DOWN IN MISSISSIPPI WHERE THE BLUES COME FROM

THE YAK INTERVIEW: ROGER STOLLE OF CAT HEAD DELTA BLUES & FOLK ART

What is often overlooked when music gets discussed is the essential role music lovers often play in ensuring music gets heard. I don’t mean the writers/radio presenters/ booking agents etc - valuable as all are - but the fans who do their best to share their enthusiasms.

This can range from building networks on social media to those who undertake all kinds of taxing (and sometimes costly) activities: think of the folk and punk scenes where gigs/lodging/transport etc are often organised by a vivid militia of supporters.

There are countless examples of this - recently I reported on Brian Smith’s book of photos of blues/R&B/rockabilly artists playing Manchester in the early-1960s here, noting how Smith took photos because he was a fan and provided prints without expecting payment.

On a much larger scale is Roger Stolle, who I met in Clarksdale, Mississippi, when researching what would become my 2009 book More Miles Than Money: Journeys Through American Music. Stolle and his wife had shifted to Clarksdale from St Louis, Missouri, due to their love of the local blues scene.

On settling in Clarksdale Roger didn’t intend to simply partake of the scene. Instead, he wanted to provide a hub where visitors - as he once was - could gain information on live music alongside buying recordings/books/T-shirts/folk art etc.

Having realised that Clarksdale attracted music tourists, yet no one provided a trading post catering to them, Stolle opened Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art. His aim was to create a support network for local musicians and artists (and businesses) so dollars were spent here, rather than in Tunica’s casinos or Memphis’ ersatz Beale Street.

I was impressed. Almost two decades later I am even more impressed: Stolle’s built a down home musical empire in Clarksdale, organising hundreds of concerts across the year and hosting several local festivals, producing and releasing albums and DVDs on local artists (check the M For Mississippi DVD - so good!).

He does this as both his passion and his job, Roger’s emphasis throughout being on promoting vernacular Black blues culture and ensuring the musicians/artists/workers are treated fairly. Considering many African American blues musicians come from economically marginalised backgrounds, thus can be treated shoddily by those with money/power, its a relief to have an honest man looking out for them.

Clarksdale, Mississippi, if you are unaware, was once a blues Mecca. A cotton town that attracted large numbers of African Americans over the weekends, it was home to everyone from Robert Johnson to Ike Turner and throbbed with live music. Times change and the cotton plantations no longer employ many workers, Clarksdale slipping into poverty. The blues was still played here but you had to know where and when to find such.

Stolle sensed if music tourists travelled to New Orleans for jazz/funk and Nashville for country, then a blues town could also prosper. Indeed, his vision has reenergised Clarksdale and it is now one of the best places in the USA to catch live blues and R&B (plus Americana, garage bands etc).

Just last week the Black Keys launched their new album at Red’s juke joint. While their music isn’t to my tastes its great a major rock band see Clarksdale as a hip hub from which to promote their music.

Clarksdale today is, with Roger’s guidance, once again a blues Mecca.

I always enjoy Clarksdale so tell anyone intent on driving the Music Highway (from Nashville to New Orleans) to see the museums in Memphis but not to stay there: Clarksdale (an hour south off Highway 61) has far more live music on, is friendlier, safer, more affordable and walkable. A great location. And I tell them, first things first, drop into Cat Head and chat with Roger. He knows what’s going on.

Actually, Roger knows so much I asked him to share some knowledge on the Yak. He’s a very busy guy so this took a while to assemble but, I think, makes for a fascinating read. Here’s to all the fan boys (and girls) supporting non-mainstream music!

18-year old Harrell "Young Rell" Davenport plays the Juke Joint Festival.

Yakety Yak. How many years have you now lived in Clarksdale and how has the town changed over those years?

Roger Stolle. I visited Clarksdale for 6 of the 6 1/2 years I lived in St. Louis. I’ve now lived here 24 years. The change to town is absolutely night and day. When I moved here in 2002, we had—at most—one or two nights of blues shows per week. Ground Zero Blues Club was new and trying to book mostly blues on most Fridays and Saturdays. Red’s Lounge was sporadically hosting blues, though it took a full two weeks after I moved here to hold its first show.

