Event Location: Clay Motley @ Far Away Places, Thursday, November 21, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Bookstore, 1680 Campbell Lane.
Perhaps no other place in America is as singularly linked to its music history as this small southern city on Highway 61 seventy-seven miles south of Memphis. Here, since the early twentieth century, an astonishing number of significant musicians were born or lived from W. C. Handy, Son House, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters to Sam Cooke and Ike Turner while Influential blues artists like Charles Patton and Robert Johnson played in its juke joints, and some argue the first rock and roll song was written and rehearsed in 1951.
The “Delta Avenue” and “Blues Alley” street corner.
Clarksdale, Mississippi Population: 17,733
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Clay Motley, Associate Director for Academics for the WKU Honors College
Clay Motley, Associate Director for Academics for the WKU Honors College, has done extensive research on the blues, early country, and early rock n’ roll between 1920 and 1955. He is currently working on a grant-funded research project to examine the city, its history and its musical heritage.
Lucius Spiller and band playing in Red’s on a Saturday night.
His talk will focus on how Clarksdale’s political and business leaders have recently begun using the city’s rich music history and culture to attract tourism and spark desperately needed economic revitalization.
82-year-old bluesman Leo “Bud” Welch playing at Red’s juke joint.
“Red’s,” a juke joint in Clarksdale, one that is typically considered “the read deal,” as opposed to some of the more tourist-friendly ones.
A classic Delta landscape, emphasizing the flatness and size of the land.
We hope you’ll join us to learn why tourists from around the world are attracted to this unique locale in the Mississippi Delta.
Event Location: Clay Motley @ Far Away Places, Thursday, November 21, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. at Barnes & NobleBookstore, 1680 Campbell Lane.
“Cat Head,” the store whose owner is chiefly responsible for the recent economic revival (such as it is) of Clarksdale.