The Mississippi Blues Trail

W.C. Handy became known as the “Father of the Blues” after he based many of his popular orchestrations on the sounds he heard in the 3. […]

The Harlem Inn, known as “The Showplace of the South,” was the 3’s most important venue for touring national blues performers. […]

Henry Townsend, the only blues artist to have recorded during every decade from the 1920s to the 2000s, was born in Shelby on October 27, 1909. […]

Benoit native Eddie Taylor, an architect of the post-World War II Chicago blues genre, was renowned for his work both as a bandleader and accompanist. […]

Nesbit native Joe Callicott is often regarded as one of Mississippi’s finest early bluesmen. Born in October 1899, Callicott was a Nesbit native who spent his whole life in the area south of Memphis and is regarded as one of […]

Mississippi Blues Trail – WROX Radio Trail Marker Location: Clarksdale Marker Front: WROX, Clarksdale’s first radio station, went on the air on June 5, 1944, from studios at 321 Delta Avenue. From 1945 until 1955, the station was headquartered here […]

Rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm & blues pioneer Ike Turner began his career playing blues and boogie woogie piano in Clarksdale. […]

The Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman has inspired many songs, including “Parchman Farm Blues” by singer-guitarist Booker “Bukka” White and “Parchman Farm” by jazz singer-pianist Mose Allison. […]

Eddie Lee “Guitar Slim” Jones brought new levels of energy and intensity to electric guitar playing with his raw, incendiary approach in the 1950s. […]

(Missing) The Queen City Hotel, located at this site, was once the cultural hub of the African American community in Columbus. […]

Otis Clay, one of America’s premier singers of soul and gospel music, was born in Waxhaw on February 11, 1942. […]

Roebuck “Pops” Staples, one of the foremost figures in American gospel music as a singer, guitarist, and patriarch of the Staple Singers family group, was born on a farm near Winona on December 28, 1914. […]