Thanks all the same, England, but we’ve got our own Amy
Winehouse. And our version
has twice her soul, with none of the crazy.
Read Full Article
WORLD-RENOWNED BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC
PARTNERS WITH DELTA BLUES
MUSEUM AND ROBERT JOHNSON FOUNDATION TO FIND LOCAL TEENS FOR
FULL SCHOLARSHIPS
TO STUDY IN BOSTON THIS SUMMER
.
Read Full Article
CLARKSDALE - When Clarksdale’s first historical Walk of
Fame marker is dedicated to superstar Sam Cooke on April 4, the
event will include a reminiscence of the celebrity and the New
World District ’s rich cultural history.
Following the bronze plaque’s unveiling on Issaquena Avenue
outside the New Roxy Theatre
where Sam Cooke once performed,
a reception and a “I Remember
Sam” program will be
held in the renovated Greyhound
Bus Station. Read Full Article
BY any measure, it's been
a decent year for David "Honey boy" Edwards.
He won a Grammy for his work on "Last of the Delta Bluesmen," had
a part in the feature film "Walk Hard," is touring
and has a new album out, "Roamin' and Ramblin' " (earwigmusic.com).
Read Full Article
The Mississippi Transportation
Commision recently approved
a grant to the Delta Blues
Museum for more than $1.5
million. The money will be
used for expansion of the
former railroad depot in
which the blues museum has
been housed since 1999. This
expansion will mean an addition of
at least 2,700 square feet
to the blues museum for new
permanent educational exhibits.
Delta Blues Museum director
Shelley Ritter said the expansion
project has been in the works
since before her arrival
at the museum in July 2003."There
was talk of [expansion] prior
to my getting here, but we've
been working to bring the
existing museum up to certain standards before
expanding," Ritter said. "It was a direction from the
[Delta Blues Museum] Board
[of Trustees]. They wanted
to do this expansion, and
I've been working towards
it since I've been here."
Ritter
said that part of the addition will probably be devoted to housing
the Muddy Waters cabin. The full cabin has never been on display
in the museum, because the existing gallery room is not tall enough
to house some of the cabin's timbers.
Before the museum could file
for the grant, it had to
first receive permission
from Clarksdale's mayor and
board of commissioners. Mayor
Henry Espy said he was more
than happy to support the
request."I think this grant is going
to be excellent for the Delta Blues Museum and for Clarksdale as
a whole," Espy said. "Clarksdale is the birthplace and
home of the blues and, as a town, we should do anything we can to
promote that." Also aiding the museum in its campaign for the
grant were 25th District
Rep. John Mayo, 26th District
Rep. Chuck Espy and Senator
Robert Jackson, D-Marks,
who all wrote letters to
the Mississippi Department
of Transportation in support of the museum. Ritter says
the Mississippi Arts Commission
has also been supportive
in the plans for the expansion.
The museum will develop
a schedule for the expansion
once the paperwork with the
Mississippi Department of
Transportation is completed.
According to the MDOT guidelines,
construction can begin
no later than September 2009. "We
hope we can begin sooner than that, but there's a lot of planning
phases we will have to go through before that," Ritter says. "All
the drawings and design development has to be done, so we're not
ready to go just yet." Ritter said she hopes the addition will
prove a significant enhancement
to the blues museum.
"I think
the museum is going to be empowered to realize its potential," she
said. "We're finally going to have some resources to really
honor the artists and give them what they deserve." The Delta
Blues Museum was founded
in 1979 by Sid Graves and
the Carnegie Public Library
Board of Trustees and is
Mississippi's oldest music
museum. The building currently
housing the museum at 1 Blues Alley was built in 1918 to
serve as the freight depot
for the Yazoo and Mississippi
Valley Railroad. It is
approximately 12,000 square feet, five thousand
of which are devoted to
exhibits.
To learn more about
the Delta Blues Museum and its expansion plan, visit www.deltabluesmuseum.com.
© Clarksdale Press Register
2007
(May 25, 2007)
Rand McNally, America’s largest map company,
just put the Delta Blues Museum on the map — literally.
The Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale is highlighted as a “can’t
miss” stop in Rand McNally’s new Southeast Getaway
Guide. The guide blends travel information and recommended stops
with maps designed to help vacationers find their way to the
destinations featured in the guide.
“
We wanted to unearth the
best-kept secrets in each state — things that they might
not discover on their own,” says Rand McNally Editorial
Director Laurie Borman. “As more people grow up in one
place and move another, they might not know the area right around
them. This book is a great resource for locals to explore their
state, too.”
The Delta Blues Museum is
just one of the exceptional destinations suggested in the guide,
which takes an in-depth look at restaurants, lodging and one-of-a-kind
attractions in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
“
Research shows that more
and more Americans are choosing to take their vacations close
to home and explore the areas where they live,” says Robert
Apatoff, president and chief executive officer of Rand McNally. “You
might live in an area for years before discovering all it has
to offer. We designed this guide for Southeasterners who want
to find the local treasures hidden in their own backyards.
“We are delighted to be recognized in the Southeast Getaway Guide,” said
Shelley Ritter, Director of the Delta Blues Museum. “Rand McNally is the
established name in maps and travel guides. It’s wonderful to know that
people who travel in Mississippi will not only know about us, but will be able
to see us right on the map.”
For more information, visit www.randmcnally.com or call (800) 333-0136.
(Febuary 10 2007)
The Blues Music Foundation, a non-profit organization launched during 2003's
Year of the Blues celebration, announced that it has awarded $191,650 in
grants to non-profit organizations and museums that celebrate and preserve
the blues. An award of $25,000 was made to the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale,
MS.
Established in 2003, the Foundation set out to dedicate the net proceeds from
the "Salute to the Blues" benefit concert to underwrite projects
that promote blues education, assist organizations with special blues-related
needs, and support other worthy blues causes.
The benefit concert was produced by Experience Music Project at Radio City
Music Hall in New York in February, 2003.
Additionally, the Foundation committed the net proceeds from Lightning in a
Bottle -- the concert film that resulted from “Salute to the Blues" --
to help fund the blues grants. The film was produced by Martin Scorsese and
directed by Antoine Fuqua and had its theatrical and DVD/CD release in 2004.
Highlights of programs funded include: $8,000 to the Beale Street Caravan for
the archiving, preserving and cataloging of a selection of sources materials
of its weekly, hour-long, internationally syndicated, non-commercial blues
radio program; $25,000 to the Carnegie Hall Society to support Carnegie Hall's
Perelman American Roots program, an educational initiative that integrates
the study of American roots music into the middle school social studies curriculum;
$15,000 to the Highway 61 Radio Program to secure the future of this twenty-year
radio show and build the collection at the world's largest Blues Archive; and
$3,000 to the River City Blues Society of Richmond, VA to create a "blues
package" that will include curriculum materials, recordings, documents
and transcriptions, lyrics, and visual material to be used in the classroom
by teachers in a variety of disciplines.
Other organizations to receive funds are: American Roots Music
Education ($7,150); Blues Lovers United of San Diego ($10,000);
Canada South Blues Society ($9,000); Center for Southern Folklore
($25,000); The Colorado Blues Society ($13,000); Delta Blues
Museum ($25,000); Mississippi Valley Blues Society ($6,500);
Music Maker Relief Foundation ($25,000); Santa Barbara Blues
Foundation ($10,000); and Suncoast Blues Society Inc. ($10,000).
