been saluted in songs such as “Mississippi Mud” by Ray Charles and “Deep Down in Florida” by Muddy “Mississippi” Waters.
The Bradfordville Blues Club marker is the 119th marker and the eighth marker dedicated outside of the state. Other out-of-state markers are located in Chicago; Memphis; Muscle Shoals, Alabama; Ferriday, Louisiana; Helena, Arkansas; Rockland, Maine; and Grafton, Wisconsin.
For more information about the Mississippi Blues Trail, visit http://www.msbluestrail.org/ or http://www.visitmississippi.org/.
(Photos courtesy of Larry Coltharp of Tallahassee, Florida)
Locust Grove Berry Farm
Dockery Plantation is considered one of the main locations of Blues music activity as a result of resident musicians like Charley Patton, whose music could be heard from the porch of the commissary, during picnics on the grounds and at local dances in the area.
It was here that development was made necessary for the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Line which ran from the Dockery Plantation west to Boyle where it connected to the famous Yellow Dog rail system at Rosedale. Charley Patton’s song “Pea Vine Blues” (now spelled “Peavine”) was based on this railroad, named as such because this branch had a meandering route.
We arrived at Dockery right at sunset. With the shorter days of autumn, the sun set relatively fast on us.
There was a pervasive feeling that we weren't alone. Part of the reason, too, was that we had been telling ghost stories in the car on our drive up. It spooked me a little when the door to the building below began to creak open with the breeze.
Below are the remains of the old commissary that have since burned and been covered with Kudzu - as most things in this area that stay in one place too long!
A bent and worn old oak tree on the backside of one of the buildings.
