0:00:03 > 0:00:06TRAIN HOOTER BLARES
0:00:15 > 0:00:19This is the great state of Mississippi,
0:00:19 > 0:00:24the most fertile place in America but conversely one of the poorest, too.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27I'm here because I love the blues
0:00:27 > 0:00:31but as someone who's interested in food, I've been fascinated by
0:00:31 > 0:00:35the much-loved southern dishes ingrained in those lyrics -
0:00:35 > 0:00:41cornbread and butter beans, black eyed peas, fried chicken and turnip greens.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44They call it "soul food" here, and it's one of those
0:00:44 > 0:00:49vital things people miss when they escape the Delta.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53This is a journey into the land of the Delta Blues, guided by the tunes
0:00:53 > 0:00:58and the words I've enjoyed for the best part of 50 years.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02It's also about the myths surrounding this powerful music.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06A journey to find out what's real and what ain't.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23# I'm a blues man
0:01:24 > 0:01:26# I'm a blues man
0:01:26 > 0:01:28# All over Mississippi... #
0:01:40 > 0:01:45This is Terry Harmonica Bean, famous on the Delta Blues circuit.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47A real blues man.
0:01:48 > 0:01:49# I was raised up
0:01:50 > 0:01:51# On guinea weed
0:01:53 > 0:01:54# Cornbread
0:01:54 > 0:01:56# Collared greens
0:01:56 > 0:01:58# Black-eyed beans
0:01:58 > 0:02:00# Turnips in my mouth
0:02:00 > 0:02:02# And Muddy Waters
0:02:03 > 0:02:05# All you people
0:02:05 > 0:02:08# Better get ready for the blues
0:02:08 > 0:02:10# I'm a blues man
0:02:12 > 0:02:14# I'm a blues man
0:02:15 > 0:02:17# Yes, I am
0:02:20 > 0:02:22# Yeah
0:02:22 > 0:02:23# Whoa. #
0:02:34 > 0:02:38CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:02:38 > 0:02:40Ah-hey!
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Blues in the house! Terry "Harmonica" Bean.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49You know the blues, I mean, it means a lot to you,
0:02:49 > 0:02:53but does it mean a lot to black, young black people any more?
0:02:53 > 0:02:56The young whites! The young whites is into the blues.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01- Right.- The young blacks think it's depressing - they don't understand it.
0:03:01 > 0:03:03You got to study it.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08And they'll say, "Well if you're a black person you can play the blues."
0:03:08 > 0:03:11Just cos you're black don't mean you can play the blues.
0:03:11 > 0:03:16There's a lot of peoples don't like the blues. Black peoples.
0:03:16 > 0:03:17- Don't like it.- Don't like it!
0:03:17 > 0:03:21If it ain't nothing there, you can't get nothing out!
0:03:25 > 0:03:29What did the blues do to me when I first heard it?
0:03:29 > 0:03:30It grabbed me.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49I can actually recall the precise time when I got turned on to the blues.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53It must have been about 1962, 1963 and I was at boarding school.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56This friend of mine said, "Come and listen to this."
0:03:56 > 0:03:59I went into his... We had studies then
0:03:59 > 0:04:04and he had a Danset player, but an automatic Danset and I can remember the label -
0:04:04 > 0:04:07it was blue and cream, Chess Records.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11And it was Howlin' Wolf, Smoke Stack Lightning.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15A-WOO-OOH! Like that and to me,
0:04:15 > 0:04:19it went straight through me because I'd never heard anything like it, I'd never heard anything
0:04:19 > 0:04:27with such sort of balls, I suppose. Such a sort of howl, such a sort of naked human howl and I was hooked.
0:04:28 > 0:04:29# Oh, oh
0:04:29 > 0:04:32# Smoke stack lightning
0:04:33 > 0:04:35# Shining
0:04:35 > 0:04:36# Just like gold
0:04:36 > 0:04:40# Don't you hear me crying?
0:04:40 > 0:04:41# Ooh, ooh... #
0:04:41 > 0:04:47I was brought up with people like Cliff Richard and other rather sort of wimpish English groups.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50I was into Elvis but by then Elvis was
0:04:50 > 0:04:54doing things like GI Blues and had gone a bit sort wimpish himself.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57So this was just, like, I HAD to know more about it.
0:04:57 > 0:05:04And of course at the same time there were lots of young, urban English boys who had turned on to it too.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09I mean, the Rolling Stones, of course, Eric Clapton and The Yardbirds.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13I think, for all of us - I'm obviously not a rock band,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17a rock musician - it was just that sort of earthiness, that extreme
0:05:17 > 0:05:21sort of power that came through and we had to have more of it!
0:05:24 > 0:05:29Just driving along, I can't help thinking this whole landscape is so familiar.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33It's all those album covers from the '60s and '70s.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36# I am the little red rooster... #
0:05:36 > 0:05:40Blues lovers who've been here before told me to stay at the Shack Up Inn.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44It was an old cotton gin where they used to clean and chop up the cotton
0:05:44 > 0:05:50and pack it into huge bales. And it's set on a plantation just outside of Clarksdale,
0:05:50 > 0:05:53the epicentre of the Delta Blues.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57What better place to put you in the mood.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01I really like the fact that nobody's heard of me here!
0:06:01 > 0:06:04I'm just another blues fan from England struggling
0:06:04 > 0:06:10with the 102 degrees, but what a lovely place to start a journey.
0:06:10 > 0:06:19No fancy reception and lifts, just lots of rusty corrugated iron and lots of old, carefully chosen junk.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22Good Lord!
0:06:23 > 0:06:25Wow!
0:06:25 > 0:06:27I mean, I had thought it was going to be rickety
0:06:27 > 0:06:30but I didn't really have any idea it was going to be like this!
0:06:30 > 0:06:35Look at the ceiling, rusty old corrugated iron on the ceiling
0:06:35 > 0:06:39and old planks, look like old floorboards or something there.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41My God.
0:06:41 > 0:06:47It's fabulous! I can think of a lot of people that would really, really not like this, but I love it.
0:06:47 > 0:06:54Look at that. "Listed on the national register of rickety old places." Ah!
0:06:54 > 0:06:57The Fullilove Shack.
0:06:57 > 0:07:02"Bring your wife or your girlfriend. Heck! Bring both of them."
0:07:02 > 0:07:04I don't think so.
0:07:10 > 0:07:15Farming cotton was done by sharecroppers, families who were responsible for a parcel
0:07:15 > 0:07:21of land on which they had to grow a yield of cotton, and then share it with the landowner.
0:07:21 > 0:07:28Slavery, according to the history books, had finished in 1865 at the end of the Civil War.
0:07:28 > 0:07:33Share-cropping was a way to put the emancipated black people
0:07:33 > 0:07:36and poor whites back to work on the land.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38Slavery was dead,
0:07:38 > 0:07:43but many thought at the time it was in name only.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52If there was no Mississippi, there'd be no blues.
