The Mississippi Blues Trail

Rubin Lacy was one of the most talented and influential artists in Mississippi blues during his short career as a secular performer. […]

The most prominent highway in blues lore was U.S. Highway 61 – or “61 Highway,” as it was often called in decades past. […]

The Club Desire was one of Mississippi’s premier blues and rhythm & blues nightclubs from the late 1940s through the early 1960s. […]

The Queen of Hearts, a primary venue for down-home blues in Jackson, opened at this location in the 1970s. […]

Mississippi Blues Trail – Jack Owens Trail Marker Location: Bentonia Marker Front: Jack Owens became one of Mississippi’s most venerated blues artists in the 1980s and ‘90s after spending most of his life as a farmer in Yazoo County. Born […]

World-renowned harmonica virtuoso Charlie Musselwhite was born in Kosciusko on January 31, 1944. […]

Soul and blues star Denise LaSalle was born Denise Allen near Sidon in rural Leflore County on July 16, 1939, but spent much of her childhood here in Belzoni. […]

James Henry “Son” Thomas, internationally famed blues musician and folk sculptor, worked as a porter at the Montgomery Hotel, which once occupied this site. […]

Sam Chatmon, a celebrated singer and guitarist, performed with his brothers in a renowned family string band billed as the Mississippi Sheiks. […]

Ace Records, founded in 1955 by Johnny Vincent, was the most successful Mississippi-based label of the 1950s and 1960s. […]

This area of Rankin County, formerly called East Jackson and later the Gold Coast, was a hotbed for gambling, bootleg liquor, and live music for several decades up through the 1960s. […]

The historic African American community of Marcus Bottom was an important center of early blues, jazz, and gospel music activity. […]