{"id":42910,"date":"2026-06-15T10:07:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T15:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/?post_type=news&#038;p=42910"},"modified":"2026-06-15T10:21:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T15:21:59","slug":"born-in-mssissippi-electrified-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/news\/born-in-mssissippi-electrified-in-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Born in Mississippi, Electrified in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-1024x720.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42911 lazyload\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-1024x720.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42911 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-1024x720.png 1024w, https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-300x211.png 300w, https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-768x540.png 768w, https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-1536x1081.png 1536w, https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-2048x1441.png 2048w, https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-540x380.png 540w, https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-500x352.png 500w, https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-800x563.png 800w, https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-1280x900.png 1280w, https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-1920x1351.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/noscript><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">Written by <a href=\"https:\/\/wclair.com\/author\/skiphidlay\/\">William \u201cSkip\u201d Hidlay<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/wclair.com\/category\/brand-trust\/\">StoryPower: Connecting Passion to Purpose<\/a>The Visit Mississippi Crossroads Stage at the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival in Millennium Park. Photo by Skip Hidlay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The banner running the width of the stage captures the heritage of the blues in six words:&nbsp;<strong>Born in Mississippi. Electrified in Chicago.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The banner also testifies to a remarkable collaboration between Chicago and Mississippi at the annual Chicago Blues Festival to promote the tourism brands of a city and a state as shared destinations for blues music lovers from around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">In the world of brand strategy and marketing, when something is valuable \u2014 a heritage, a category, a story \u2014 the reflex is often to plant a flag and try to own it exclusively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Chicago has every right to claim the blues. It\u2019s where the music was plugged in, amplified, and sent out to the world. Mississippi has every right, too. It\u2019s where the music was born, in the Delta, on the porches and in the juke joints. Two legitimate claims to the same heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">But blues music is built on the creativity of collaboration, call and response, musicians sharing the stage and letting each band member take a turn at soloing in the spotlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicago.gov\/city\/en\/depts\/dca\/supp_info\/chicago_blues_festival.html\">Chicago Blues Festival<\/a>&nbsp;tells the story of how two tourism brands came together to model the collaboration of their shared blues heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">To understand that story, you have to meet Robert Terrell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wclair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WClair-Chicago-Blues-Festival-2026-Robert-Terrell.jpg?resize=998%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Robert Terrell, deputy director of the B.B. King Museum in Indianola, Mississippi, stands in front of the Visit Mississippi Crossroads stage at the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival.\" class=\"wp-image-1142 lazyload\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wclair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WClair-Chicago-Blues-Festival-2026-Robert-Terrell.jpg?resize=998%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Robert Terrell, deputy director of the B.B. King Museum in Indianola, Mississippi, stands in front of the Visit Mississippi Crossroads stage at the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival.\" class=\"wp-image-1142 lazyload\"\/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Robert Terrell at the Visit Mississippi Crossroads Stage, with Mississippi\u2019s own Rashad \u201cThe Blues Kid\u201d performing behind him. Rashad is one of the Mississippi-based blues artists Terrell helps book into the festival each year. Photo by Skip Hidlay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Terrell is deputy director of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/bbkingmuseum.org\/\">B.B. King Museum<\/a>&nbsp;in Indianola, Mississippi. He is also, as best I can tell, the only member of the Chicago Blues Festival\u2019s programming committee who lives in Mississippi. Terrell helps book Mississippi artists onto the Visit Mississippi Crossroads Stage for the Chicago Blues Festival every June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">His own life traces the migration of the blues from the steamy Delta of rural Mississippi up north to the energy and opportunity of urban Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Terrell was born in Hollandale, Mississippi, on Highway 61. His father, born in 1925, was one of 12 children and the only one who stayed in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">In 1977, Terrell followed the same path the music had taken a generation earlier. \u201cSame thing as the old blues artists,\u201d he said. \u201cGetting up out of here, trying to find work, running away from these cotton fields.