Musician Keith Johnson and Dr. Rolando Herts, director of The Delta Center at Delta State University and executive director of the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area, recently spoke about the roots of the blues and where the music came from.
Johnson, a Glen Allan native, is the great nephew of musician Muddy Waters, and also played music at the event. Waters is a Clarksdale native.
“I think it went excellent,” Johnson said. “I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the experience. I think people really got the lesson. They got to know Keith Johnson.”
Johnson attended Delta State University.
“Going to Delta State, that’s what brought me to Cleveland,” Johnson said.
Having spent time in Glen Allan, Clarksdale and Cleveland, Johnson is familiar with the Delta.
“Overall, everything feels the same,” Johnson said. “They have those small corner stores. You have still have more of a southern end of that area, the downtown part. It all feels at home to me. I travel Highway 61 every day.”
But Clarksdale still separates itself from other Delta communities.
“What’s unique about Clarksdale is it’s just playing out the music, the blues,” Johnson said. “When you think Clarksdale, you think blues.”
Johnson not only performs, he spends much of his time educating others on the blues.
“Each one, teach one,” Johnson said. “Just teach the next one. As I get older, I teach someone. As they get older, they teach someone. It’s about spreading the heritage, being able to be a torch for the blues.”
Herts talked about Clarksdale’s connection to the blues.
“Clarksdale, kind of being this home of the Delta blues, it didn’t start here,” Herts said. “There’s this whole controversy about was the Crossroads actually here in Clarksdale versus right below Dockery (Dockery Farms), which is where the birthplace of the blues is.”
Many stories have come out of Clarksdale.
“That’s the beauty of being in the Delta is we have these wonderful stories,” Herts said. “There’s some of these storytellers. There’s so much to be interpreted and Clarksdale is a really wonderful space for that to happen, particularly around blues heritage.
“We have a number of blues artists that came from Clarksdale. The father of rock and roll is actually Ike Turner. He is recognized as the father of rock and roll, but his roots are in the blues and in the church. That all manifested here. Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, all of these central figures spending time in Clarksdale, all of that manifested here in Clarksdale.”