0:07:52 > 0:07:59The mighty Mississippi, nearly 2,500 miles long, flowing from Minnesota in the north
0:07:59 > 0:08:06of the country and then meandering south, draining the water from the Rockies, Appalachian Mountains
0:08:06 > 0:08:13and half the states in America, and then fanning out into the Delta, so rich and fertile -
0:08:13 > 0:08:15a vast area where anything can grow.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20And what grew best was cotton.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23The rest, as they say, is history.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31I wanted to see the river close up shortly after the massive floods
0:08:31 > 0:08:38and I went with John Ruskey, a consummate river man straight out of Daniel Boone.
0:08:38 > 0:08:45This is so peaceful. I was just thinking it was like going through a cathedral, in a funny sort of way.
0:08:45 > 0:08:50The canopy spreads makes such big open spaces that you can't help but
0:08:50 > 0:08:56feeling lifted upwards into Heaven or into a higher place.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59It opens your imagination.
0:08:59 > 0:09:04You know we're doing this programme about the blues - how do you see the river fitting into all that?
0:09:04 > 0:09:11The river created this very fertile, rich landscape the blues was born in.
0:09:11 > 0:09:19The first plantation owners knew they could make gold out of the mud. And that was through cotton, you know.
0:09:19 > 0:09:25It used to be a jungle, you know, this was the Amazon of North America.
0:09:25 > 0:09:26And the top soils
0:09:26 > 0:09:33that averaged 32 and sometimes as deep as 350 feet.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36Wow, that is enormously deep.
0:09:36 > 0:09:42And you can feel that, that fertility and power in blues music.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46The river created the landscape that created the blues.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49Can we get out on the main channel?
0:09:49 > 0:09:52It's not dangerous today, is it?
0:09:52 > 0:09:54It's always dangerous but we'll go in a safe place.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57OK. Let's go.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05- There we are. Now we have our work cut out for us.- Oh, right!
0:10:08 > 0:10:13If we gotta turn over this would be a good place to do it!
0:10:13 > 0:10:16I've never seen such massive barges!
0:10:16 > 0:10:19When I think of the Mississippi, I think of those beautiful
0:10:19 > 0:10:23paddle steamers, mint juleps and Mark Twain.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26This is river boating on quite a different scale.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32We're paddling against the current,
0:10:32 > 0:10:38which John was saying is about five miles an hour, so it's hard.
0:10:38 > 0:10:44- Now look at that beautiful beach awaiting us right there. - That's great. With a log to sit on.
0:10:47 > 0:10:52- Rick, cup of coffee? - Don't think I've seen a pot like that since Blazing Saddles.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56That's good.
0:10:56 > 0:11:01We're going to cook some lamb chops over a wood fire and smoke them
0:11:01 > 0:11:04with these green willow branches. I'm really looking forward to that.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07What's that?
0:11:07 > 0:11:12- Tamari soy sauce.- I'm sort of like thinking of Tom Sawyer here.
0:11:12 > 0:11:17Tom Sawyer in Huckleberry Finn, they'd always be - certainly in Tom Sawyer - sitting down
0:11:17 > 0:11:21cooking some fish like this saying, "Hey, that's the greatest thing I've ever tasted!"
0:11:21 > 0:11:24It's something quite special.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27- Yeah. That look OK?- Yeah. Looks really good.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32That looks really good, too.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36Oh, I love that smoky taste. It's actually...
0:11:36 > 0:11:39Smoky meat is the taste of the Delta to me, really.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43Thank you very much, it's been a wonderful experience for me.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48- I hope we see you again. You've made the river happy today. - Thank you.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57And now, after a smoked meal on the base of the Mississippi River,
0:11:57 > 0:12:01Rick Stein meets the blues, in the muddy waters of the Mississippi River.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05I'm really looking forward to a swim in this river.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30Of course, I didn't come here empty handed.
0:12:30 > 0:12:35I've had plenty of tips of where to eat the authentic soul food of the Delta.
0:12:35 > 0:12:41This is called the Senator's Place because it's run by a Mississippi politician, Senator Simmons.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50Rick, we fry chicken every day.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52Is there any bit of it which is secret,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55- that you don't want people to know? - Yeah.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58Fair enough. So it's basically flour...
0:12:58 > 0:13:01- But the rest of it is a secret. - Is a secret.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03And you gonna say when you taste it,
0:13:03 > 0:13:06"Where have I been? Why haven't I had this chicken?"
0:13:06 > 0:13:09Why is it so popular locally?
0:13:09 > 0:13:13- It's a staple.- A staple? - Fried chicken is something that's been around for a long time.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16As a matter of fact when my older brothers, um...
0:13:16 > 0:13:19moved into Chicago and Detroit,
0:13:19 > 0:13:24when they were getting ready to leave home, driving back or on a bus or getting on a train,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28my mother would prepare pound cake and some fried chicken
0:13:28 > 0:13:32and put it in a shoebox. And that's the kind of way a lot of individuals
0:13:32 > 0:13:37travelled because they couldn't go to public restaurants and eat, so they had to have the food in their cars.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40Why couldn't they go to public restaurants, then?
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Discrimination. Blacks were not allowed to go to
0:13:43 > 0:13:48public restaurants, so even when they could go, they weren't allowed to come in.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52They were just being served outside of a window, and a lot of time they were being harassed.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56So, as a result of that, to keep from having those types of situations occur,
0:13:56 > 0:14:01you get everything and put it in the trunk of your car and five or six of you get in the car and head north.
0:14:01 > 0:14:06When you get hungry, pop out the shoe box - there's the chicken and there's the pound cake.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09When we look at the blues and the food, and we
0:14:09 > 0:14:14refer to it as Southern soul food and the blues is a perfect match.
0:14:14 > 0:14:19That is it! That's why the blues is so powerful, and the food, cos the songs
0:14:19 > 0:14:24are filled with that sort of pent-up emotion for the hard times
0:14:24 > 0:14:28and the love of the food and all that - we can get it.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30That's why we want to come to Mississippi.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34That's why you should stop here. The food is like you can see.
0:14:34 > 0:14:40So the food, like rice and gravy and black-eyed peas, have a real part in this story.
0:14:40 > 0:14:45Corn on the cob and ice tea, okra and tomatoes with turnip greens...
0:14:45 > 0:14:48This is stuff worth coming home to.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52And let's not forget the chicken-fried steak,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55which isn't chicken but is a taste of home
0:14:55 > 0:14:59and a taste of the blues.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03the blues and food always go together. Yeah. Definitely.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07Good food, good blues. There's a definite match.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12What are you looking for to eat today? I love the look of those turnip greens.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16I'm going to eat turnip greens, French fries and I'm going to eat some catfish.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19I'm having some baked and fried catfish.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22Fantastic.
0:15:22 > 0:15:23Catfish is considered a scavenger.
0:15:23 > 0:15:28It ate all of the nasty things in the water
0:15:28 > 0:15:32so didn't nobody would eat it but black folk. And now it's a delicacy!
0:15:32 > 0:15:35This is Maurice F Lucas. I got talking to him over lunch.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39So you were mayor of like a small town?
0:15:39 > 0:15:42A mile north of here, a local town called Renova.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45What's special about Renova?