\u201d Aunts and uncles were already in Chicago. He stayed with one of his father\u2019s sisters until he found his footing. He would spend 32 years in the city, running a recording studio at 18th and Michigan, a few dozen blocks from the festival\u2019s current home in Millennium Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">In the early 2000s, when a Mississippi group went looking to reconnect with the Chicagoans whose families had come north, Terrell was the natural bridge. He helped them land a booth at the festival. The booth became a tent. The tent became a stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">What Terrell understood \u2014 and kept saying to anyone in Chicago who would listen \u2014 is that Mississippi and Chicago have a shared heritage in the blues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s like a tree,\u201d he told me. \u201cThe branches stretch way out, all the way to Chicago. But the root of it is right here in Mississippi.\u201d The blues traveled north and were electrified in Chicago, he says, but they grew from the Delta. Home and birthplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wclair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WClair-Chicago-Blues-Festival-2026-Charlie-Musselwhite-Elvin-Bishop.jpg?resize=1024%2C505&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Blues legends Charlie Musselwhite and Elvin Bishop play on the main stage in Millennium Park during the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival.\" class=\"wp-image-1143 lazyload\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2.0277545716142207;width:1024px;height:auto\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wclair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WClair-Chicago-Blues-Festival-2026-Charlie-Musselwhite-Elvin-Bishop.jpg?resize=1024%2C505&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Blues legends Charlie Musselwhite and Elvin Bishop play on the main stage in Millennium Park during the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival.\" class=\"wp-image-1143 lazyload\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2.0277545716142207;width:1024px;height:auto\"\/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Charlie Musselwhite (center) and Elvin Bishop (right), two pillars of the Chicago blues sound, share the stage in 2026. Musselwhite\u2019s harmonica case carries a sticker reading \u201cI \u2665 Clarksdale.\u201d Photo by Skip Hidlay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">You could see that truth all over the 2026 festival.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.charliemusselwhite.com\/\">Charlie Musselwhite<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elvinbishopmusic.com\/\">Elvin Bishop<\/a>, two pillars of the Chicago blues, played together on Friday night. Musselwhite\u2019s harmonica case featured a worn sticker that read&nbsp;<em>I \u2665 Clarksdale<\/em>, after the Delta hometown of many legendary blues artists and the place he now lives when he\u2019s not on the road performing. On opening night, the bluesman John Primer was honored on a Chicago stage with a replica of his Mississippi Blues Trail marker. Root and branch, on the same stage, all weekend long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Here is where it becomes a branding story, not just a history lesson. When I asked Katie Coats, the chief marketing officer of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/\">Visit Mississippi<\/a>, why Chicago lets its own stage be used to send tourists 600 miles south, she didn\u2019t describe a negotiation. She described a rising tide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s not really pulling away,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just adding to their product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wclair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WClair-Chicago-Blues-Festival-2026-Clarksdale-and-Delta-Tourism-Tent-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C776&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Kinchen &quot;Bubba&quot; O'Keefe, executive director of Visit Clarksdale, Ashley Farmer, executive director of Visit Greenwood, and Lisa Cookson, executive director of the Museum of the Mississippi Delta, work together at the Mississippi Delta Tourism tent at the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival. They are standing in front of posters and signs promoting the Delta, including a glowing neon sign that proclaims: Blues Highway 61.\" class=\"wp-image-1163 lazyload\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wclair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WClair-Chicago-Blues-Festival-2026-Clarksdale-and-Delta-Tourism-Tent-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C776&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Kinchen &quot;Bubba&quot; O'Keefe, executive director of Visit Clarksdale, Ashley Farmer, executive director of Visit Greenwood, and Lisa Cookson, executive director of the Museum of the Mississippi Delta, work together at the Mississippi Delta Tourism tent at the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival. They are standing in front of posters and signs promoting the Delta, including a glowing neon sign that proclaims: Blues Highway 61.\" class=\"wp-image-1163 lazyload\"\/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Kinchen \u201cBubba\u201d O\u2019Keefe, executive director of Visit Clarksdale, Ashley Farmer, executive director of Visit Greenwood, and Lisa Cookston, executive director of the Museum of the Mississippi Delta, work together at the Mississippi Delta Tourism tent at the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival. \u201cI thought this year\u2019s festival was fantastic,\u201d O\u2019Keefe says. \u201cWe had people from all over the world come to the tent \u2014 Brazil, Argentina, Norway, New York City. \u201c<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The more people Mississippi draws into Millennium Park, the bigger the festival becomes. The more people learn about Mississippi\u2019s role as birthplace of the blues and decide to visit on vacation, the stronger the music\u2019s heritage and appreciation become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Mississippi\u2019s tagline is \u201cthe Birthplace of America\u2019s Music,\u201d and Chicago, Coats told me, is consistently one of the state\u2019s top tourism markets. Her team can now trace the path from someone seeing a Visit Mississippi ad, to landing on the website, to booking a flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s a great partnership,\u201d says Kinchen \u201cBubba\u201d O\u2019Keefe, executive director of Visit Clarksdale, the town where many legendary blues musicians got their start. \u201cChicago and Clarksdale have a very unique relationship. Muddy Waters left from here and went to Chicago \u2014 and the rest is history. Chicago is like the Mississippi Delta of the North.