Clarksdale and Muscle Shoals
After leaving Memphis, we decided to take a detour before heading for Nashville. We had always planned to see the two legendary studios in Muscle Shoals, but we adjusted our itinerary in order to swing through Clarksdale to take a look at the important musical sites in this legendary city. Being a small place in the Mississippi delta, Clarksdale spawned a surprisingly large number of icons, including the legendary Muddy Waters, Ike Turner, and my own personal hero, Sam Cooke. Therefore, Clarksdale is a pivotal stop on the ‘Mississippi Blues Trail’, which honours important people and places with blue markers planted all throughout the state. We made it our aim to see a few of these markers in the brief time we were there. We started off by driving down Stovall Road, a long road surrounded by farms and fields, where a young Muddy Waters once resided in a small log cabin on the Stovall cotton plantation. The cabin has since been moved to a museum, however, we were able to find the marker honouring the spot where it once stood.
On our way back into the city centre, we stopped off at another famous site, the Riverside Hotel, which served as accommodation for many travelling musicians, and sadly, became the death site of the iconic Bessie Smith following a car accident in 1937. The hotel is still up and running after all these years, but still boasts a blue marker in the front, detailing its history, as well as Bessie Smith’s incredible life. Another one of the important sites we’d come to see was the Ground Zero Blues Club, which is named as such to signify Clarksdale’s importance as ‘ground zero’ for Blues fans. Following a hearty Southern meal in the near-empty club (it was midday), we started making our way back to the car to chase down the final marker and head on to Muscle Shoals.
However, we stopped when we were approached by Josh ‘Razorblade’ Stewart, a Clarksdale Bluesman and former Vietnam vet who’s spent most of his life in the city, performing frequently at the Ground Zero club. He told us a bit about his history, his philosophy on life, and how, in spite of being acknowledged by the city’s Delta Blues museum, he hasn’t received the recognition he feels he deserves. Back in New Orleans, I started trying to think of a name for my guitar, which has been with me all throughout this trip, and came up with nothing. After meeting Josh Stewart, I’ve decided to name it ‘Razorblade’ in his honour. We then went on to see our next and last marker, and the most important to me, which stood outside the New Roxy Theatre and honoured the great Sam Cooke, who was born in Clarksdale before moving to Chicago a couple of years after.
We got back in the car and made our way to Muscle Shoals, Alabama. We got to the legendary Fame Studios about four hours later and even though we’d called earlier to check the tour times, we were unable to take the tour, as there were bands recording in both studios. We were only able to see the reception and the artists’ lounge, and whilst not being able to see the whole building was disappointing, just standing in the same room as great musicians such as Jimmy Hughes, Arthur Alexander, Spooner Oldham or Dan Penn (another personal hero of mine) was enough for me! After buying a few small souvenirs, we made our way to the other famous studio in the area; the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. Unfortunately, this one wasn’t open at all, and we were only able to view it from the outside and take a few photos. Satisfied with seeing as much as we could, we got back in the car and started driving towards Nashville.
