Blues revival in Mississippi Delta brings "Kingfish" to music scene | 60 Minutes

Muddy Waters once Sayang the

blues

had a baby and they called it rock and roll but it's more than Rock the

blues

defends itself strongly it is the most influential sound in the history of American

music

, fundamental to soul and country funk, the jazz and hip-hop. I wanted to check out the state of the Blues, so we headed to the Blues State of Mississippi and specifically to the city of Clarksdale in the belly of the Delta, where the blues first flourished and where in recent years there has been a Renaissance of sorts. showing the world that the grandfather of American

music

still has chords left to play the story will continue in a moment head up Highway 49 in the Mississippi Delta vibrates with the sound of the blues even before the music reaches your ears in the annual juke joint festival in clarksdale, thousands of people flood this town to experience

delta

blues in perhaps the last place where it is still thriving, they come for those familiar licks and whale songs of pain and pride.

James Johnson is called Super Chicken and if you are looking for the beating. Heart of the Blues is a good person to know, I never studied music or had music classes. I hear what sounds good to me and I play because I love it. He said sh Mama sh it, I make up my own sounds. my own style Well, when the sun shines this morning, that's how the blues still lives on in Clarksdale, a cultural heritage passed down from generation to generation, which is why this city of about 14,000 people has surely produced more famous blue stars per capita than any other place on the planet.

Now, when he was young, many of them, like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, worked on the surrounding plantations. Super Chicken 2o, he

brings

his own kind of levity to those difficult memories. Being a Shell Cropper, you also have to have a rhythm to work with and he is our favorite. The beat was the old chu choo train. I tell people I grew up in a crack house. Our house had so many cracks in the world that we had to fill the cracks to keep the snow out. Shoot that thing. You really live that song. Oh yeah.

I mean, I sing about the life that I live, when did you start working in the fields until I was old enough to go to the fields like three and four, I took care of the chickens five and six, I was in the cotton field picking cotton cutting cotton ? What experiences like these helped Forge the Blues in the Delta, where places like Clarkdale were built as boomtowns on the backs of slaves and then sharecroppers? The music was a vessel for the black experience, what began as country songs in the spirituals evolved into a new mix of slide guitar sound with a howl of The Human Condition down Road The blues houses opened up the joints of Juke and In the 1920s and 1930s, stars like Robert Johnson emerged.

I went where, according to Legend, I went down to the crossroads outside of Clarksdale and sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his guitar cuts a monument marks the place where it happened or not uh I heard a different story a guy named uh Ike Simmerman taught Robert Johnson how to play gave him some licks to start something with which gave him a pattern to follow Super Chicken Johnson might have inside information Robert Johnson told us he was family you realize Robert Johnson went to the crossroads took guitar lessons from Zimmerman like Zimmerman yes, a little less mystical who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for learning to play the guitar, yes, tasty or so is what attracted Sha Bad Apple when he came to Clarksdale from Scranton Pennsylvania to early 90's and never left.

He opened his own blues club here, two Bud Lights, two Yingling, two Bud Lights, where he serves. as a headlining bouncer bartender and lives backstage dressed in his ornate stage clothes, he nostalgically hits the old blue

scene

when you're at a music venue it's like there's betting on this corner someone's having a baby on this corner there's a chicken fight right next door here says he's very aware that he wasn't born into this tradition, but he tries to honor it the best he can by demoing Evolution blues. He showed us how the blues was repackaged for broader and frankly whiter audiences and then these little kids grew up. up like Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney Robert Plant from Leed Zeppelin all these bands were listening to this blues music Clapton's was I went to the crossroads right CR right that's the cream version, yes, but Robert Johnson, the blues man, that's his song I went to a crossroads over the years musical taste changed the local blues houses closed and farm work dried up today Clarksdale is located in one of the poorest counties in the poorest region of a stubbornly poor state that once vibrant the city center is falling apart you've played all over the world Yes, and a seasoned musician like Super Chicken, who has won awards, toured internationally and had a long recording career, has to supplement his income by building guitars and driving a truck.

However, I heard of a guy who travels the world and has 10 albums and still drives. a truck, so I know who's name is chicken and they asked me when are you going to record a new album. I said I got 10 of them and they're nothing, nothing, but even his fans don't fully understand what he is. still living the life he sings about we have a lot of Blu Seekers that come here tourists that come here they want the blues they want the BL she doesn't want the blues you want the blues music they want the sound they don't I want the underlying experience to be correct yes Someone says listen I want I like the way you sound No, I don't need to hear about the experience Underneath everything is fine with you, yes, but it will come out in the songs. but recently Clarksdale has been experiencing a resurgence of sorts - it's not Nashville, but new shops and restaurants are opening and new fans and young musicians have been flocking to a place they see as the gravitational center of blue loss.

Dalia Vault hails from Brussels originally and she is a fixture on the music

scene

here, how did you first get into this music? I guess from punk and rock and roll, just digging and digging and digging, trying to find what the true roots of the music that I used to listen to until they caught me. First arriving here in 2014, she traveled the Delta absorbing Blu's truths from the local Masters, perhaps the closest this music gets to Juliard. She was just watching the guys play and learning from it and trying out, you know, in my room, okay, how does that sound?

Okay, maybe I try to play what they teach me and they say, oh, but this sound actually sounds really good, the sound he's talking about cuts the air in places like redheads. A relic from the old juke days. Here modernity is maintained. It's far away, if you're looking for a craft cocktail this isn't the place, but the beer and music flow in equal volume late into the night under the watchful eye of Red, one of the last black blues club owners in Clarksdale , just a few blocks away, literally, on the other side of the tracks, there you are Saturday night at Ground Zero, uh, another place a little more polished, we met the owner here too, what's up? my brother from another mother, you know who owns it, you know what, you know why, yeah, that's Morgan Freeman.

Hello Brother how are you? Welcome back here, thank you. He spent his childhood in Delta, has a home near Clarksdale and 22 years ago opened Ground Zero Blues Club as a place to showcase the great local talent that is Anthony Big A. Sherro on guitar. The blues revives this city. We met Freeman for a drink along with Ground Zero co-founder Howard Stoval, whose family still owns the land. Muddy Waters once worked as a day laborer when I was a little boy. Four five. These guys would come sit on me on grandma's porch on a Saturday drink chin or Hooch or moonshine and play the blues what is it about this music that has made it so enduring? the music that comes directly from the soul they just tear it from you it's palpable that they're singing from Deep you say you love me baby but the blues is the blues there are chords and licks that you have to do if you're going to play blue hard rock my pillow the road is my home so I might as well be dead I'm just walking and walking I seem to have nowhere to go the blues the highest expression of Clark Dale's Blues Resurgence a guitar prodigy compared to Jimmy Hendrick and BB King will meet Kingfish when we get back while Delta Town of Clarksdale Mississippi leans into its blues beyond its

revival

has given rise to a new blues superstar the best kid on the block done right is a guitar phenom who learned his licks locally and who's been updating the blues for this century He is 24 years old and has already won a Grammy ladies and gentlemen Kingfish the story will continue in a moment his real name is Christopher Ingram and he is the brightest blue star to come out of the

delta

in decades he has opened for the Rolling Stones and has toured headliner, and it's not just Blu fans who come to see it.

His amazing guitar skills draw crowds and he is frequently compared to Chris Clapton and inevitably another Mississippi native. If I said I read that you're the next BB King, I should probably keep it to myself and not let it go to your head. Hey, no, you don't know, not at all, besides, you know. I think you know. I love Mr. King's music. That's one of my favorites, but I think I have my own thing too. I'm tougher. I like this. I feel like I'm BB. If he, BB took off that suit, yeah, put on some Jordans. and you know, he put his hat on backwards, you know, you know, I love you, you know, I love you.

Kingfish had just won a Grammy last year for best contemporary blues album when we saw him perform to an energetic crowd in Austin, it was 600 miles and a world away from where he started out in his hometown of Clarksdale, playing the blues clubs. local after school from 11 years old. I think most people think of Blues and he's like an older guy, maybe a seasoned guy who's had his share of struggles. Where do you get the blues in your half? I haven't been through any divorces or anything like that, but I've definitely had my share of struggles and you know, anyone who has struggles, that's the blues.

The blues is the life he was introduced to. Blues from his parents and fell in love with the sound Kingfish told us about his musical tastes, his generous talent and generous physique set him apart in school, he found solace in practice, obsessive practice, as we witnessed backstage, he works to master the old standards and also writes his own music, some like here, well aware that it is the air of a long line of Mississippi Delta blues greats. I was born in Clarkdale, a rich history that weaves into the songs of it, well, there is magic in the music, there must be something in the What is it about this region that produces so many talented musicians?

How do you explain that, since I have a song, it's just something in the earth man? who was down here we know we got all that from you know it came from they spent time in the Delta and it's easy to see why the place delights so many, but the difficulties are obvious. 42% of Clark residents live below poverty. line, this was once a headquarters of the civil rights movement and the legacy of Jim Crow lives on here, that's Clarksdale. Kingfish know well this is the old neighborhood, yeah man this is O damn, uh, I grew up here when Kingfish was growing up, his concerts brought in much needed money, he and his mother were homeless for a while, this is it where in many moments it happened to me taking a guitar, you know, as you can see, we still have some houses that are affected by poverty, you know some parts of the city.

I know they don't put money into anything so there's still some fighting in the Delta, yeah you don't hide that in your music, no not at all, why is that important to you? Because for someone who is also your home, you know it's your home and I have to do it. write about home and that's what we have to talk about today we can't talk about you you know, you know, hoocha coochi man forever Kingfish may be singing about the realities of black life in Clarksdale, but he says these truths don't always connect with It's hard to He misses the black community when he looks out at the crowd at many of his performances.

He I meet a lot of you, people like me, that he's like, well, you know, man, we shouldn't listen to that because you know you know. that music reminds us of our pain and you know it's slave music and I get it, but you know we need it to be known, hey man, this is part of our culture that wouldn't be 50 Cent or L. Wayne, if it weren't for Sun House and Robert Johnson, the list goes on and on, this is a family tree, yes this is a family tree, so we have to accept that before the teachers came, he had his first real introduction to that story in a directed program by the little Clarksdale Blues Museum, we joined him on a visit for the first time in years.

These after-school blues classes are where King F first learned the basics of the instrument from him. Hey, during a break in the music, weWe bumped into one of the teachers. It's good to see him very big and remember him. His voice is still great from his weekend concert at Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero Blues Club. Kingfish was six years old when he met big and he was little. Kingfish, as if was bad he said it was manad but he continued like that, did you feel the talent early? I knew it was going to be something for these kids.

The show is about music and history. It's also Kingfish talked to us about expanding his idea of ​​opportunity in a place where opportunities are not equally distributed. We have seen many new developments here in Clarksdale regarding this blues tourism. What is your opinion? You're laughing. I hope I don't get in trouble. Over the years I've always seen money put into that and that's fine, I just wish more of the other neighborhoods got some of that boost and revitalization when you step away from the actual genre and cross the track that is the real blues part of Kingfish's appeal, it's a thoroughly modern bluesmen that updates the music and sound as well as the theme, which BL, like Elvis Clapton and Hendrix, borrowed liberally from the blues.

I said, hey, Kingfish is turning the tables by borrowing from them, theirs is a musical stew that mixes rock with funk and jazz plus money Waters BB King and Stevie scratch what else do you draw gospel? I love gospel music which was like one of my first loves, uh, hip-hop too, you know. of my favorite rappers were great storytellers, you know he could tell a story like Robert Johnson, so it's all, it's all relative and Kingfish combines his Sonic storytelling with a natural Showman ship, still with the Blues in the musical margins that doesn't exactly dominate the Spotify playlist.

I wondered where this genre is headed. The blues will always be present. You know the genre may not be in the Billboard top 200, but the blues will always be here. You're not worried about the future, ah, not at all, there always will be one. a little kid somewhere listening to BB Stevie someone else, so yeah, he's too modest to say it, so we'll say it for him. That little boy somewhere is surely also inspired by a Clarkdale bluesman, she, me, K, all the time, we'll leave it. Kingfish take us out. I can't leave that woman. I think my fish is great.