0:15:45 > 0:15:47Aretha Franklin was born there.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50My goodness!
0:15:50 > 0:15:52OK!
0:15:52 > 0:15:56I left in 1962.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59I went in the Army
0:15:59 > 0:16:02and I swore I wasn't never gonna come back.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04But after Vietnam got hot,
0:16:04 > 0:16:05I came home.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08HE LAUGHS
0:16:08 > 0:16:12- So why wouldn't you have wanted to come back? - I don't like being a farmer.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16I got up at five o'clock in the morning,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18fed the chickens,
0:16:18 > 0:16:22slopped the hogs, milked the cow and went to the field.
0:16:22 > 0:16:28So I read somewhere that's why all the blues musicians left. They wanted to get away from that.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31That's what I got away from.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34And I didn't want no part of that.
0:16:36 > 0:16:37# Bright lights
0:16:38 > 0:16:40# Big city... #
0:16:40 > 0:16:45This is Leland, once an important cotton town, and this is one of
0:16:45 > 0:16:49my favourite tracks - Bright Lights, Big City by Jimmy Reid,
0:16:49 > 0:16:51one of Leland's greatest sons.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55# Gone to my baby's head
0:16:56 > 0:16:59# I tried to tell the woman... #
0:16:59 > 0:17:03I met up with Billy Johnson, who set up a museum in the town
0:17:03 > 0:17:07simply because so many bluesmen came from here.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10People think that the Delta,
0:17:10 > 0:17:14the Mississippi Delta, is a mystical place.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18How could all these people - Muddy Water, Howling Wolf, BB King, Jimmy Reed...
0:17:18 > 0:17:20How could all of these people...
0:17:21 > 0:17:26..who sing the blues so many different ways come from just this small place?
0:17:26 > 0:17:28The Delta wasn't really...
0:17:28 > 0:17:31It was the last part of Mississippi to be settled.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34Where's everybody gone?
0:17:34 > 0:17:39Well, farming became less labour intensive and all the people left...
0:17:39 > 0:17:40you know, in the '50s.
0:17:40 > 0:17:4520,000 people lived on the plantations around here.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48You know, 50 years ago. It's not 300 people out there now!
0:17:48 > 0:17:52But I suppose, also, you get all these blues centres
0:17:52 > 0:17:57like Chicago and they're singing songs about the life in the Delta
0:17:57 > 0:17:59and the food they knew as well, really.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03the blues had a smell to it, people would come
0:18:03 > 0:18:10to town and the blues guys would be playing on the corners and these food vendors would be there.
0:18:10 > 0:18:15They had these little two-wheel pushcarts and they were selling hot tamales and fish.
0:18:15 > 0:18:20As a kid, I always associated the music
0:18:20 > 0:18:25- with the smells of all this food.- Fantastic.
0:18:25 > 0:18:30Smells are my speciality - and it's the smell of barbecues
0:18:30 > 0:18:32that dominate these blues towns.
0:18:34 > 0:18:40Sweet, woody, smoky smells that go so well with the blues.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43This is Mr Edwards' Rib Shack.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45Fresh off the grill!
0:18:49 > 0:18:53- So that's your ribs? - That's my ribs and they're ready. - They look great!
0:18:53 > 0:18:58My seasoning is garlic salt, regular salt. I put a little black pepper in there...
0:18:58 > 0:19:03I taste and season and I mix it all together and that's my rub.
0:19:03 > 0:19:04So it's just a dry rub, then.
0:19:04 > 0:19:06It's a dry rub.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08But you gotta have a good cook.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10I depend on my cookers.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12Not the secret... but the cookers that I got.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14All of my cookers are very good.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19- Simple and easy.- Did you know it was going to be a success?
0:19:19 > 0:19:22No, but I didn't have anything else to do, I had to make some money.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25I got a wife and four kids and we had to make it.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30But that's really enterprising of you. Presumably, you had very little money to set that up.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32I didn't have any money. I only had an idea.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39So are you familiar with Mr Edwards' ribs, then?
0:19:39 > 0:19:43- What's special about them, then? - Good, man, they're good.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47People come from everywhere to get them. You ever tasted them?
0:19:47 > 0:19:49No, I haven't tasted them yet, I'm looking forward to it.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53What am I tasting?
0:19:53 > 0:19:59I'm tasting pecan wood, or as they say here "pe-carn" wood, I can taste that smoke.
0:19:59 > 0:20:06I'm tasting pepper, I'm tasting garlic, I'm tasting onion. Good, good soul food.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08So, what do you think about it?
0:20:08 > 0:20:10Mr Edwards, you're a genius!
0:20:10 > 0:20:12You are seriously a genius.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15I love it! Absolutely.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18What about the potato salad and baked beans?
0:20:23 > 0:20:26Why can't they make baked beans like that at home?
0:20:26 > 0:20:28- They do!- Not in England they don't!
0:20:28 > 0:20:30Oh, no! That's Mississippi Delta.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34Mmm. That's the way we do it down here!
0:20:41 > 0:20:48If there was a gastronomic symbol that defined the Delta, a good choice would be the catfish.
0:20:48 > 0:20:54This is Cadi Thompson, the daughter of the owner of Pluto Plantation, Louie Thompson.
0:20:54 > 0:21:00His family bought the land here in the bad old days of the 1920s and they grew cotton. They still do.
0:21:00 > 0:21:05But Louie says that catfish farming is good business and it's growing.
0:21:08 > 0:21:14Catfish has been a staple for this part of the world since people lived here.
0:21:14 > 0:21:20From the Indians on up through the 1850s,
0:21:20 > 0:21:25when this area was settled, and on through the slavery period and civil war
0:21:25 > 0:21:27up until now.
0:21:27 > 0:21:32Catfish is near and dear to us. I'm glad it turned out that way.
0:21:32 > 0:21:38What do you, as a plantation owner, think about the blues? As that's what we're here to...
0:21:38 > 0:21:42I grew up listening to the tractor drivers play it on the place
0:21:42 > 0:21:47and people would sit on the front porch on Sunday afternoon just strumming away.
0:21:47 > 0:21:53It's great! I grew up with it. I don't know how to describe it,
0:21:53 > 0:21:55I feel like it's in my blood a little bit.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59Maybe I'm a little part of it.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03We're making this programme, sort of trying to connect in some way the food of the Delta with the music,
0:22:03 > 0:22:05with the blues.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09Do you think there is any... Does one go with the other?
0:22:09 > 0:22:11It seems to me that it does.
0:22:11 > 0:22:17the blues originated here and so did catfish and it just seems to go together.
0:22:17 > 0:22:22There must be a song. I've got to think of a song!
0:22:22 > 0:22:24# Well, I wished I
0:22:24 > 0:22:26# Was a catfish
0:22:26 > 0:22:30# Swelling deep down deep blue sea... #
0:22:30 > 0:22:33Louie's cousin is Martha Foose.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36She's one of America's top food writers and writes with
0:22:36 > 0:22:42great passion and humour about life and food in the Mississippi Delta.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44Great, I think we've got enough lemon there!