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">One woman who won the Visit Mississippi booth\u2019s blues road-trip giveaway at the 2025 festival took her family through the Delta over Memorial Day and wrote to say what a great time she had and to thank them for the trip, Coats said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wclair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WClair-Chicago-Blues-Festival-2026-Mayor-Brandon-Johnson-Bruce-Iglauer-Alligator-Records.jpg?resize=1024%2C680&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson reads a proclamation honoring Bruce Iglauer, founder and CEO of Alligator Records, during the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival.\" class=\"wp-image-1144 lazyload\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wclair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WClair-Chicago-Blues-Festival-2026-Mayor-Brandon-Johnson-Bruce-Iglauer-Alligator-Records.jpg?resize=1024%2C680&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson reads a proclamation honoring Bruce Iglauer, founder and CEO of Alligator Records, during the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival.\" class=\"wp-image-1144 lazyload\"\/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson reads a proclamation at the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival honoring Bruce Iglauer, founder of Chicago\u2019s Alligator Records. Photo by Skip Hidlay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">None of this dilutes Chicago\u2019s brand as a blues tourism destination. If anything, sharing makes the city\u2019s own claim louder. This year Mayor Brandon Johnson took the festival stage, honored Bruce Iglauer of the city\u2019s own&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.alligator.com\/\">Alligator Records<\/a>, and called the festival \u201cthe heart and soul of Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Two nights later, 84-year-old&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tajblues.com\/\">Taj Mahal<\/a>&nbsp;closed out the three-day celebration of the blues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wclair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WClair-Chicago-Blues-Festival-2026-Taj-Mahal.jpg?resize=689%2C921&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Blues legend Taj Mahal plays at the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival.\" class=\"wp-image-1145 lazyload\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wclair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WClair-Chicago-Blues-Festival-2026-Taj-Mahal.jpg?resize=689%2C921&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Blues legend Taj Mahal plays at the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival.\" class=\"wp-image-1145 lazyload\"\/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Taj Mahal, 84, closes the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival on Sunday night. Photo by Skip Hidlay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The lesson I take away from the festival: brands that collaborate stand to gain more than those that compete. The strongest brands treat their story as an inheritance to be shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Chicago and Mississippi worked out that the blues only gets bigger when two places promote it together. The banner on the Crossroads stage proclaims it. The tourism data proves it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">It also took help from people on both ends of the blues trail, people like Robert Terrell, who has lived both halves of the story and always knew they were one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think it\u2019s important to let the world see the ones who live here and show how the soil keeps cultivating great musicians,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Born in Mississippi and still growing. Electrified in Chicago and still evolving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This article was written by  <a href=\"https:\/\/wclair.com\/author\/skiphidlay\/\">William \u201cSkip\u201d Hidlay<\/a><\/em> <em>and originally published by W. Clair Communications on June 12, 2026. View the original at<\/em> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/wclair.com\/2026\/06\/12\/born-in-mississippi-electrified-in-chicago\/\">w.claire.com<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/travel\/article\/best-food-mississippi-gas-stations?loggedin=true&amp;rnd=1762960457282\"><br><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written by William \u201cSkip\u201d Hidlay in StoryPower: Connecting Passion to PurposeThe Visit Mississippi Crossroads Stage at the 2026 Chicago Blues Festival in Millennium Park. Photo by Skip Hidlay. The banner running the width of the stage captures the heritage of [\u2026]<\/p>\n<p>\n","protected":false},"author":15949,"featured_media":42911,"template":"","class_list":["post-42910","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Born in Mississippi, Electrified in Chicago - Visit Mississippi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The\u00a0Chicago Blues Festival\u00a0tells the story of how two tourism brands came together to model the collaboration of their shared blues heritage.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/visitmississippi.org\/news\/born-in-mssissippi-electrified-in-chicago\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Born in Mississippi, Electrified in Chicago - 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