WEDNESDAY NIGHT JUKE JOINT FESTIVAL 2013 CLARKSDALE

Joey Young, Todd Cameron, Ken Flynt, Adam Britt, Bethany Howell at New Roxy in Clarksdale during Juke Joint Festival 2013.

By POOR WILLIAM
(Clarksdale, Mississippi)

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Dude, where’s my guitar? Oh wait, I am tone deaf, but I ain’ totally stupid! I had enough sense to slip on up in the New Roxy this Wednesday night in Hemingway’s proverbial “rain.” One of the most pleasurable nights of my life! Guaranteed!

Juke Joint Festival in downtown Clarksdale, Mississippi—Heart of the Mississippi Delta—is categorically one of the finest festivals in the known world and maybe even on shores yet to be discovered!

John Magnusson at New Roxy in Clarksdale during Juke Joint Festival 2013.

The New Roxy open-air theater on Issaquena Ave. in the old-world, New World District just under the viaduct is categorically one of the finest performance venues in the world and maybe even on shores yet to be discovered! Starting to get the point?

Robin Colonas’s bad-ass venue is not to be missed and to have Hill Country Blues legend Lightnin’ Malcolm and T-Model Ford’s 14-year-old grandson “Stud” playing—in a downpour full of fury, tunes, and of course, LIGHTNIN’—original tunes off Malcolm’s new CD is nothin’ shy of priceless! Did I mention it was in the rain, a lot of it!

Rainy Wednesday Night in Clarksdale during Juke Joint Festival 2013.

Magical Madge and Poor William along with daughter number 2, Bethany, had a fine time along with a bevy of local characters and semi-fixtures who just can’t get enough of Clarksdale.

The air was ripe with electricity, biorhythms were portending cascades of thunder and precipitation, the theater was deluged with rain rent from the heavens, and PBR’s and other possibly more expensive but less notable beers flowed freely, but the coup de grace was Lightnin’ Malcolm and Stud keeping their brand of Hill Country Blues alive for both their generations and for the initiated and yet-to-be initiated! Enjoy a manic Wednesday among the finest folks in the world. WooHoo! You just can’t get this shit in New York City!