0:22:44 > 0:22:49She's cooking catfish with fennel, melted butter, orange and lemon,
0:22:49 > 0:22:52baked in a paper bag.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54We are so tied to the land here.
0:22:54 > 0:22:59It's 17 miles to get a gallon of milk from here and so people
0:22:59 > 0:23:05mostly eat things that are grown on their farm, at farm stands or little trucks on the side of the road.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09We have a lot of time on our hands so we do a lot of slow cooking here.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11We're a very nap-orientated culture.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14So you have siestas like they do in Spain?
0:23:14 > 0:23:18We do. Don't call, don't drive down the road between one and three,
0:23:18 > 0:23:20and we'll remain friends.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26I'm going to put these in a hot oven, for about 15 minutes,
0:23:26 > 0:23:28and they'll steam inside their little sacks.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31You have such good ovens in the States.
0:23:38 > 0:23:39See how you like it?
0:23:40 > 0:23:44That's a really good fish, it's really... Sorry, I sound surprised.
0:23:44 > 0:23:50Well, I know where it came from. They've been swimming in the alluvial aquifers of the Delta.
0:23:50 > 0:23:55I know where they have come from, how well they've been cared for, and you can tell in the taste.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59You're a pretty accomplished cook, really. Did you just get this from the Delta?
0:23:59 > 0:24:03Um, I got the better part of it from the Delta, but...
0:24:03 > 0:24:06I did go to a school in France, mostly for baking and pastry.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11I went to Ecole Lenotre. I had a big time while I was in Paris.
0:24:11 > 0:24:13Big time meaning?
0:24:13 > 0:24:18When I got home, my grandma asked me if I'd learned to do anything in France other than drink and smoke.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22I told her I could have learnt that in the Delta. But I can make one heck of a pie crust now.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35# So cloudy, so cloudy
0:24:37 > 0:24:40# I believe it's gonna rain... #
0:24:41 > 0:24:45This is one of the most famous voices of the Delta, Muddy Waters.
0:24:45 > 0:24:51They say he was the father of the Chicago blues but he came from the Delta.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56# I believe it's going to rain... #
0:24:56 > 0:25:02I've come to the blues Museum in Clarksdale to get a feel for where he grew up.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08# I don't believe my woman love me
0:25:08 > 0:25:11# She in love with another man... #
0:25:11 > 0:25:17I'm just thinking about that saying in the Bible, "A prophet is not without honour saving his own land".
0:25:17 > 0:25:21I was reading somewhere that when The Beatles first arrived in the States,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25a reporter asked Paul McCartney what would he most like to see?
0:25:25 > 0:25:29He replied, "Well, I'd really like to see Muddy Waters."
0:25:29 > 0:25:31And the reporter said, "What's that?"
0:25:31 > 0:25:38And so Paul McCartney said, "Do you not even know who your own famous people are?"
0:25:38 > 0:25:42# The snapping of her fingers would make a dog wag its tail
0:25:42 > 0:25:46|# The whisper from her voice would make a train jump the rail
0:25:46 > 0:25:50# You take her to the race track and show her a face
0:25:50 > 0:25:53# A horse ain't win in years come in first place
0:25:53 > 0:25:57# You know she's into something
0:25:57 > 0:25:59# Yeah, she's into something
0:25:59 > 0:26:02# You know she's... #
0:26:02 > 0:26:07the blues began life in the cotton fields, mostly in wooden huts away from the towns.
0:26:07 > 0:26:13The sharecroppers would come and drink and play their music when their back-breaking work was done.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16These places were called juke joints.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19Muddy Waters ran one of these in the 1940s.
0:26:19 > 0:26:26They usually had gambling and sold moonshine whisky and people would dance the night away to the blues.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30# Yeah, that little girl's into something... #
0:26:30 > 0:26:32Years ago people referred to them as joog joints,
0:26:32 > 0:26:34a Creole word for "rowdy"
0:26:34 > 0:26:36or "a little bit abandoned".
0:26:36 > 0:26:38But whatever the pronunciation,
0:26:38 > 0:26:42joog or juke, they spawned the blues.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47This is a juke joint. There used to be hundreds of them - sadly, there's only one or two left now.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50Originally, they were built often by the plantation owners
0:26:50 > 0:26:56as a way of somewhere for the black people to socialise - that was during segregation, of course.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59But often they'd be just a sharecropper's house that
0:26:59 > 0:27:02they'd clear all the furniture out on a Friday and Saturday night.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05It's a bit like the food, you know when you look at it, it might not
0:27:05 > 0:27:11look like haute cuisine but to me it really speaks of the soul.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13That's why they call it soul food, I guess.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18Originally, there was a bit of a circuit around all of these juke joints
0:27:18 > 0:27:24and people like Robert Johnson Charlie Patton and Sunhouse used to do a circuit of the juke joints.
0:27:24 > 0:27:31But gradually, as records came in, they were replaced with, you've got it, juke boxes from the juke joints.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38MAN SINGS IN HOLLERIN' STYLE
0:27:46 > 0:27:50This is a recording of a musical phenomenon called hollerin',
0:27:50 > 0:27:55recorded by Alan Lomax, who went out into the cotton fields in the late 1930s to capture the songs
0:27:55 > 0:27:59of the Deep South for the Library of Congress.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03It's said that the blues came here from Africa wearing chains.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05This sound was the birth of the blues.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09MAN SINGS IN HOLLERIN' STYLE
0:28:14 > 0:28:16METALLIC TWANG REVERBERATES
0:28:17 > 0:28:20METALLIC TWANG REVERBERATES
0:28:26 > 0:28:30METALLIC TWANGS INTENSIFY
0:28:32 > 0:28:35I read about this before I came on this trip.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40A way of making music using what was available because there was no money for instruments.
0:28:40 > 0:28:45To me, this raw sound epitomises the essence of the Delta Blues.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52Bill Abel, a bluesman, explains.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57Amazing! I mean, that sounds like
0:28:57 > 0:28:59the heart of the blues, really.
0:28:59 > 0:29:01What exactly is this, then?
0:29:01 > 0:29:04This is called a diddley bow.
0:29:04 > 0:29:06The kids used to play them.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11They didn't have money to buy an instrument. So they made their own instrument at home.
0:29:11 > 0:29:16They would take any kind of a wire they could get and put it to the side of the house.
0:29:16 > 0:29:21This is an original sharecropper's shack.
0:29:21 > 0:29:23It's 100 years old at least.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26It's made out of cypress,
0:29:26 > 0:29:29so it's got a nice resonation, so it's like a giant guitar.
0:29:29 > 0:29:34The diddley bow helped give birth to the Delta Blues,
0:29:34 > 0:29:38the sound, if you walk up to a wire and you play a riff...
0:29:38 > 0:29:41PLAYS RIFF
0:29:41 > 0:29:45You just do that, and that is an actual Delta Blues riff.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48I can hear that sound right through the present day.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51with something like Led Zeppelin When The Levee Breaks.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55You can hear that sort of slightly doomy sort of like slide...
0:29:55 > 0:29:56There's almost...
