AI Grok Overview of Wrestling with Wisdom at the Crossroads: Billy Howell Reflects
AI Grok Overview of Wrestling with Wisdom at the Crossroads Wrestling with Wisdom at the Crossroads: The Aphorisms and Poems of Malachi Montroy, published in December 2025 by Rose & Pearl Publishing, LLC, is a self-reflective collection authored by Chilly Billy Howell under his pen name, Malachi Montroy. Illustrated by Madge Marley Howell, the book compiles original aphorisms (short, insightful sayings) and poems that emerged from Howell’s personal musings, often shared initially on the Delta Bohemian platform. Described as a “devotional companion” in promotional materials, it blends introspection, faith, and humor to guide readers through life’s pivotal moments—or “crossroads.” With its roots in the Mississippi Delta’s cultural and spiritual landscape, the … [Read More...]
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Play more tunes for me Daddy Rich
By MAGICAL MADGE Clarksdale, Mississippi VIDEOS It's sad, sad to think Daddy Rich may bow out of the music world. I know he took a break this past year to get his priorities straight and for that I commend and respect him. We have missed his music and self. But enough is enough! Play more tunes for me, $Daddy Rich$!!! I don't want to hear any more sad, sad songs, … [Read More...]
Skinny Jeans, My Ass
By POOR WILLIAM What in sam hill are skinny jeans and why would any man wear ‘em, unless he could? I can’t, so to hell with skinny jeans. Levi’s defines them as follows: “Skinny jeans are form fitting and designed to accentuate your shape.” What shape? Can’t nobody but nobody fit in skinny jeans if they have any shape! … [Read More...]
I Hate Damning God
By PONTIFICUS MINIMUS “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” -- The Third Commandment given to Moses by God Having spent many a year eschewing all forms of cursing and vile language I have slipped over the last 10 years into saying many words and phrases that I am sure grieve the Lord. I am rather loose … [Read More...]
Five Years and Growing for Clarksdale Film Festival
By MAGICAL MADGE Clarksdale, Mississippi What a perfect time of year to stay indoors and watch movies. It's so cold outside! Give me a good movie, a blanket and a beverage and I'll follow you anywhere. You say there is a film festival in town this week? Yep! The Clarksdale Film Festival kicks off this Thursday, January 29 for the 5th time! If you have failed to venture downtown to … [Read More...]
Red’s Lounge on a Friday Night in Clarksdale
By POOR WILLIAM VIDEO and PHOTOS Hey Man, I know we did a post on the Delta Bohemian® two weeks ago on Lucious Spiller at Red’s Lounge, but sometimes there’s more to something. And here it tis… … [Read More...]
Meet Me in the City of Clarksdale
By POOR WILLIAM VIDEOS and PHOTOS Clarksdale Mississippi is a bad mama jama: just as fine as she can be with live music 365 days a year! So, if folks want to hear authentic, live music with no two nights ever quite the same, then tell ‘em to meet me in the city! Clarksdale that is! In “The Blues Brothers” movie, the honkytonk (and I do mean honky) that Jake and Elwood played in, had both … [Read More...]
Mornings with Tolstoy – Day Twelve
By WILLIAM PRENTISS I lie here mortally disconnected to humanity, only God! Sis, not sure if I can hear while I lie in abeyance, a dormant state, cognition unknown but to God and me, still talks to me and shares God’s words and the thoughts of those far brighter than I. … [Read More...]
Rice Farmer Outfits Delta Office with John Ruskey Paintings
By POOR WILLIAM Sumner, Mississippi VIDEO & PHOTO GALLERY What always happens when an eclectic rice-farming, map-collecting restaurateur and Delta transplant buys a bevy of original artwork and giclées from a rugged individualist who paints, writes poetry, prose and music, while leading expeditions on the mighty Mississippi River? Well…? You get an uber-cool southern planter’s … [Read More...]
Mississippi Delta Rapids and a Rider ‘fore the Storm
By POOR WILLIAM Clarksdale, Mississippi VIDEO Flat lands got rapids too, ya know! The Mississippi Delta has long been heralded as having some of the most fertile soil this side of the River Nile; we ‘bout as flat too! Drainage ditches skirting crop turn rows are a fixture in God’s country and when it rains they get swole like Poor William in the gym when he is rubbin’ all the rough off the … [Read More...]
Mississippi Delta Cat Trumps Delta Dog, Every Time
By POOR WILLIAM Clarksdale, Mississippi VIDEO Mississippi Delta Dogs are an inescapable, loosely cherished constant in our beloved homeland, but they are not the cat’s meow! Cat will get a fella every time! A friend of Poor William’s is fond of saying that you can lead a man off in to the Grand Canyon with one cat hair! Truth! Magical Madge and I were visiting Quapaw Canoe Company’s … [Read More...]
Lucious Spiller Band at Red’s Lounge in Clarksdale
By POOR WILLIAM Clarksdale, Mississippi VIDEO & PHOTOS “I really didn’t shoot her; I just kicked her to the curb!” -- Lucious Spiller Last year’s Solo International Blues Challenge second place winner, the indomitable Lucious Spiller, gave a rave performance Saturday night at Red’s Lounge in downtown Clarksdale. I no longer record at Red’s but every blue moon, and there was a blue … [Read More...]
MERRY CHRISTMAS from the Delta Bohemian!!!!
Clarksdale, Mississippi Magical Madge and I want to thank our Business Partners (check ‘em out on our website), our Subscribers (if you haven't subscribed do it now. It's free!), and folks—near and far—who love the Mississippi Delta and all it has to offer: … [Read More...]
MS Delta Wildlife
By POOR WILLIAM VIDEO Hey Man, we love the blues in the Delta, but we also are eat up with all our wildlife. Magical Madge and I, along with many a Deltan, take great pleasure in late afternoon and evening drives in the Mississippi Delta. … [Read More...]
Hotty Toddy Cup
By MAGICAL MADGE He made me giggle when he would settle himself in the bar at Madidi, an Episcopalian priest with a keen sense of humor and a thirst for life. Poor William and I became friends with the reverend back in 2010 having met him at Red's Blues Club. The quirky "Father" has been a faithful supporter of the DB, even through Mr. January, Mr. January comments, Mr. February, Mr. February … [Read More...]
Mornings with Tolstoy – Day Eleven
By WILLIAM PRENTISS My world is obsidian; it was formerly gray splintered by veiny shafts of ochre spasmodically penetrating the unseen with countenance warming spumes of hope, now curtained in blackness, muzzled by stygian lassitude. Rhythms of life disrupted, surface bobbing on an ocean of unreality, unsure where I am or where I am heading, do I even exist? … [Read More...]
Got Game at Coahoma County Recreation Expo
By POOR WILLIAM Clarksdale, Mississippi SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO How often have we thought or said that there is nothing for kids to do around here? Too often! Well, there is a bit of a solution right here in Coahoma County. The Coahoma County Youth Outreach (CCYO) program, housed in the old … [Read More...]
Mornings with Tolstoy – Day Ten
By WILLIAM PRENTISS I no longer have use for money, material possessions, or tangibles associated with not being in a presumed coma. It costs to keep me wherever Sis is keeping me and I am thankful resources exist for my care. I have not always wanted to live, not since the assault that reshaped my reality. Long having questioned God as to why this happened and why I am still alive, I often … [Read More...]
Red Paden Birthday Bash at Red’s Lounge
By POOR WILLIAM Clarksdale, Mississippi SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO AND PHOTOS Sunday night was a time of great festivity for Clarksdalians— natives, transplants, and miscreants—who love Red Paden and his world-renowned, one-of-a-kind, ain’t-nothing-like-it blues lounge. We celebrated Red’s birthday in typical Red’s Lounge fashion: cold beer, warm BBQ, hot and milky blues, and sizzlin’ moonshine! … [Read More...]
Money Gruber
By POOR WILLIAM Clarksdale, Mississippi RADIOLAND VIDEO about Money Grubbin' with a shout out to Jonathan Gruber Sometimes ya just gotta see the humor in things in order not to cry like the rare bureaucrat with a pink slip. Regardless of your political persuasion or your feelings about hot-button issues in the mainstream press, the following impromptu audio recorded while driving in the … [Read More...]
Clarksdale Artist in Residence Mecca
By MAGICAL MADGE Clarksdale, Mississippi VIDEO Buildings all over Clarksdale beg to become sanctuaries for artists in residence. In the meantime, while entrepreneurs like Charles Evans, who is renovating and converting several spaces along Sunflower Avenue for one such purpose, our artists in residence and visiting artists in residence must take up shop wherever they can find it. Good … [Read More...]
Take a Jeep Tour with Chilly Billy
Abe’s Bar-B-Q
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