I took over Ground Zero bookings for 7 years and got them up to 4 nights a week of 99% blues. I also helped Red book his music (and help his son today), got him to do every Friday and Saturday, and introduced him to some “new” acts who were more willing to play for the low pay offered— like T-Model Ford/Robert Belfour/RL Boyce/Terry “Harmonica” Bean; later, Red, on his own, also added Wednesday and Sunday, those his son Orlando now just does Thursday thru Saturday each week.

Miss Sarah Moore tried to host student-teacher bands many Thursday nights back then, with varied success. And anything else was just occasional. Clarksdale had one blues festival back then—the Sunflower River Blues Festival in the heat of August.

When I moved here in 2002, I was on a mission to “help organise and promote the blues from within.” The idea was to bring my marketing expertise and blues connections (and extreme enthusiasm!) to Clarksdale in order to be the boots on the ground that could pull together the existing blues infrastructure of people, places and things in order to become the town between Memphis and New Orleans that offered reliable blues music at night, incentivising tourists to spend the night here.

If we could accomplish that, then I believed local entrepreneurs would build more lodging, more restaurants, more everything. Blues could be harnessed to bring back a dead downtown and generate business opportunities, new jobs and outside (tourist) tax revenues that could benefit the whole community.

Today, in 2026, we have ‘live’ blues shows 365 nights a year. Most of it happens on its own now. When holidays, vacations, etc., come up (or someone dies or a club closes) that might cause a given venue to close on one of their regular nights, I step in and find a replacement. For Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day night, I get funding to subsidise the music and keep it going.

Roger with bluesman Robert Kimbrough Sr and Red’s dancer Ellis Coleman.

In 2004, we started the nonprofit Juke Joint Festival as Clarksdale’s second festival. It is now bigger than all of our other festivals combined—featuring 100 performers and attracting attendees from at least 26 international countries, 47 US states (plus DC) and a majority of Mississippi counties.

The success of JJF also helped to spur others to start other new festivals, so that by year’s end, Clarksdale will have hosted around 20 festival type events.

Additionally, I started two Cat Head Mini Blues Fests and co-founded Clarksdale Caravan Music Fest and Clarksdale Film & Music Festival, plus help/consult with other festivals and special happenings.

All of this activity has led to incredible media attention around the globe from 60 Minutes, PBS NewsHour, BBC, CNN, NPR, The Guardian, New York Times, LA Times, Anthony Bordain’s Parts Unknown, Bizarre Foods, Jools Holland, etc., etc. Plus celebrity visits from Caroline Kennedy, Dan Ackroyd, Robert Plant, Jessica Lange, Tom Waits, Paul Simon, Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Gibbons, etc.

Anyway, because of our collective (and it has increasingly been “collective”) live blues efforts, we now get way more heads in beds, feet under tables and shopping bags in hands. Without blues-based tourism, our town would be in much, much sadder shape. There would likely be no functioning downtown, virtually no hotels and only faster-food types of restaurants on on the “strip”. And certainly nobody would have moved here. By adding overnighting tourists to our local customer base, new restaurants, clubs, retailers and lodging have been able to open and survive.

When I moved here, downtown was very tired and quiet; it was mostly empty. Today, the only empty buildings are the big ones that need hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars for renovation. In 2002, most of the handful of functioning businesses downtown were local-white owned or run. Today, it is well integrated with whites, Black, immigrants and former visitors from all over the place.

By no means is our community now affluent or the hard times behind us. There is generational poverty here just as there is generational wealth, and most of the folks who have moved away in recent decades are on the wealthier, healthier, more educated side.

Because of our burgeoning downtown music and arts scene, we have had dozens of folks move here (e.g. musicians, artists, entrepreneurs, retirees) in the past 15 years from all of the U.S. and the world, but not as many as have been moving away, which drains off the tax base you need to pay for infrastructure and City services. Because of these factors, there are not enough “regular” jobs.

The disaster currently unfolding at the Federal level with the Trump regime is already hurting Clarksdale and the Mississippi Delta in all kinds of ways — including a loss of infrastructure funding, clawed-back arts & education grants, closed Federal services local offices, 100% loss of Chinese exports for certain agricultural products like soybeans, a doubling of health insurance costs for many of us starting January 1st, etc. All of the hateful presidential messages, threats, tariffs, etc., have also cut international tourism/visitors by probably 20% so far... maybe more.

Still, thanks to the strength of our blues and cultural tourism efforts in Clarksdale and the resulting downtown revitalisation successes, we are absolutely in better shape than most of our neighbours. And thankful for it. All of the efforts have been worth it.

YY. You moved to Clarksdale as it’s a historic blues town - I’m guessing it was around the same time that the Delta Blues Museum and Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero bar and restaurant opened?

RS: The Delta Blues Museum was founded by Sid Graves in 1979 as the first official blues museum in the world. When I first started visiting here in the mid-1990s, it was just a small room upstairs in the Carnegie Public Library, a block and a half from where my store is today. By 2000 or so, it had moved into the old freight train depot, and since then it has grown into the world-class institution it is today. Besides documenting the music and history, it is also (most importantly?) home of the Arts & Education Program that Kingfish came through.

I started making my plans to exit Corporate America and move to Clarksdale from St. Louis in winter 2001. That May, Ground Zero Blues Club opened. I had no idea that it was coming, so it was a big surprise. (It was also a gutsy move on Bill Luckett, Morgan Freeman and Howard Stovall’s part. They lost a lot of money for many years before we finally had enough attractions and lodging in town to give the club traction.)

YY. What led to this recognition as Clarksdale as a town that not only had history but was a place where the blues lived?

RS: Well, that’s the whole thing right there, isn’t it? “Forever” Clarksdale had the history, but if you visited, you were much more likely to hear crickets than ‘live’ blues music, especially during the week. We’ve worked to make Clarksdale the town for a blues experience. Folks can visit here, see past blues history (e.g. blues museum, multiple MS Blues Trail markers, Clarkdale Walk of Fame sidewalk markers, various murals, guitar store, harmonica store, my store, etc.) and then hear living blues history at our clubs, jukes and restaurants.

Plus, we have interesting and unique lodging (from downtown lofts to an award-winning hostel, from the artist-run Travellers Hotel to the Shack Up Inn, etc.) and both old-school and new-school restaurants (from 101-year-old Abe’s BBQ to 9-year-old Levon’s Bar & Grill owned by a Sydney, Australia, native). Other towns run ads with photos of blues musicians, but only Clarksdale puts its money (so to speak) where its mouth is, so to speak.

You know, nearby towns have 20 to 30 million dollar music museums, but because they have no reliable music at night, we get the overnight stay. Not them. The B.B. King Museum for example is as great as any museum in a big city, but I never get customers who say they stayed or are staying in Indianola. I hate that for the town. But we did the work. We have the music (and resulting infrastructure), so we get the folks sleeping here, eating here, listening here, shopping here and gassing up the car before they leave.

YY. You have been very active in developing a blues scene in Clarksdale - shop selling folk art and music, putting on concerts and festivals etc - have locals responded positively? Or did they view you as a white guy coming to fleece them?

RS. In the beginning, most locals assumed I wouldn’t stay, since it was (and still is) so hard to make a living here. Still, everyone was friendly, inviting and helpful. Plus, from Clarksdale, I could easily visit musician friends like Pat Thomas in Leland, T-Model Ford in Greenville, Paul “Wine” Jones in Belzoni in Greenville, etc.

So... I made friends in the blues community as a visitor, and once I was here I was able to help them help themselves by starting festivals, touring musicians overseas, booking/facilitating local gigs, volunteering on various nonprofit boards and such. I have never charged a musician for any of my assistance/services and have always paid musicians for performances.

I used to help Kingfish’s Mom, Princess Pride, with questions she had about the business and facilitated or booked many gigs with her. She really and truly wanted the best for her son and was willing to put in the extra effort necessary to make things happen.

It’s been both a rewarding and challenging 23 years here. I had to stop taking Big George Brock all over the world because it was costing me too much money to try to make him money. I also had to stop recording CDs and doing DVD projects for the same reason. And the truth is that I would be retired now if I’d stayed in the corporate advertising and marketing racket. But I have zero regrets. I know I did the right thing.

As for “white guys taking advantage” of Black musicians and such, I have occasionally seen it, but just as often, I’ve seen it from folks who weren’t white. Music is a tough business, with a history of hustlers. What was it that Hunter S. Thompson said? “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”

YY. Mississippi is the poorest state in the union and Clarksdale is a poor, predominantly Black town - does the blues scene benefit the Black community? Are they enthusiastic about it? And is blues tourism something to be celebrated?

RS. Well, first off, there is no blues music or history without African Americans. Period. Of course. Those who choose to play or book or promote it today are (or can be) as successful as anyone can. Maybe even more so. (Let’s be honest, we hardcore “white blues fans” are going to gravitate towards a band or venue that is part of the culture that bore it.) But the cover-charge-paying fans of traditional blues these days are largely either U.S. whites or international visitors.