0:29:56 > 0:30:00You can feel the sultry heat and maybe a storm coming in.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02It's just straight there.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06Just tell me about the early blues musicians then.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09Uh, well, uh, the music, the Delta Blues
0:30:09 > 0:30:13is based on poly rhythms instead of melody
0:30:13 > 0:30:15and music that was called blues
0:30:15 > 0:30:18that was played in the rest of this United States
0:30:18 > 0:30:21was more influenced by European melody.
0:30:21 > 0:30:25But the blues here, the slaves were brought here in the 1850s
0:30:25 > 0:30:27to clear the land along the rivers for cotton
0:30:27 > 0:30:30and right before the Civil War, you know.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34So they brought the drums to the Delta in the 1850s
0:30:34 > 0:30:38and that rhythm is what gave birth to the Delta Blues.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41This is quite an important question for me.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44OK, these, these, the young black people
0:30:44 > 0:30:47are not interested in the blues any more,
0:30:47 > 0:30:49and I can understand it,
0:30:49 > 0:30:52it's about their grandparents and it's old stuff,
0:30:52 > 0:30:56but why were those English boys in the '60s so taken with it?
0:30:56 > 0:30:59Well, I think they were allowed to...
0:30:59 > 0:31:03Here, the mainstream popular culture in the white community
0:31:03 > 0:31:08was not embracing black music back in that time.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11But I mean, it all boils down to when you are young
0:31:11 > 0:31:15and you hear that sound of the Delta Blues,
0:31:15 > 0:31:17it's so deep that it brings out...
0:31:17 > 0:31:20say like the Daniel Boone in a kid, you know,
0:31:20 > 0:31:24it's just like as tough as it gets, you know,
0:31:24 > 0:31:28so that's what gave birth to a lot of rock and roll, was that toughness.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32You got it, you've got it.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34'Bill, who makes his guitars from
0:31:34 > 0:31:38'driftwood washed up by the Mississippi and cigar boxes,
0:31:38 > 0:31:42'is good friends with a legendary bluesman round here
0:31:42 > 0:31:44'called Cadillac John. He's in his 80s
0:31:44 > 0:31:50'and he never saw the bright lights like his contemporary BB King.'
0:31:50 > 0:31:54Cadillac John, how did you come to start playing the blues?
0:31:54 > 0:31:58Well, that's a, that's a good point.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00My old lady left me,
0:32:00 > 0:32:04she left me and that put it, I couldn't play it enough.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07You know what I mean? Well, I will tell you.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11When a, when a lady love you, you love it,
0:32:11 > 0:32:14and she leave you, you gotta hurt.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18You gon' do something, walk over in the river, you gotta hurt.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20the blues come from...
0:32:21 > 0:32:25When your friend leave you, your wife leave you,
0:32:25 > 0:32:29that's where it all starts breakin' loose.
0:32:54 > 0:33:01# My baby, my baby, my baby
0:33:07 > 0:33:12# That little girl don't love me no more
0:33:16 > 0:33:22# My baby, my baby, my baby
0:33:28 > 0:33:32# That little girl don't love me no more
0:33:38 > 0:33:43# My baby, my baby, my baby
0:33:50 > 0:33:55# She way up yonder
0:33:55 > 0:33:58# She ain't coming back down again
0:33:58 > 0:34:00# No I'm not. #
0:34:07 > 0:34:09Yeah.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14Fantastic!
0:34:14 > 0:34:16'What a testimony to the power of the blues
0:34:16 > 0:34:19'to keep past emotion alive.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22'He told me his wife even took the curtains!'
0:34:30 > 0:34:33'You know, they tell me the blues can never die out
0:34:33 > 0:34:38'when there are still a few cheating women and a few lying men.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40'Terry Bean explains.'
0:34:40 > 0:34:45People say the blues make you sad, with depression. Uh-uh.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48You got it all wrong.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50It's an upper.
0:34:50 > 0:34:51Make you feel good.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53But you got to understand that.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56- Yeah.- Don't let blues people fool you
0:34:56 > 0:34:58when they go talk about baby this and baby that.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02They ain't talking bout their women. They can be talking about money,
0:35:02 > 0:35:06they can be talking about they ain't got no more whiskey to drink,
0:35:06 > 0:35:07but they call it baby.
0:35:07 > 0:35:09See what I'm saying? That's their baby.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12The guitar may be a baby, see what I'm saying?
0:35:12 > 0:35:13They ain't talking about a woman.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16Most of the bluesmen can't stand one women anyway.
0:35:16 > 0:35:18LAUGHTER
0:35:20 > 0:35:24# Oh, some trouble in mind
0:35:24 > 0:35:27# You know I'm blue
0:35:27 > 0:35:35# But I won't be blue always
0:35:35 > 0:35:40# Yeah, the sun gon' shine
0:35:40 > 0:35:44# In my back door some day... #
0:35:46 > 0:35:47They look really good.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50They don't like you to grab them, really.
0:35:50 > 0:35:51- I don't blame them.- No, not at all.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54Well, can we, can we cook some?
0:35:54 > 0:35:55- Oh, yes, please.- OK.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01# ..On some southern railroad line... #
0:36:01 > 0:36:04'I've always associated crawfish,
0:36:04 > 0:36:08'or craw daddies as they're known over in these parts,
0:36:08 > 0:36:10'with Louisiana, along with Filet Gumbo.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14'But they eat lots of these little critters all over the Delta.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18'The cook here is Ryan Moore.'
0:36:18 > 0:36:21So Rick, we're going to put a little more seasoning on these before we...
0:36:21 > 0:36:24- Oh, so you put some in as well as in the boil.- Right,
0:36:24 > 0:36:27so it's in your fingers, in your mouth when you're eating it
0:36:27 > 0:36:29and then yellow mustard across the top.
0:36:29 > 0:36:32That's just a little secret touch that we do, it's something about...
0:36:32 > 0:36:34Oh, well, we won't, we won't tell anybody about that.
0:36:37 > 0:36:39We'll mix them all up.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49- All right.- Cheers. - Cheers to you, Rick.
0:36:49 > 0:36:51- Good health.- Good health.- This looks really good.- So everything's ready?
0:36:51 > 0:36:54- Yeah, yeah.- So you've never eaten one of these before?
0:36:54 > 0:36:56I have, but I want to see how you do it.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00The first thing you do there is you squeeze in the head a little bit..
0:37:00 > 0:37:02- and pinch in the tail. - And pinch in the tail.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07- Right here, yes. And then you just wriggle the tail, wriggle it out.- OK.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10Head, you can either throw it away or you can suck the head out.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14- No, I'd like to suck the head. - Suck the head, is that all right?
0:37:14 > 0:37:15SUCKING
0:37:15 > 0:37:17Oh, that's really good, Ryan.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22And then...you eat the tail.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25So you pinch the tail. You suck the head and you pinch the tail.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29Suck the head. They call it making love Louisiana-style.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32I don't think we'd better go into that one.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34Yeah, well, you know.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37- I got it, I got it.- Pinch the head, suck the tail. So there we are.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41Everywhere I've been here it's been, people really want to welcome you.
