Delta Blues Museum Artist Spotlight: Charlie Musselwhite

Thursday, January 30, 2017

Delta Blues Museum

Clarksdale, MS

In honor of his January 31st birthday and the Delta Blues Museum's own 38th birthday, the Delta Blues Museum is proud to shine a light on the Mississippi bluesman and longtime DBM supporter known to some as "Memphis Charlie" - Kosciusko, Mississippi, native Charlie Musselwhite.

And there is much more to celebrate this year: Throughout 2017, Delta Blues Museum will be honoring the life and music of the legendary John Lee Hooker for what would have been his 100th birthday - and who better to kick off such a milestone year than one of John Lee's closest musical and personal friends, in his own words. Charlie Musselwhite remembers John Lee Hooker:

"I remember tuning in to WLAC out of Nashville and XERF out of Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico, back in the 50s in Memphis when I was a kid. In his early recordings, he was mostly just playing guitar and tapping his foot. And that music coming out of that little radio in my room late at night left an impression on me. I've never heard anything like it, before or since.

"When I met him, he was still working the blues clubs and hadn't really been discovered by the 'white' audience yet-obviously I knew him, but I wasn't 'most people.' Later on, there was this folk movement, and he started playing folk clubs as a solo act that was really good for spreading his name around. And he started recording albums like the 'Folk Blues of John Lee Hooker', and they were great albums, and I'm glad he got discovered in that way. And then he had the hits, you know, like 'Boom Boom', and they crossed over, so he would be touring with his own electric band, too. I'd often sit in with him, he'd call me up and say, 'Come on down and help the old boy out.'

"I'd like to think he'll always be a big name, and respected and looked up to, that people would listen to his music for inspiration, and let his blues make you feel good."

Listen to the full radio interview at the link below, courtesy of WROX - Clarksdale, and learn more about the lives and music of Blues legends like "Memphis Charlie," John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and more at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi - the Land Where Blues Began.