“Southern soul” (also called other related names) is the modern “blues” in much of today’s black community. It is a modern R&B style often punctuated by gospel-influenced vocalist, adult lyrics/themes and more of a deejay backing than a “live” band. I went to a “Christmas Blues Show” at the Clarksdale Auditorium (built 1939 by WPA) a few years back, and of the 6 acts, 3 were just a guy who came out and sang his radio hits over a CD. And those guys were better received than the 3 actual bands.

The simple truth is that today most Clarksdale youth (Black but also some white) are into hip hop. Period. At this point, for a young man trying to fit in and get through the toughness of growing up, “blues music” is something their great grandparents spent money on.

As for the musicians playing blues in our clubs and jukes these days, there are more white acts than Black acts, simply because there are way more white acts to choose from (and they are typically more willing to play for less money). As for “lowest common denominator mass tourism,” we have so far avoided it—unlike Bourbon Street, Beale Street and Lower Broadway. We are much closer to the real-deal here when it comes to blues and general aesthetics, Southern hospitality, etc.

As for whether “blues tourism should be celebrated”.... Heck yeah. It brings the flowers to the musicians while they can still smell ‘em, provides opportunities to play all around the world, brings business to town and so on. The organic, down-home way Clarksdale has grown and promoted “blues tourism” has been beneficial to a lot of folks here and brought a lot of joy to folks from around the globe.

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The great John Primer plays on the streets of Clarksdale.

YY. You put on a blues film festival earlier this year but freak weather saw Mississippi under snow and ice so ensuring the expected visitors stayed away: how hard is it on you as an event promoter when a festival doesn’t break even?

RS. Our 16th Clarksdale Film & Music Festival was scheduled for January 23-25, but unbeknownst to us, Mother Nature had also scheduled a major winter storm for the same weekend. For the first time ever, we moved our event by a week.

We may be in the “South,” but it was still cold and icy. Still, the festival turned out great. Our theme is to showcase movies about blues/roots music and Mississippi.

This year’s music documentaries included Big Mama Thornton: I Can’t Be Anyone But Me, King of Them All: The King Records Story (about the label that recorded Freddy King, James Brown and others), Blues Like Showers of Rain (1970 documentary featuring soundtrack to the classic book, Conversation with the Blues), Deep Roots: The Art & Music of Bill Steber & Friends (Robert Mugge’s latest doc with guests like Leland, Mississippi’s Pat Thomas) and Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted (an adventurous doc on the world of a soul/R&B/rock legend).

See www.clarksdalefilmfestival.com for more on the films, which also included non-music Magnolia-state movies like Natchez (exploring the crossroads on Southern fact and folklore) and Ronzo (about a cultural ambassador for all things Mississippi). Both were absolute highlights. Live blues performances included Little Willie Farmer, Terry “Big T” Williams, Lucious Spiller, Sean “Bad” Apple and Watermelon Slim.

As for the financial end of things, we structure our Clarksdale Film & Music Festival based on sponsors and grants paying for 90% of the event and event marketing each year. Because winter is a slower tourism and business time of the year, and films do not draw attendees in the same way that a major music festival does, we keep our tickets very affordable—just $5 a pay or $10 for a weekend pass.

This festival is more about generating business in town for the hotels, restaurants, stores, museums, clubs, etc., than it is about generating revenue through admittance fees. Therefore, we were able to pay our bills just fine, though we are usually able to bank more money for the next year’s marketing, etc. Overall, we were very pleased with the results of what could have been a disaster. The folks who came had a great time. Nobody slipped on the ice. And we broke even.

YY. Juke Joint Festival 2026 took place in April and rocked Clarksdale. Go on, tell us some of the highlights and memorable moments that took place?

RS. Even with all of the global challenges we faced this spring—general inflation, higher gas prices, decreased international tourism, etc.—this year’s Juke Joint Festival was in many ways our biggest and most successful yet. We added an extra day this year, moving our official festival kickoff to Wednesday and continued to carry events on through the Sunday of the week. We also totally lucked out by having beautiful spring weather the entire week.

Wednesday, April 8th, was our free 6pm Kingfish Kickoff!, starring hometown blues hero Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. This, as well as our free 6pm Thursday and Friday events was held on our (new last year) Red Panther Brewing Company Stage in the street, a block down from my Cat Head store.

For Thursday, we added additional free daytime activities, including a couple of panel discussions, before once again hosting a free John Primer Allstar concert featuring the 81-year-old Mississippi-born, Blues-Hall-of-Famer and friends like Steve Bell and Watermelon Slim, Lightnin’ Malcolm. Again, an excellent turnout.

On Friday, we again offered some free daytime music and panel discussions before returning to the Red Panther Stage for a free Thacker Mountain Radio Show variety show taping, starring Bobby Rush.

Of course, Clarksdale offers live blues shows in the clubs, juke joints and restaurants all 365 nights of the year, now. But in addition to that, there were all kinds of extra shows and happenings all around town all week and weekend long.

Saturday is still the main day and night of Juke Joint Festival, and this year offered 17 free daytime stages with 70+ blues acts—including Duwayne & Garry Burnside, Cam Kimbrough, Harrell “Young Rell” Davenport, Keith Johnson, Ghalia Volt, Terry “Big T” Williams, Lucious Spiller, Little Willie Farmer, Terry “Harmonica” Bean, etc. Plus, the downtown streets featured over 100 arts & crafts and food vendors in addition to monkeys riding dogs, racing pigs and a kids area.

For Saturday night the festival sold a wristband that got purchasers into 26 nighttime venues for 45+ acts—including James “Super Chikan” Johnson, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Anthony “Big A” Sherrod, Jesse Cotton Stone, Doug Macleod, Australia “Honey Bee” Jones, Tinsley Ellis, Robert Kimbrough Sr., Eden Brent, Stud Ford, Deak Harp, etc. Wristbands also got folks onto the rotating shuttle buses, though most venues were walkable.

Finally, on Sunday, I held my umpteenth Cat Head Mini Blues Fest in the street in front of my 24-year-old Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art store (which is across the street from our Juke Joint Festival headquarters building). Featured performers included Lucious Spiller, Rev. Peyton, Sean “Bad” Apple, Anthony “Big A” Sherrod, Terry “Big T” Williams and others. That night Red’s Lounge held it’s annual Post-festival Blues Jam.

YY. You mentioned helping Kingfish’s mother Princess when she was managing her prodigy: when did you first notice him? And what impression did he make?

RS. Kingfish was absolutely a child prodigy, “but” if that was “all,” then he’d probably still be here. I believe what took him beyond was twofold: He practiced incessantly and listened to his mentors, and his mother Princess did not let young Kingfish out of her sight. Other prodigies (like Anthony “Big A” Sherrod and Lucious Spiller) had the same potential early on but fell in with stuff young folks and musicians can get into.

Kingfish’s mom got him to gigs on time and was always at the door to the club or juke joint late at night keeping trouble, bad habits, etc., away from him. She always tried to get the best pay situation she could and was always promoting him and helping to find new opportunities. I really thought the world of her.

To me, Christone was a quiet, serious young man. What he most cared about was his music and family. Super nice and polite. Great parents, overall. I don’t really know his dad, but Red always spoke highly of him.

I first heard about Kingfish from Sean “Bad” Apple. I was booking Ground Zero back then, and Sean called me, saying, “Hey man. I know you don’t usually go out on Wednesday nights, but I’ve got a new bass player I think you’re going to want to see. He’s eleven years old, and he ain’t normal! He can really play.” Or something like that. I stuck my head in, and sure enough, there’s this expressionless kid just playing whatever the songs required like he was some little, old, experienced blues man.

He’s always been special. I’m so glad he’s gotten rewarded for his (and his mother’s) hard work and perseverance.

YY: Thanks Roger and good luck with all your myriad activities! Anyone visiting the US South must visit Clarksdale and Cat Head!

And here’s 5 blues tunes Roger chose with a Clarksdale connection.

Clarksdale Moan - Son House (long-lost Paramount Records 78 about his native Clarksdale)

Canary Bird - Muddy Waters (the bird flies down 2nd Street, near my store, out to Stovall Plantation)

Coahoma County Blues - Jelly Roll Kings (Big T’s mentor Big Jack Johnson’s killer instrumental named after the county Clarksdale sits in)

Down in the Delta - James “Super Chikan” Johnson (perfect description of poor, rural life here—and laughin’ to keep from cryin’)

662 - Christone “Kingfish Ingram (song and album named after our phone area code for Clarksdale)

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