0:37:41 > 0:37:43Yeah, you don't have your own plate here.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45You see all this food here and it's kind of a melting pot.
0:37:45 > 0:37:51And the Delta itself is a melting pot of different races and cultures
0:37:51 > 0:37:54and a lot of history with the blues music.
0:37:54 > 0:37:55What else more could you ask for?
0:37:55 > 0:37:58- I agree.- Maybe it could be a little bit cooler.
0:37:58 > 0:38:02It could be a little bit cooler for us English, I must say, yeah.
0:38:12 > 0:38:17# Some people say a man is made outta mud
0:38:17 > 0:38:22# A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
0:38:22 > 0:38:25# Muscle and blood and skin and bones
0:38:25 > 0:38:28# A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong
0:38:28 > 0:38:32# You load sixteen tonnes What do you get?
0:38:32 > 0:38:34# Another day older And deeper in debt
0:38:34 > 0:38:38# St Peter don't you call me Cos I can't go
0:38:38 > 0:38:42# I owe my soul to the company store... #
0:38:42 > 0:38:44These places were called commissaries.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47They were the financial heart of the plantations
0:38:47 > 0:38:50and the bane of the sharecroppers' life.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53Where they could buy now and pay later,
0:38:53 > 0:38:57tying the farm workers to the land much in the same way feudalism did.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02The sharecropper would come here to the commissary for his seeds,
0:39:02 > 0:39:06his fertiliser, his tools, clothes. Everything.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09It reminds me of that song Sixteen Tonnes,
0:39:09 > 0:39:12"Sixteen tonnes and what do you get?
0:39:12 > 0:39:15"Another day older and deeper in debt."
0:39:15 > 0:39:18Cos whether the harvest was good or whether it was bad,
0:39:18 > 0:39:21you owed your soul to the company store.
0:39:21 > 0:39:29# ..To the company store. #
0:39:30 > 0:39:32You know when you live in a city,
0:39:32 > 0:39:37inadvertently you walk by and you hear people talking, you hear something on the radio,
0:39:37 > 0:39:41you see a sign on a bus and all that influences you.
0:39:41 > 0:39:43But with the blues,
0:39:43 > 0:39:46people living on the plantations didn't have anything -
0:39:46 > 0:39:48no communication, no transportation.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51The biggest influence was theirselves
0:39:51 > 0:39:55because other than their family, that's all they had.
0:39:55 > 0:39:57You know when you go out there to work from daylight to dark
0:39:57 > 0:40:00and you come in on Saturday and you open the door
0:40:00 > 0:40:04and your wife's gone with your kids and ain't gonna be back no more,
0:40:04 > 0:40:08you know, I mean, and you get your couple of drinks of moonshine,
0:40:08 > 0:40:12pick your guitar up, there ain't no filter between what you're feeling
0:40:12 > 0:40:15and what you're playing. And I mean, it's the real deal,
0:40:15 > 0:40:20so that's what the blues is and that's how you get them.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27MAN SINGS BLUES
0:40:33 > 0:40:35Blues-wise, they say Dockery Farms
0:40:35 > 0:40:39is the most potent place in the whole of the Delta.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43BB King said, "It all started right here."
0:40:45 > 0:40:49Thousands worked the cotton fields, including Charley Patton,
0:40:49 > 0:40:54the father of the Delta Blues, and so did the famous Tommy Johnson.
0:40:54 > 0:40:58Dockery was home to so many famous bluesmen
0:40:58 > 0:41:00and inspired many others from around the Delta
0:41:00 > 0:41:03to come and play with the likes of Robert Johnson,
0:41:03 > 0:41:09Elmore James and of course, my favourite, Howlin' Wolf.
0:41:09 > 0:41:14# It could fill spoon full of diamond
0:41:14 > 0:41:17# Could fill spoon full of gold
0:41:17 > 0:41:22# Just a little spoon of your precious love
0:41:22 > 0:41:25# Satisfy my soul... #
0:41:26 > 0:41:30'Just down the road is the resting place of the great Charley Patton.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33'He wrote songs about the people and things around him.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37'He's immortalised a couple of local sheriffs,
0:41:37 > 0:41:39'a plantation boss,
0:41:39 > 0:41:40'pimps and whores.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43'They all became the subjects of his songs.'
0:41:43 > 0:41:45This is it.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47I can tell, there's all this money left on the top.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50Yeah, Charley Patton, somebody's left a cigarette there,
0:41:50 > 0:41:54a whole cigarette for him cos he loved his smoking,
0:41:54 > 0:41:57he loved his booze, he loved his women.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59"The voice of the Delta," yeah,
0:41:59 > 0:42:03I think he was arguably the father of Delta Blues music,
0:42:03 > 0:42:06influenced people like John Lee Hooker
0:42:06 > 0:42:09and of course my own favourite Howlin' Wolf.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12He had this really gravelly voice
0:42:12 > 0:42:14and of course it was before amplification.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17It could travel about 500 yards, people say.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21CRACKLY RECORDING PLAYS
0:42:27 > 0:42:30Apparently, it's a sort of tradition here
0:42:30 > 0:42:32to leave a libation to the dead,
0:42:32 > 0:42:37so I've actually bought a little libation for Charley.
0:42:37 > 0:42:42If it's as hot down there as it is up here, in the grave,
0:42:42 > 0:42:44I think he needs it.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49Maybe a bit for me.
0:42:50 > 0:42:52I think he'd approve.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02CRACKLY RECORDING CONTINUES
0:43:07 > 0:43:09The record companies and radio stations
0:43:09 > 0:43:12wanted their music to be a bit zappy.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15MUSIC PLAYS
0:43:19 > 0:43:23'All the Delta Blues musicians had really loud voices
0:43:23 > 0:43:25'and a rural repertoire, but it was
0:43:25 > 0:43:29'the legendary Robert Johnson who had a real gift for showmanship
0:43:29 > 0:43:33'and an ear for the latest sounds.'
0:43:33 > 0:43:37ROBERT JOHNSON SINGS
0:43:37 > 0:43:40'He could hear a song just once on the radio
0:43:40 > 0:43:44'and a few minutes later he'd be playing it on a street corner,
0:43:44 > 0:43:47'receiving handsome tips. He was a man of his time.'
0:43:50 > 0:43:52Eric Clapton called Robert Johnson
0:43:52 > 0:43:56the greatest blues musician there ever was.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59I think the image for most people of a blues musician
0:43:59 > 0:44:01is somebody in blue overalls playing a guitar
0:44:01 > 0:44:04sitting on a porch somewhere, but not for Robert Johnson.
0:44:04 > 0:44:10He really liked sharp suits, good ties, tie pins, hats,
0:44:10 > 0:44:12and he really loved women.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16And a contemporary of his, Johnny Shines,
0:44:16 > 0:44:20said, "Robert treated women like motel and hotel rooms,
0:44:20 > 0:44:24"he used them and then he left them behind."
0:44:24 > 0:44:29MUSIC: "Crossroads" by Robert Johnson
0:44:29 > 0:44:35# I went down to the crossroads Fell down on my knees... #
0:44:35 > 0:44:37This song, Crossroads,
0:44:37 > 0:44:38was Robert's most famous,
0:44:38 > 0:44:42and it helped to make him a legend because the crossroads
0:44:42 > 0:44:46was the place he was supposed to have made a deal with the devil.
0:44:46 > 0:44:51# I went down to the crossroads Fell down on my knees... #
0:44:51 > 0:44:53Nobody really knows where the crossroads are,
0:44:53 > 0:44:56but this would have a serious claim to be it.
0:44:56 > 0:45:01It's where Highway 49 crosses Highway 61.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04Robert Johnson, when he was young couldn't play very well -
0:45:04 > 0:45:07he kept getting thrown out of juke joints
0:45:07 > 0:45:11because he was making such a racket, and he disappeared for a while.
0:45:11 > 0:45:13Well, some say he went across to Arkansas,
0:45:13 > 0:45:16but others said he came here to the crossroads
0:45:16 > 0:45:19and he sold his soul to the devil.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23He met a black man just before midnight, a big, black man
0:45:23 > 0:45:28who took his guitar and re-tuned it and handed it back to him,
0:45:28 > 0:45:32and after that he played like drops of mercury.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36JOHNSON PLAYS GUITAR
0:45:42 > 0:45:46This is Baptist Town in Greenwood. It's pretty run down
0:45:46 > 0:45:49and probably hasn't changed too much
0:45:49 > 0:45:52since Robert Johnson lived here and died here
0:45:52 > 0:45:55at the age of 27. Rumour has it that he drank
0:45:55 > 0:45:58poisoned moonshine whiskey -
0:45:58 > 0:46:02poisoned, it's said, by a jealous husband.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06Sylvester Hoover runs a grocery store here.
0:46:06 > 0:46:07He's a mine of information,
0:46:07 > 0:46:11especially about those troubled times of the 1930s
0:46:11 > 0:46:14when black men couldn't walk freely on the streets.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18Why was it that black people
0:46:18 > 0:46:22couldn't come out on the street during the day?
0:46:22 > 0:46:24I mean, that was the Jim Crow law.
0:46:24 > 0:46:28That was a white law that the farmers made in this area
0:46:28 > 0:46:32and a general Crow law is, blacks don't have any rights.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36They couldn't buy a bus ticket, they couldn't buy a train ticket,
0:46:36 > 0:46:40couldn't spend a five-dollar bill. You had just ones, you know.
0:46:40 > 0:46:46And it was real hard time and that's what made those guys sing the blues.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50Though at that time, a white lady, if she walked down the street
0:46:50 > 0:46:54and Robert Johnson, Honeyboy Edwards were walking down that street
0:46:54 > 0:46:55on a weekend when they all worked,
0:46:55 > 0:46:58they had to cross and go to the other side of the street.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01And if you meet a white man down the street,
0:47:01 > 0:47:04you would have to take your hat off and kneel to him.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08But you couldn't pass a white lady down the street,
0:47:08 > 0:47:11and the train track separate the peoples.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14If you was black you wasn't allowed to cross this track here
0:47:14 > 0:47:17because they couldn't go over where white peoples live.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21The Jim Crow law and blacks didn't have any rights whatsoever,
0:47:21 > 0:47:23that's part of what made the blues.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27They could leave the Jim Crow law behind when they go Chicago,
0:47:27 > 0:47:29they didn't have the same laws they got here.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32That's why everyone wanted to go to Chicago.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35And that train, when they hear that horn,
0:47:35 > 0:47:38it helped them, they know that "I can go north,
0:47:38 > 0:47:40"I can get out of this Mississippi Delta."
0:47:42 > 0:47:47# Ever since Miss Susie Johnson Lost her jockey Lee
0:47:47 > 0:47:53# There has been much excitement And more to be
0:47:53 > 0:47:58# You can hear her moanin' Moanin' night and morn... #
0:48:01 > 0:48:04The more I understand about the blues, the more I listen to people,
0:48:04 > 0:48:07I realise that a lot of it was about getting away from the Delta
0:48:07 > 0:48:09because everybody was so poor.
0:48:09 > 0:48:13Really, it's a bit like Wordsworth saying about poetry,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16it's emotion recollected in tranquillity.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18It's getting away and thinking about those times,
0:48:18 > 0:48:20thinking about the levees,
0:48:20 > 0:48:23thinking about losing your girl and all that.
0:48:23 > 0:48:25And this is an important place to me
0:48:25 > 0:48:27because it's another crossroads.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30A crossroads is a really common image in blues music
0:48:30 > 0:48:33and it sort of gets to us all.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37And WC Handy, who was a very famous early blues musician,
0:48:37 > 0:48:43heard this guy singing about where the Southern crosses the Yellow Dog,
0:48:43 > 0:48:44and it's this intersection.
0:48:44 > 0:48:49You can just imagine loads of people here, suitcases, everybody leaving,
0:48:49 > 0:48:53and then the wail as the train arrived, and maybe it's getting dusk
0:48:53 > 0:48:57and then you see the taillights disappearing in the distance
0:48:57 > 0:48:59taking my baby away from me!
0:48:59 > 0:49:07# He's gone where the Southern cross the Yellow Dog... #
0:49:10 > 0:49:14People left the Delta in their droves during the '20s and '30s,
0:49:14 > 0:49:16and there were a number of reasons.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20Mechanisation started to come to the fields, the price of cotton fell,
0:49:20 > 0:49:24the floods of 1927 forced thousands off the land
0:49:24 > 0:49:28and the pull of jobs in northern cities like Chicago and Detroit
0:49:28 > 0:49:29was so powerful.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32MAN SINGS BLUES
0:49:38 > 0:49:40But for those that chose to stay behind,
0:49:40 > 0:49:43an Italian honky tonk joint in Greenville
0:49:43 > 0:49:48offered tasty food exclusively to the black community.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51It was more like an in-town juke joint,
0:49:51 > 0:49:55but it became a place selling down-home cooking for over 60 years.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58- How you doing?- Wow, I'm very well.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01- Is that for one or for a...? - Ah, usually two people split them.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03Ah, thank goodness for that!
0:50:03 > 0:50:05Sometimes one person can take it down.
0:50:05 > 0:50:07This is what you call a broiler, isn't it?
0:50:07 > 0:50:11Yes, sir. It's been in here since the '40s! Yes, sir.
0:50:11 > 0:50:13So, it's much loved.
0:50:13 > 0:50:17'In the early days, if white folks wanted a part of it,
0:50:17 > 0:50:23'they had to use the back door - a sort of segregation in reverse.'
0:50:23 > 0:50:25Excuse me, sorry, sorry.
0:50:26 > 0:50:28Wow!
0:50:28 > 0:50:30It's like walking back in time,
0:50:30 > 0:50:36this is definitely not your typical fast food joint and neither is it
0:50:36 > 0:50:43themed or skilfully recreated - it's just a family-run joint, it's the real deal.
0:50:43 > 0:50:50And even Miss Florence has been making the same salads with the same dressing for over 40 years!
0:50:50 > 0:50:53You know, in this restaurant there's no menu -
0:50:53 > 0:50:59I mean there's just tamales, shrimp, salad and steak, lots of steak!
0:50:59 > 0:51:06I'm sorry but I just love places like this. This is heaven to me.
0:51:14 > 0:51:19This is a very special day in Indianola. I love the sound of these
0:51:19 > 0:51:23Mississippi towns. Indianola - it sounds like a '50s radiogram
0:51:23 > 0:51:28but why today is so special is because this is the homecoming
0:51:28 > 0:51:37of its most famous son, the most important and influential living Blues artist, BB King.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40# Yes, she's 36 in the bust
0:51:40 > 0:51:42# 28 in the waist
0:51:42 > 0:51:46# 44 in the hip She got a real crazy leg
0:51:46 > 0:51:48# You upsets me baby
0:51:48 > 0:51:51# Yes, you upsets me baby... #
0:51:51 > 0:51:58At the age of 86, he still tours the world over but today he's coming home
0:51:58 > 0:52:01and the area's full of expectation
0:52:01 > 0:52:04and the sweet smell of barbecue.
0:52:13 > 0:52:18Apparently BB's still asleep in his bedroom at the back of the bus.
0:52:18 > 0:52:20We could be here a couple of hours.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49I was trying to find out what that all was.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52It's where they had the big barbecue cook-off yesterday.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54You all get some of it?
0:52:54 > 0:52:56We didn't get none.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59Damn, you should have got some of it, you know I like barbecue!
0:52:59 > 0:53:01Gentlemen, how are you?
0:53:01 > 0:53:04- Very well!- Good, very good.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08Mr King, are you looking forward to coming home to some good local food?
0:53:08 > 0:53:13I like that too but I look forward to coming home every year,
0:53:13 > 0:53:17I wish I could come every five to six weeks.
0:53:17 > 0:53:19This is where...
0:53:19 > 0:53:22This is where I grew up. My roots is right here.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26- I used to work right there. - And you love the cooking of this area, you love the Delta food?
0:53:26 > 0:53:29Of course! You can see that, you don't have to ask.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31Sorry(!)
0:53:31 > 0:53:33I love it too.
0:53:33 > 0:53:37I, well this is... You know, it's home.
0:53:37 > 0:53:43Like, if I was in London or someplace... I like London because I have a lot of friends there,
0:53:43 > 0:53:45I know a lot of people and this is home,
0:53:45 > 0:53:49I don't know as many people these days but I know the roots of the families.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52Most of them have died out or moved away.
0:53:52 > 0:53:57But I think a lot of us try to get home every summer if we can.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00Alan is begging for me to come in so I have to go.
0:54:00 > 0:54:02- Very nice to meet you. Thank you very much.- Mr King, we love you!
0:54:02 > 0:54:07I was gobsmacked at meeting BB - really nervous.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10It was like shaking hands with Elvis!
0:54:10 > 0:54:14He may be 86 but he still cuts the mustard at Glastonbury.
0:54:14 > 0:54:19# Everybody wanna know
0:54:19 > 0:54:23# Walk and singin' the blues
0:54:23 > 0:54:26# Everybody wanna know
0:54:28 > 0:54:30# Walk and sing the blues
0:54:30 > 0:54:33# Been around a long time
0:54:35 > 0:54:38# Really paid my dues. #
0:54:43 > 0:54:48This is the Blue Biscuit in Indianola, run by Trish Berry and Harlan Malone.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52And this is the most famous barbecue dish in these parts.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56It's a sandwich made with marinated and barbecued pork
0:54:56 > 0:55:00cooked so long in the smoker you don't need to cut it, just pull it.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04It starts life as a big rump of hog.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06This is called a Boston Butt.
0:55:06 > 0:55:10Trish smothers it in garlic oil and then it's stuffed with
0:55:10 > 0:55:15jalapeno chillies and spices and smothered with a secret marinade.
0:55:15 > 0:55:21Then it's put into a barbecue smoker for about 20 hours. The smell is superb.
0:55:23 > 0:55:29You see, Harlan, I'd love this job because I think it's a job for real men.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33Not for TV cooks, you know what I mean?!
0:55:33 > 0:55:36So what does barbecuing mean to you, then, Harlan? You must be...
0:55:36 > 0:55:41- Well, it just means who's got the best butt!- And do you think yours is the best?
0:55:41 > 0:55:42- I think so.- Why?
0:55:42 > 0:55:46Because it's as tender as my heart, y'know.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48That's why love it, it's as tender as my heart.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51People are very passionate about their barbecuing.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54And they're very passionate about their music.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57And this is something everybody in the Delta does, everybody barbecues.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01And it's like the music, it's very simple music but it's good
0:56:01 > 0:56:04and it's really passionate and heartfelt.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07- Is that for me?- Oh, absolutely.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10Seems... That's... Seems very..
0:56:10 > 0:56:13I feel very, very privileged.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18To be the first of the TV crew to find it because they'll all be salivating at this stage!
0:56:20 > 0:56:22Ummm.
0:56:22 > 0:56:26That's so good, the smoke, it tastes really clean.
0:56:26 > 0:56:28Well, I must say it seems quite a big portion, is that normal?
0:56:28 > 0:56:32Oh, absolutely, that's about a normal sandwich, normal.
0:56:32 > 0:56:34Nobody's going hungry on my watch!
0:56:39 > 0:56:44BB King said scholars love to praise the pure Blues artists or the ones
0:56:44 > 0:56:48like Robert Johnson who died young and who represent tragedy.
0:56:48 > 0:56:53He said it angered him how the folklorists associate
0:56:53 > 0:56:55the blues with tragedy.
0:56:55 > 0:56:59BLUES MUSIC PLAYS
0:57:07 > 0:57:09Everywhere I went in Mississippi
0:57:09 > 0:57:11I was welcomed with open arms.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15I don't think I've been to a more hospitable place
0:57:15 > 0:57:17and before I came on this trip,
0:57:17 > 0:57:20if someone had asked me to describe the blues
0:57:20 > 0:57:24I would have said a form of music born out of despair.
0:57:24 > 0:57:29But having spoken to a number of bluesmen here, I'm not so sure.
0:57:29 > 0:57:34I think it's that indefinable feeling that comes right from the soul.
0:57:37 > 0:57:39APPLAUSE
0:57:44 > 0:57:47Terry Bean has the last word.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50My grandfather played gospel on Sunday mornings,
0:57:50 > 0:57:55with acoustic guitar but it were nothing but the blues,
0:57:55 > 0:57:57they just change the levers around
0:57:57 > 0:58:01and boy they get to clap and stomp and hallelujah.
0:58:01 > 0:58:04Man, I tell ya,
0:58:04 > 0:58:07every... All music has got the blues in it,
0:58:07 > 0:58:11if you ain't got no blues in it, man, you ain't got no music!
0:58:14 > 0:58:17I don't think I want to... That is perfect, that is...
0:58:17 > 0:58:21That is the way we finish the whole film, for God's sake!
0:58:21 > 0:58:25BLUES MUSIC PLAYS
0:58:34 > 0:58:38Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:38 > 0:58:41E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk