Rick Stein Tastes the Blues


Rick Stein Tastes the Blues

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TRAIN HOOTER BLARES

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This is the great state of Mississippi,

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the most fertile place in America but conversely one of the poorest, too.

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I'm here because I love the blues

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but as someone who's interested in food, I've been fascinated by

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the much-loved southern dishes ingrained in those lyrics -

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cornbread and butter beans, black eyed peas, fried chicken and turnip greens.

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They call it "soul food" here, and it's one of those

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vital things people miss when they escape the Delta.

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This is a journey into the land of the Delta Blues, guided by the tunes

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and the words I've enjoyed for the best part of 50 years.

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It's also about the myths surrounding this powerful music.

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A journey to find out what's real and what ain't.

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# I'm a blues man

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# I'm a blues man

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# All over Mississippi... #

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This is Terry Harmonica Bean, famous on the Delta Blues circuit.

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A real blues man.

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# I was raised up

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# On guinea weed

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# Cornbread

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# Collared greens

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# Black-eyed beans

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# Turnips in my mouth

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# And Muddy Waters

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# All you people

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# Better get ready for the blues

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# I'm a blues man

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# I'm a blues man

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# Yes, I am

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# Yeah

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# Whoa. #

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CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

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Ah-hey!

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Blues in the house! Terry "Harmonica" Bean.

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You know the blues, I mean, it means a lot to you,

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but does it mean a lot to black, young black people any more?

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The young whites! The young whites is into the blues.

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-Right.

-The young blacks think it's depressing - they don't understand it.

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You got to study it.

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And they'll say, "Well if you're a black person you can play the blues."

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Just cos you're black don't mean you can play the blues.

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There's a lot of peoples don't like the blues. Black peoples.

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-Don't like it.

-Don't like it!

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If it ain't nothing there, you can't get nothing out!

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What did the blues do to me when I first heard it?

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It grabbed me.

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I can actually recall the precise time when I got turned on to the blues.

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It must have been about 1962, 1963 and I was at boarding school.

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This friend of mine said, "Come and listen to this."

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I went into his... We had studies then

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and he had a Danset player, but an automatic Danset and I can remember the label -

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it was blue and cream, Chess Records.

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And it was Howlin' Wolf, Smoke Stack Lightning.

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A-WOO-OOH! Like that and to me,

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it went straight through me because I'd never heard anything like it, I'd never heard anything

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with such sort of balls, I suppose. Such a sort of howl, such a sort of naked human howl and I was hooked.

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# Oh, oh

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# Smoke stack lightning

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# Shining

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# Just like gold

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# Don't you hear me crying?

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# Ooh, ooh... #

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I was brought up with people like Cliff Richard and other rather sort of wimpish English groups.

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I was into Elvis but by then Elvis was

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doing things like GI Blues and had gone a bit sort wimpish himself.

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So this was just, like, I HAD to know more about it.

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And of course at the same time there were lots of young, urban English boys who had turned on to it too.

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I mean, the Rolling Stones, of course, Eric Clapton and The Yardbirds.

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I think, for all of us - I'm obviously not a rock band,

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a rock musician - it was just that sort of earthiness, that extreme

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sort of power that came through and we had to have more of it!

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Just driving along, I can't help thinking this whole landscape is so familiar.

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It's all those album covers from the '60s and '70s.

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# I am the little red rooster... #

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Blues lovers who've been here before told me to stay at the Shack Up Inn.

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It was an old cotton gin where they used to clean and chop up the cotton

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and pack it into huge bales. And it's set on a plantation just outside of Clarksdale,

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the epicentre of the Delta Blues.

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What better place to put you in the mood.

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I really like the fact that nobody's heard of me here!

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I'm just another blues fan from England struggling

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with the 102 degrees, but what a lovely place to start a journey.

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No fancy reception and lifts, just lots of rusty corrugated iron and lots of old, carefully chosen junk.

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Good Lord!

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Wow!

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I mean, I had thought it was going to be rickety

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but I didn't really have any idea it was going to be like this!

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Look at the ceiling, rusty old corrugated iron on the ceiling

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and old planks, look like old floorboards or something there.

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My God.

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It's fabulous! I can think of a lot of people that would really, really not like this, but I love it.

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Look at that. "Listed on the national register of rickety old places." Ah!

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The Fullilove Shack.

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"Bring your wife or your girlfriend. Heck! Bring both of them."

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I don't think so.

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Farming cotton was done by sharecroppers, families who were responsible for a parcel

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of land on which they had to grow a yield of cotton, and then share it with the landowner.

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Slavery, according to the history books, had finished in 1865 at the end of the Civil War.

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Share-cropping was a way to put the emancipated black people

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and poor whites back to work on the land.

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Slavery was dead,

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but many thought at the time it was in name only.

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If there was no Mississippi, there'd be no blues.

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The mighty Mississippi, nearly 2,500 miles long, flowing from Minnesota in the north

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of the country and then meandering south, draining the water from the Rockies, Appalachian Mountains

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and half the states in America, and then fanning out into the Delta, so rich and fertile -

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a vast area where anything can grow.

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And what grew best was cotton.

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The rest, as they say, is history.

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I wanted to see the river close up shortly after the massive floods

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and I went with John Ruskey, a consummate river man straight out of Daniel Boone.

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This is so peaceful. I was just thinking it was like going through a cathedral, in a funny sort of way.

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The canopy spreads makes such big open spaces that you can't help but

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feeling lifted upwards into Heaven or into a higher place.

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It opens your imagination.

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You know we're doing this programme about the blues - how do you see the river fitting into all that?

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The river created this very fertile, rich landscape the blues was born in.

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The first plantation owners knew they could make gold out of the mud. And that was through cotton, you know.

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It used to be a jungle, you know, this was the Amazon of North America.

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And the top soils

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that averaged 32 and sometimes as deep as 350 feet.

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Wow, that is enormously deep.

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And you can feel that, that fertility and power in blues music.

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The river created the landscape that created the blues.

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Can we get out on the main channel?

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It's not dangerous today, is it?

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It's always dangerous but we'll go in a safe place.

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OK. Let's go.

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-There we are. Now we have our work cut out for us.

-Oh, right!

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If we gotta turn over this would be a good place to do it!

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I've never seen such massive barges!

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When I think of the Mississippi, I think of those beautiful

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paddle steamers, mint juleps and Mark Twain.

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This is river boating on quite a different scale.

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We're paddling against the current,

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which John was saying is about five miles an hour, so it's hard.

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-Now look at that beautiful beach awaiting us right there.

-That's great. With a log to sit on.

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-Rick, cup of coffee?

-Don't think I've seen a pot like that since Blazing Saddles.

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That's good.

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We're going to cook some lamb chops over a wood fire and smoke them

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with these green willow branches. I'm really looking forward to that.

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What's that?

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-Tamari soy sauce.

-I'm sort of like thinking of Tom Sawyer here.

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Tom Sawyer in Huckleberry Finn, they'd always be - certainly in Tom Sawyer - sitting down

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cooking some fish like this saying, "Hey, that's the greatest thing I've ever tasted!"

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It's something quite special.

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-Yeah. That look OK?

-Yeah. Looks really good.

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That looks really good, too.

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Oh, I love that smoky taste. It's actually...

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Smoky meat is the taste of the Delta to me, really.

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Thank you very much, it's been a wonderful experience for me.

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-I hope we see you again. You've made the river happy today.

-Thank you.

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And now, after a smoked meal on the base of the Mississippi River,

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Rick Stein meets the blues, in the muddy waters of the Mississippi River.

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I'm really looking forward to a swim in this river.

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Of course, I didn't come here empty handed.

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I've had plenty of tips of where to eat the authentic soul food of the Delta.

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This is called the Senator's Place because it's run by a Mississippi politician, Senator Simmons.

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Rick, we fry chicken every day.

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Is there any bit of it which is secret,

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-that you don't want people to know?

-Yeah.

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Fair enough. So it's basically flour...

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-But the rest of it is a secret.

-Is a secret.

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And you gonna say when you taste it,

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"Where have I been? Why haven't I had this chicken?"

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Why is it so popular locally?

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-It's a staple.

-A staple?

-Fried chicken is something that's been around for a long time.

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As a matter of fact when my older brothers, um...

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moved into Chicago and Detroit,

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when they were getting ready to leave home, driving back or on a bus or getting on a train,

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my mother would prepare pound cake and some fried chicken

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and put it in a shoebox. And that's the kind of way a lot of individuals

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travelled because they couldn't go to public restaurants and eat, so they had to have the food in their cars.

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Why couldn't they go to public restaurants, then?

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Discrimination. Blacks were not allowed to go to

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public restaurants, so even when they could go, they weren't allowed to come in.

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They were just being served outside of a window, and a lot of time they were being harassed.

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So, as a result of that, to keep from having those types of situations occur,

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you get everything and put it in the trunk of your car and five or six of you get in the car and head north.

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When you get hungry, pop out the shoe box - there's the chicken and there's the pound cake.

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When we look at the blues and the food, and we

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refer to it as Southern soul food and the blues is a perfect match.

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That is it! That's why the blues is so powerful, and the food, cos the songs

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are filled with that sort of pent-up emotion for the hard times

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and the love of the food and all that - we can get it.

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That's why we want to come to Mississippi.

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That's why you should stop here. The food is like you can see.

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So the food, like rice and gravy and black-eyed peas, have a real part in this story.

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Corn on the cob and ice tea, okra and tomatoes with turnip greens...

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This is stuff worth coming home to.

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And let's not forget the chicken-fried steak,

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which isn't chicken but is a taste of home

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and a taste of the blues.

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the blues and food always go together. Yeah. Definitely.

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Good food, good blues. There's a definite match.

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What are you looking for to eat today? I love the look of those turnip greens.

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I'm going to eat turnip greens, French fries and I'm going to eat some catfish.

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I'm having some baked and fried catfish.

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Fantastic.

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Catfish is considered a scavenger.

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It ate all of the nasty things in the water

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so didn't nobody would eat it but black folk. And now it's a delicacy!

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This is Maurice F Lucas. I got talking to him over lunch.

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So you were mayor of like a small town?

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A mile north of here, a local town called Renova.

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What's special about Renova?

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Aretha Franklin was born there.

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My goodness!

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OK!

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I left in 1962.

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I went in the Army

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and I swore I wasn't never gonna come back.

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But after Vietnam got hot,

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I came home.

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HE LAUGHS

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-So why wouldn't you have wanted to come back?

-I don't like being a farmer.

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I got up at five o'clock in the morning,

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fed the chickens,

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slopped the hogs, milked the cow and went to the field.

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So I read somewhere that's why all the blues musicians left. They wanted to get away from that.

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That's what I got away from.

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And I didn't want no part of that.

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# Bright lights

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# Big city... #

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This is Leland, once an important cotton town, and this is one of

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my favourite tracks - Bright Lights, Big City by Jimmy Reid,

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one of Leland's greatest sons.

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# Gone to my baby's head

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# I tried to tell the woman... #

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I met up with Billy Johnson, who set up a museum in the town

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simply because so many bluesmen came from here.

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People think that the Delta,

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the Mississippi Delta, is a mystical place.

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How could all these people - Muddy Water, Howling Wolf, BB King, Jimmy Reed...

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How could all of these people...

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..who sing the blues so many different ways come from just this small place?

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The Delta wasn't really...

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It was the last part of Mississippi to be settled.

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Where's everybody gone?

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Well, farming became less labour intensive and all the people left...

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you know, in the '50s.

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20,000 people lived on the plantations around here.

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You know, 50 years ago. It's not 300 people out there now!

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But I suppose, also, you get all these blues centres

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like Chicago and they're singing songs about the life in the Delta

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and the food they knew as well, really.

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the blues had a smell to it, people would come

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to town and the blues guys would be playing on the corners and these food vendors would be there.

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They had these little two-wheel pushcarts and they were selling hot tamales and fish.

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As a kid, I always associated the music

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-with the smells of all this food.

-Fantastic.

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Smells are my speciality - and it's the smell of barbecues

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that dominate these blues towns.

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Sweet, woody, smoky smells that go so well with the blues.

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This is Mr Edwards' Rib Shack.

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Fresh off the grill!

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-So that's your ribs?

-That's my ribs and they're ready.

-They look great!

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My seasoning is garlic salt, regular salt. I put a little black pepper in there...

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I taste and season and I mix it all together and that's my rub.

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So it's just a dry rub, then.

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It's a dry rub.

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But you gotta have a good cook.

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I depend on my cookers.

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Not the secret... but the cookers that I got.

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All of my cookers are very good.

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-Simple and easy.

-Did you know it was going to be a success?

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No, but I didn't have anything else to do, I had to make some money.

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I got a wife and four kids and we had to make it.

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But that's really enterprising of you. Presumably, you had very little money to set that up.

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I didn't have any money. I only had an idea.

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So are you familiar with Mr Edwards' ribs, then?

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-What's special about them, then?

-Good, man, they're good.

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People come from everywhere to get them. You ever tasted them?

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No, I haven't tasted them yet, I'm looking forward to it.

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What am I tasting?

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I'm tasting pecan wood, or as they say here "pe-carn" wood, I can taste that smoke.

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I'm tasting pepper, I'm tasting garlic, I'm tasting onion. Good, good soul food.

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So, what do you think about it?

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Mr Edwards, you're a genius!

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You are seriously a genius.

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I love it! Absolutely.

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What about the potato salad and baked beans?

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Why can't they make baked beans like that at home?

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-They do!

-Not in England they don't!

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Oh, no! That's Mississippi Delta.

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Mmm. That's the way we do it down here!

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If there was a gastronomic symbol that defined the Delta, a good choice would be the catfish.

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This is Cadi Thompson, the daughter of the owner of Pluto Plantation, Louie Thompson.

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His family bought the land here in the bad old days of the 1920s and they grew cotton. They still do.

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But Louie says that catfish farming is good business and it's growing.

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Catfish has been a staple for this part of the world since people lived here.

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From the Indians on up through the 1850s,

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when this area was settled, and on through the slavery period and civil war

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up until now.

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Catfish is near and dear to us. I'm glad it turned out that way.

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What do you, as a plantation owner, think about the blues? As that's what we're here to...

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I grew up listening to the tractor drivers play it on the place

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and people would sit on the front porch on Sunday afternoon just strumming away.

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It's great! I grew up with it. I don't know how to describe it,

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I feel like it's in my blood a little bit.

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Maybe I'm a little part of it.

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We're making this programme, sort of trying to connect in some way the food of the Delta with the music,

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with the blues.

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Do you think there is any... Does one go with the other?

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It seems to me that it does.

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the blues originated here and so did catfish and it just seems to go together.

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There must be a song. I've got to think of a song!

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# Well, I wished I

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# Was a catfish

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# Swelling deep down deep blue sea... #

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Louie's cousin is Martha Foose.

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She's one of America's top food writers and writes with

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great passion and humour about life and food in the Mississippi Delta.

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Great, I think we've got enough lemon there!

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She's cooking catfish with fennel, melted butter, orange and lemon,

0:22:440:22:49

baked in a paper bag.

0:22:490:22:52

We are so tied to the land here.

0:22:520:22:54

It's 17 miles to get a gallon of milk from here and so people

0:22:540:22:59

mostly eat things that are grown on their farm, at farm stands or little trucks on the side of the road.

0:22:590:23:05

We have a lot of time on our hands so we do a lot of slow cooking here.

0:23:050:23:09

We're a very nap-orientated culture.

0:23:090:23:11

So you have siestas like they do in Spain?

0:23:110:23:14

We do. Don't call, don't drive down the road between one and three,

0:23:140:23:18

and we'll remain friends.

0:23:180:23:20

I'm going to put these in a hot oven, for about 15 minutes,

0:23:230:23:26

and they'll steam inside their little sacks.

0:23:260:23:28

You have such good ovens in the States.

0:23:280:23:31

See how you like it?

0:23:380:23:39

That's a really good fish, it's really... Sorry, I sound surprised.

0:23:400:23:44

Well, I know where it came from. They've been swimming in the alluvial aquifers of the Delta.

0:23:440:23:50

I know where they have come from, how well they've been cared for, and you can tell in the taste.

0:23:500:23:55

You're a pretty accomplished cook, really. Did you just get this from the Delta?

0:23:550:23:59

Um, I got the better part of it from the Delta, but...

0:23:590:24:03

I did go to a school in France, mostly for baking and pastry.

0:24:030:24:06

I went to Ecole Lenotre. I had a big time while I was in Paris.

0:24:060:24:11

Big time meaning?

0:24:110:24:13

When I got home, my grandma asked me if I'd learned to do anything in France other than drink and smoke.

0:24:130:24:18

I told her I could have learnt that in the Delta. But I can make one heck of a pie crust now.

0:24:180:24:22

# So cloudy, so cloudy

0:24:320:24:35

# I believe it's gonna rain... #

0:24:370:24:40

This is one of the most famous voices of the Delta, Muddy Waters.

0:24:410:24:45

They say he was the father of the Chicago blues but he came from the Delta.

0:24:450:24:51

# I believe it's going to rain... #

0:24:520:24:56

I've come to the blues Museum in Clarksdale to get a feel for where he grew up.

0:24:560:25:02

# I don't believe my woman love me

0:25:040:25:08

# She in love with another man... #

0:25:080:25:11

I'm just thinking about that saying in the Bible, "A prophet is not without honour saving his own land".

0:25:110:25:17

I was reading somewhere that when The Beatles first arrived in the States,

0:25:170:25:21

a reporter asked Paul McCartney what would he most like to see?

0:25:210:25:25

He replied, "Well, I'd really like to see Muddy Waters."

0:25:250:25:29

And the reporter said, "What's that?"

0:25:290:25:31

And so Paul McCartney said, "Do you not even know who your own famous people are?"

0:25:310:25:38

# The snapping of her fingers would make a dog wag its tail

0:25:380:25:42

|# The whisper from her voice would make a train jump the rail

0:25:420:25:46

# You take her to the race track and show her a face

0:25:460:25:50

# A horse ain't win in years come in first place

0:25:500:25:53

# You know she's into something

0:25:530:25:57

# Yeah, she's into something

0:25:570:25:59

# You know she's... #

0:25:590:26:02

the blues began life in the cotton fields, mostly in wooden huts away from the towns.

0:26:020:26:07

The sharecroppers would come and drink and play their music when their back-breaking work was done.

0:26:070:26:13

These places were called juke joints.

0:26:130:26:16

Muddy Waters ran one of these in the 1940s.

0:26:160:26:19

They usually had gambling and sold moonshine whisky and people would dance the night away to the blues.

0:26:190:26:26

# Yeah, that little girl's into something... #

0:26:280:26:30

Years ago people referred to them as joog joints,

0:26:300:26:32

a Creole word for "rowdy"

0:26:320:26:34

or "a little bit abandoned".

0:26:340:26:36

But whatever the pronunciation,

0:26:360:26:38

joog or juke, they spawned the blues.

0:26:380:26:42

This is a juke joint. There used to be hundreds of them - sadly, there's only one or two left now.

0:26:420:26:47

Originally, they were built often by the plantation owners

0:26:470:26:50

as a way of somewhere for the black people to socialise - that was during segregation, of course.

0:26:500:26:56

But often they'd be just a sharecropper's house that

0:26:560:26:59

they'd clear all the furniture out on a Friday and Saturday night.

0:26:590:27:02

It's a bit like the food, you know when you look at it, it might not

0:27:020:27:05

look like haute cuisine but to me it really speaks of the soul.

0:27:050:27:11

That's why they call it soul food, I guess.

0:27:110:27:13

Originally, there was a bit of a circuit around all of these juke joints

0:27:140:27:18

and people like Robert Johnson Charlie Patton and Sunhouse used to do a circuit of the juke joints.

0:27:180:27:24

But gradually, as records came in, they were replaced with, you've got it, juke boxes from the juke joints.

0:27:240:27:31

MAN SINGS IN HOLLERIN' STYLE

0:27:330:27:38

This is a recording of a musical phenomenon called hollerin',

0:27:460:27:50

recorded by Alan Lomax, who went out into the cotton fields in the late 1930s to capture the songs

0:27:500:27:55

of the Deep South for the Library of Congress.

0:27:550:27:59

It's said that the blues came here from Africa wearing chains.

0:27:590:28:03

This sound was the birth of the blues.

0:28:030:28:05

MAN SINGS IN HOLLERIN' STYLE

0:28:050:28:09

METALLIC TWANG REVERBERATES

0:28:140:28:16

METALLIC TWANG REVERBERATES

0:28:170:28:20

METALLIC TWANGS INTENSIFY

0:28:260:28:30

I read about this before I came on this trip.

0:28:320:28:35

A way of making music using what was available because there was no money for instruments.

0:28:350:28:40

To me, this raw sound epitomises the essence of the Delta Blues.

0:28:400:28:45

Bill Abel, a bluesman, explains.

0:28:490:28:52

Amazing! I mean, that sounds like

0:28:540:28:57

the heart of the blues, really.

0:28:570:28:59

What exactly is this, then?

0:28:590:29:01

This is called a diddley bow.

0:29:010:29:04

The kids used to play them.

0:29:040:29:06

They didn't have money to buy an instrument. So they made their own instrument at home.

0:29:060:29:11

They would take any kind of a wire they could get and put it to the side of the house.

0:29:110:29:16

This is an original sharecropper's shack.

0:29:160:29:21

It's 100 years old at least.

0:29:210:29:23

It's made out of cypress,

0:29:230:29:26

so it's got a nice resonation, so it's like a giant guitar.

0:29:260:29:29

The diddley bow helped give birth to the Delta Blues,

0:29:290:29:34

the sound, if you walk up to a wire and you play a riff...

0:29:340:29:38

PLAYS RIFF

0:29:380:29:41

You just do that, and that is an actual Delta Blues riff.

0:29:410:29:45

I can hear that sound right through the present day.

0:29:450:29:48

with something like Led Zeppelin When The Levee Breaks.

0:29:480:29:51

You can hear that sort of slightly doomy sort of like slide...

0:29:510:29:55

There's almost...

0:29:550:29:56

You can feel the sultry heat and maybe a storm coming in.

0:29:560:30:00

It's just straight there.

0:30:000:30:02

Just tell me about the early blues musicians then.

0:30:020:30:06

Uh, well, uh, the music, the Delta Blues

0:30:060:30:09

is based on poly rhythms instead of melody

0:30:090:30:13

and music that was called blues

0:30:130:30:15

that was played in the rest of this United States

0:30:150:30:18

was more influenced by European melody.

0:30:180:30:21

But the blues here, the slaves were brought here in the 1850s

0:30:210:30:25

to clear the land along the rivers for cotton

0:30:250:30:27

and right before the Civil War, you know.

0:30:270:30:30

So they brought the drums to the Delta in the 1850s

0:30:300:30:34

and that rhythm is what gave birth to the Delta Blues.

0:30:340:30:38

This is quite an important question for me.

0:30:380:30:41

OK, these, these, the young black people

0:30:410:30:44

are not interested in the blues any more,

0:30:440:30:47

and I can understand it,

0:30:470:30:49

it's about their grandparents and it's old stuff,

0:30:490:30:52

but why were those English boys in the '60s so taken with it?

0:30:520:30:56

Well, I think they were allowed to...

0:30:560:30:59

Here, the mainstream popular culture in the white community

0:30:590:31:03

was not embracing black music back in that time.

0:31:030:31:08

But I mean, it all boils down to when you are young

0:31:080:31:11

and you hear that sound of the Delta Blues,

0:31:110:31:15

it's so deep that it brings out...

0:31:150:31:17

say like the Daniel Boone in a kid, you know,

0:31:170:31:20

it's just like as tough as it gets, you know,

0:31:200:31:24

so that's what gave birth to a lot of rock and roll, was that toughness.

0:31:240:31:28

You got it, you've got it.

0:31:280:31:32

'Bill, who makes his guitars from

0:31:320:31:34

'driftwood washed up by the Mississippi and cigar boxes,

0:31:340:31:38

'is good friends with a legendary bluesman round here

0:31:380:31:42

'called Cadillac John. He's in his 80s

0:31:420:31:44

'and he never saw the bright lights like his contemporary BB King.'

0:31:440:31:50

Cadillac John, how did you come to start playing the blues?

0:31:500:31:54

Well, that's a, that's a good point.

0:31:540:31:58

My old lady left me,

0:31:580:32:00

she left me and that put it, I couldn't play it enough.

0:32:000:32:04

You know what I mean? Well, I will tell you.

0:32:040:32:07

When a, when a lady love you, you love it,

0:32:070:32:11

and she leave you, you gotta hurt.

0:32:110:32:14

You gon' do something, walk over in the river, you gotta hurt.

0:32:140:32:18

the blues come from...

0:32:180:32:20

When your friend leave you, your wife leave you,

0:32:210:32:25

that's where it all starts breakin' loose.

0:32:250:32:29

# My baby, my baby, my baby

0:32:540:33:01

# That little girl don't love me no more

0:33:070:33:12

# My baby, my baby, my baby

0:33:160:33:22

# That little girl don't love me no more

0:33:280:33:32

# My baby, my baby, my baby

0:33:380:33:43

# She way up yonder

0:33:500:33:55

# She ain't coming back down again

0:33:550:33:58

# No I'm not. #

0:33:580:34:00

Yeah.

0:34:070:34:09

Fantastic!

0:34:110:34:14

'What a testimony to the power of the blues

0:34:140:34:16

'to keep past emotion alive.

0:34:160:34:19

'He told me his wife even took the curtains!'

0:34:190:34:22

'You know, they tell me the blues can never die out

0:34:300:34:33

'when there are still a few cheating women and a few lying men.

0:34:330:34:38

'Terry Bean explains.'

0:34:380:34:40

People say the blues make you sad, with depression. Uh-uh.

0:34:400:34:45

You got it all wrong.

0:34:450:34:48

It's an upper.

0:34:480:34:50

Make you feel good.

0:34:500:34:51

But you got to understand that.

0:34:510:34:53

-Yeah.

-Don't let blues people fool you

0:34:530:34:56

when they go talk about baby this and baby that.

0:34:560:34:58

They ain't talking bout their women. They can be talking about money,

0:34:580:35:02

they can be talking about they ain't got no more whiskey to drink,

0:35:020:35:06

but they call it baby.

0:35:060:35:07

See what I'm saying? That's their baby.

0:35:070:35:09

The guitar may be a baby, see what I'm saying?

0:35:090:35:12

They ain't talking about a woman.

0:35:120:35:13

Most of the bluesmen can't stand one women anyway.

0:35:130:35:16

LAUGHTER

0:35:160:35:18

# Oh, some trouble in mind

0:35:200:35:24

# You know I'm blue

0:35:240:35:27

# But I won't be blue always

0:35:270:35:35

# Yeah, the sun gon' shine

0:35:350:35:40

# In my back door some day... #

0:35:400:35:44

They look really good.

0:35:460:35:47

They don't like you to grab them, really.

0:35:470:35:50

-I don't blame them.

-No, not at all.

0:35:500:35:51

Well, can we, can we cook some?

0:35:510:35:54

-Oh, yes, please.

-OK.

0:35:540:35:55

# ..On some southern railroad line... #

0:35:570:36:01

'I've always associated crawfish,

0:36:010:36:04

'or craw daddies as they're known over in these parts,

0:36:040:36:08

'with Louisiana, along with Filet Gumbo.

0:36:080:36:10

'But they eat lots of these little critters all over the Delta.

0:36:100:36:14

'The cook here is Ryan Moore.'

0:36:140:36:18

So Rick, we're going to put a little more seasoning on these before we...

0:36:180:36:21

-Oh, so you put some in as well as in the boil.

-Right,

0:36:210:36:24

so it's in your fingers, in your mouth when you're eating it

0:36:240:36:27

and then yellow mustard across the top.

0:36:270:36:29

That's just a little secret touch that we do, it's something about...

0:36:290:36:32

Oh, well, we won't, we won't tell anybody about that.

0:36:320:36:34

We'll mix them all up.

0:36:370:36:39

-All right.

-Cheers.

-Cheers to you, Rick.

0:36:460:36:49

-Good health.

-Good health.

-This looks really good.

-So everything's ready?

0:36:490:36:51

-Yeah, yeah.

-So you've never eaten one of these before?

0:36:510:36:54

I have, but I want to see how you do it.

0:36:540:36:56

The first thing you do there is you squeeze in the head a little bit..

0:36:560:37:00

-and pinch in the tail.

-And pinch in the tail.

0:37:000:37:02

-Right here, yes. And then you just wriggle the tail, wriggle it out.

-OK.

0:37:020:37:07

Head, you can either throw it away or you can suck the head out.

0:37:070:37:10

-No, I'd like to suck the head.

-Suck the head, is that all right?

0:37:100:37:14

SUCKING

0:37:140:37:15

Oh, that's really good, Ryan.

0:37:150:37:17

And then...you eat the tail.

0:37:170:37:22

So you pinch the tail. You suck the head and you pinch the tail.

0:37:220:37:25

Suck the head. They call it making love Louisiana-style.

0:37:250:37:29

I don't think we'd better go into that one.

0:37:290:37:32

Yeah, well, you know.

0:37:320:37:34

-I got it, I got it.

-Pinch the head, suck the tail. So there we are.

0:37:340:37:37

Everywhere I've been here it's been, people really want to welcome you.

0:37:370:37:41

Yeah, you don't have your own plate here.

0:37:410:37:43

You see all this food here and it's kind of a melting pot.

0:37:430:37:45

And the Delta itself is a melting pot of different races and cultures

0:37:450:37:51

and a lot of history with the blues music.

0:37:510:37:54

What else more could you ask for?

0:37:540:37:55

-I agree.

-Maybe it could be a little bit cooler.

0:37:550:37:58

It could be a little bit cooler for us English, I must say, yeah.

0:37:580:38:02

# Some people say a man is made outta mud

0:38:120:38:17

# A poor man's made outta muscle and blood

0:38:170:38:22

# Muscle and blood and skin and bones

0:38:220:38:25

# A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

0:38:250:38:28

# You load sixteen tonnes What do you get?

0:38:280:38:32

# Another day older And deeper in debt

0:38:320:38:34

# St Peter don't you call me Cos I can't go

0:38:340:38:38

# I owe my soul to the company store... #

0:38:380:38:42

These places were called commissaries.

0:38:420:38:44

They were the financial heart of the plantations

0:38:440:38:47

and the bane of the sharecroppers' life.

0:38:470:38:50

Where they could buy now and pay later,

0:38:500:38:53

tying the farm workers to the land much in the same way feudalism did.

0:38:530:38:57

The sharecropper would come here to the commissary for his seeds,

0:38:570:39:02

his fertiliser, his tools, clothes. Everything.

0:39:020:39:06

It reminds me of that song Sixteen Tonnes,

0:39:060:39:09

"Sixteen tonnes and what do you get?

0:39:090:39:12

"Another day older and deeper in debt."

0:39:120:39:15

Cos whether the harvest was good or whether it was bad,

0:39:150:39:18

you owed your soul to the company store.

0:39:180:39:21

# ..To the company store. #

0:39:210:39:29

You know when you live in a city,

0:39:300:39:32

inadvertently you walk by and you hear people talking, you hear something on the radio,

0:39:320:39:37

you see a sign on a bus and all that influences you.

0:39:370:39:41

But with the blues,

0:39:410:39:43

people living on the plantations didn't have anything -

0:39:430:39:46

no communication, no transportation.

0:39:460:39:48

The biggest influence was theirselves

0:39:480:39:51

because other than their family, that's all they had.

0:39:510:39:55

You know when you go out there to work from daylight to dark

0:39:550:39:57

and you come in on Saturday and you open the door

0:39:570:40:00

and your wife's gone with your kids and ain't gonna be back no more,

0:40:000:40:04

you know, I mean, and you get your couple of drinks of moonshine,

0:40:040:40:08

pick your guitar up, there ain't no filter between what you're feeling

0:40:080:40:12

and what you're playing. And I mean, it's the real deal,

0:40:120:40:15

so that's what the blues is and that's how you get them.

0:40:150:40:20

MAN SINGS BLUES

0:40:230:40:27

Blues-wise, they say Dockery Farms

0:40:330:40:35

is the most potent place in the whole of the Delta.

0:40:350:40:39

BB King said, "It all started right here."

0:40:390:40:43

Thousands worked the cotton fields, including Charley Patton,

0:40:450:40:49

the father of the Delta Blues, and so did the famous Tommy Johnson.

0:40:490:40:54

Dockery was home to so many famous bluesmen

0:40:540:40:58

and inspired many others from around the Delta

0:40:580:41:00

to come and play with the likes of Robert Johnson,

0:41:000:41:03

Elmore James and of course, my favourite, Howlin' Wolf.

0:41:030:41:09

# It could fill spoon full of diamond

0:41:090:41:14

# Could fill spoon full of gold

0:41:140:41:17

# Just a little spoon of your precious love

0:41:170:41:22

# Satisfy my soul... #

0:41:220:41:25

'Just down the road is the resting place of the great Charley Patton.

0:41:260:41:30

'He wrote songs about the people and things around him.

0:41:300:41:33

'He's immortalised a couple of local sheriffs,

0:41:330:41:37

'a plantation boss,

0:41:370:41:39

'pimps and whores.

0:41:390:41:40

'They all became the subjects of his songs.'

0:41:400:41:43

This is it.

0:41:430:41:45

I can tell, there's all this money left on the top.

0:41:450:41:47

Yeah, Charley Patton, somebody's left a cigarette there,

0:41:470:41:50

a whole cigarette for him cos he loved his smoking,

0:41:500:41:54

he loved his booze, he loved his women.

0:41:540:41:57

"The voice of the Delta," yeah,

0:41:570:41:59

I think he was arguably the father of Delta Blues music,

0:41:590:42:03

influenced people like John Lee Hooker

0:42:030:42:06

and of course my own favourite Howlin' Wolf.

0:42:060:42:09

He had this really gravelly voice

0:42:090:42:12

and of course it was before amplification.

0:42:120:42:14

It could travel about 500 yards, people say.

0:42:140:42:17

CRACKLY RECORDING PLAYS

0:42:170:42:21

Apparently, it's a sort of tradition here

0:42:270:42:30

to leave a libation to the dead,

0:42:300:42:32

so I've actually bought a little libation for Charley.

0:42:320:42:37

If it's as hot down there as it is up here, in the grave,

0:42:370:42:42

I think he needs it.

0:42:420:42:44

Maybe a bit for me.

0:42:460:42:49

I think he'd approve.

0:42:500:42:52

CRACKLY RECORDING CONTINUES

0:42:580:43:02

The record companies and radio stations

0:43:070:43:09

wanted their music to be a bit zappy.

0:43:090:43:12

MUSIC PLAYS

0:43:120:43:15

'All the Delta Blues musicians had really loud voices

0:43:190:43:23

'and a rural repertoire, but it was

0:43:230:43:25

'the legendary Robert Johnson who had a real gift for showmanship

0:43:250:43:29

'and an ear for the latest sounds.'

0:43:290:43:33

ROBERT JOHNSON SINGS

0:43:330:43:37

'He could hear a song just once on the radio

0:43:370:43:40

'and a few minutes later he'd be playing it on a street corner,

0:43:400:43:44

'receiving handsome tips. He was a man of his time.'

0:43:440:43:47

Eric Clapton called Robert Johnson

0:43:500:43:52

the greatest blues musician there ever was.

0:43:520:43:56

I think the image for most people of a blues musician

0:43:560:43:59

is somebody in blue overalls playing a guitar

0:43:590:44:01

sitting on a porch somewhere, but not for Robert Johnson.

0:44:010:44:04

He really liked sharp suits, good ties, tie pins, hats,

0:44:040:44:10

and he really loved women.

0:44:100:44:12

And a contemporary of his, Johnny Shines,

0:44:120:44:16

said, "Robert treated women like motel and hotel rooms,

0:44:160:44:20

"he used them and then he left them behind."

0:44:200:44:24

MUSIC: "Crossroads" by Robert Johnson

0:44:240:44:29

# I went down to the crossroads Fell down on my knees... #

0:44:290:44:35

This song, Crossroads,

0:44:350:44:37

was Robert's most famous,

0:44:370:44:38

and it helped to make him a legend because the crossroads

0:44:380:44:42

was the place he was supposed to have made a deal with the devil.

0:44:420:44:46

# I went down to the crossroads Fell down on my knees... #

0:44:460:44:51

Nobody really knows where the crossroads are,

0:44:510:44:53

but this would have a serious claim to be it.

0:44:530:44:56

It's where Highway 49 crosses Highway 61.

0:44:560:45:01

Robert Johnson, when he was young couldn't play very well -

0:45:010:45:04

he kept getting thrown out of juke joints

0:45:040:45:07

because he was making such a racket, and he disappeared for a while.

0:45:070:45:11

Well, some say he went across to Arkansas,

0:45:110:45:13

but others said he came here to the crossroads

0:45:130:45:16

and he sold his soul to the devil.

0:45:160:45:19

He met a black man just before midnight, a big, black man

0:45:190:45:23

who took his guitar and re-tuned it and handed it back to him,

0:45:230:45:28

and after that he played like drops of mercury.

0:45:280:45:32

JOHNSON PLAYS GUITAR

0:45:320:45:36

This is Baptist Town in Greenwood. It's pretty run down

0:45:420:45:46

and probably hasn't changed too much

0:45:460:45:49

since Robert Johnson lived here and died here

0:45:490:45:52

at the age of 27. Rumour has it that he drank

0:45:520:45:55

poisoned moonshine whiskey -

0:45:550:45:58

poisoned, it's said, by a jealous husband.

0:45:580:46:02

Sylvester Hoover runs a grocery store here.

0:46:030:46:06

He's a mine of information,

0:46:060:46:07

especially about those troubled times of the 1930s

0:46:070:46:11

when black men couldn't walk freely on the streets.

0:46:110:46:14

Why was it that black people

0:46:160:46:18

couldn't come out on the street during the day?

0:46:180:46:22

I mean, that was the Jim Crow law.

0:46:220:46:24

That was a white law that the farmers made in this area

0:46:240:46:28

and a general Crow law is, blacks don't have any rights.

0:46:280:46:32

They couldn't buy a bus ticket, they couldn't buy a train ticket,

0:46:320:46:36

couldn't spend a five-dollar bill. You had just ones, you know.

0:46:360:46:40

And it was real hard time and that's what made those guys sing the blues.

0:46:400:46:46

Though at that time, a white lady, if she walked down the street

0:46:460:46:50

and Robert Johnson, Honeyboy Edwards were walking down that street

0:46:500:46:54

on a weekend when they all worked,

0:46:540:46:55

they had to cross and go to the other side of the street.

0:46:550:46:58

And if you meet a white man down the street,

0:46:580:47:01

you would have to take your hat off and kneel to him.

0:47:010:47:04

But you couldn't pass a white lady down the street,

0:47:040:47:08

and the train track separate the peoples.

0:47:080:47:11

If you was black you wasn't allowed to cross this track here

0:47:110:47:14

because they couldn't go over where white peoples live.

0:47:140:47:17

The Jim Crow law and blacks didn't have any rights whatsoever,

0:47:170:47:21

that's part of what made the blues.

0:47:210:47:23

They could leave the Jim Crow law behind when they go Chicago,

0:47:230:47:27

they didn't have the same laws they got here.

0:47:270:47:29

That's why everyone wanted to go to Chicago.

0:47:290:47:32

And that train, when they hear that horn,

0:47:320:47:35

it helped them, they know that "I can go north,

0:47:350:47:38

"I can get out of this Mississippi Delta."

0:47:380:47:40

# Ever since Miss Susie Johnson Lost her jockey Lee

0:47:420:47:47

# There has been much excitement And more to be

0:47:470:47:53

# You can hear her moanin' Moanin' night and morn... #

0:47:530:47:58

The more I understand about the blues, the more I listen to people,

0:48:010:48:04

I realise that a lot of it was about getting away from the Delta

0:48:040:48:07

because everybody was so poor.

0:48:070:48:09

Really, it's a bit like Wordsworth saying about poetry,

0:48:090:48:13

it's emotion recollected in tranquillity.

0:48:130:48:16

It's getting away and thinking about those times,

0:48:160:48:18

thinking about the levees,

0:48:180:48:20

thinking about losing your girl and all that.

0:48:200:48:23

And this is an important place to me

0:48:230:48:25

because it's another crossroads.

0:48:250:48:27

A crossroads is a really common image in blues music

0:48:270:48:30

and it sort of gets to us all.

0:48:300:48:33

And WC Handy, who was a very famous early blues musician,

0:48:330:48:37

heard this guy singing about where the Southern crosses the Yellow Dog,

0:48:370:48:43

and it's this intersection.

0:48:430:48:44

You can just imagine loads of people here, suitcases, everybody leaving,

0:48:440:48:49

and then the wail as the train arrived, and maybe it's getting dusk

0:48:490:48:53

and then you see the taillights disappearing in the distance

0:48:530:48:57

taking my baby away from me!

0:48:570:48:59

# He's gone where the Southern cross the Yellow Dog... #

0:48:590:49:07

People left the Delta in their droves during the '20s and '30s,

0:49:100:49:14

and there were a number of reasons.

0:49:140:49:16

Mechanisation started to come to the fields, the price of cotton fell,

0:49:160:49:20

the floods of 1927 forced thousands off the land

0:49:200:49:24

and the pull of jobs in northern cities like Chicago and Detroit

0:49:240:49:28

was so powerful.

0:49:280:49:29

MAN SINGS BLUES

0:49:290:49:32

But for those that chose to stay behind,

0:49:380:49:40

an Italian honky tonk joint in Greenville

0:49:400:49:43

offered tasty food exclusively to the black community.

0:49:430:49:48

It was more like an in-town juke joint,

0:49:480:49:51

but it became a place selling down-home cooking for over 60 years.

0:49:510:49:55

-How you doing?

-Wow, I'm very well.

0:49:550:49:58

-Is that for one or for a...?

-Ah, usually two people split them.

0:49:580:50:01

Ah, thank goodness for that!

0:50:010:50:03

Sometimes one person can take it down.

0:50:030:50:05

This is what you call a broiler, isn't it?

0:50:050:50:07

Yes, sir. It's been in here since the '40s! Yes, sir.

0:50:070:50:11

So, it's much loved.

0:50:110:50:13

'In the early days, if white folks wanted a part of it,

0:50:130:50:17

'they had to use the back door - a sort of segregation in reverse.'

0:50:170:50:23

Excuse me, sorry, sorry.

0:50:230:50:25

Wow!

0:50:260:50:28

It's like walking back in time,

0:50:280:50:30

this is definitely not your typical fast food joint and neither is it

0:50:300:50:36

themed or skilfully recreated - it's just a family-run joint, it's the real deal.

0:50:360:50:43

And even Miss Florence has been making the same salads with the same dressing for over 40 years!

0:50:430:50:50

You know, in this restaurant there's no menu -

0:50:500:50:53

I mean there's just tamales, shrimp, salad and steak, lots of steak!

0:50:530:50:59

I'm sorry but I just love places like this. This is heaven to me.

0:50:590:51:06

This is a very special day in Indianola. I love the sound of these

0:51:140:51:19

Mississippi towns. Indianola - it sounds like a '50s radiogram

0:51:190:51:23

but why today is so special is because this is the homecoming

0:51:230:51:28

of its most famous son, the most important and influential living Blues artist, BB King.

0:51:280:51:37

# Yes, she's 36 in the bust

0:51:370:51:40

# 28 in the waist

0:51:400:51:42

# 44 in the hip She got a real crazy leg

0:51:420:51:46

# You upsets me baby

0:51:460:51:48

# Yes, you upsets me baby... #

0:51:480:51:51

At the age of 86, he still tours the world over but today he's coming home

0:51:510:51:58

and the area's full of expectation

0:51:580:52:01

and the sweet smell of barbecue.

0:52:010:52:04

Apparently BB's still asleep in his bedroom at the back of the bus.

0:52:130:52:18

We could be here a couple of hours.

0:52:180:52:20

I was trying to find out what that all was.

0:52:460:52:49

It's where they had the big barbecue cook-off yesterday.

0:52:490:52:52

You all get some of it?

0:52:520:52:54

We didn't get none.

0:52:540:52:56

Damn, you should have got some of it, you know I like barbecue!

0:52:560:52:59

Gentlemen, how are you?

0:52:590:53:01

-Very well!

-Good, very good.

0:53:010:53:04

Mr King, are you looking forward to coming home to some good local food?

0:53:040:53:08

I like that too but I look forward to coming home every year,

0:53:080:53:13

I wish I could come every five to six weeks.

0:53:130:53:17

This is where...

0:53:170:53:19

This is where I grew up. My roots is right here.

0:53:190:53:22

-I used to work right there.

-And you love the cooking of this area, you love the Delta food?

0:53:220:53:26

Of course! You can see that, you don't have to ask.

0:53:260:53:29

Sorry(!)

0:53:290:53:31

I love it too.

0:53:310:53:33

I, well this is... You know, it's home.

0:53:330:53:37

Like, if I was in London or someplace... I like London because I have a lot of friends there,

0:53:370:53:43

I know a lot of people and this is home,

0:53:430:53:45

I don't know as many people these days but I know the roots of the families.

0:53:450:53:49

Most of them have died out or moved away.

0:53:490:53:52

But I think a lot of us try to get home every summer if we can.

0:53:520:53:57

Alan is begging for me to come in so I have to go.

0:53:570:54:00

-Very nice to meet you. Thank you very much.

-Mr King, we love you!

0:54:000:54:02

I was gobsmacked at meeting BB - really nervous.

0:54:020:54:07

It was like shaking hands with Elvis!

0:54:070:54:10

He may be 86 but he still cuts the mustard at Glastonbury.

0:54:100:54:14

# Everybody wanna know

0:54:140:54:19

# Walk and singin' the blues

0:54:190:54:23

# Everybody wanna know

0:54:230:54:26

# Walk and sing the blues

0:54:280:54:30

# Been around a long time

0:54:300:54:33

# Really paid my dues. #

0:54:350:54:38

This is the Blue Biscuit in Indianola, run by Trish Berry and Harlan Malone.

0:54:430:54:48

And this is the most famous barbecue dish in these parts.

0:54:480:54:52

It's a sandwich made with marinated and barbecued pork

0:54:520:54:56

cooked so long in the smoker you don't need to cut it, just pull it.

0:54:560:55:00

It starts life as a big rump of hog.

0:55:000:55:04

This is called a Boston Butt.

0:55:040:55:06

Trish smothers it in garlic oil and then it's stuffed with

0:55:060:55:10

jalapeno chillies and spices and smothered with a secret marinade.

0:55:100:55:15

Then it's put into a barbecue smoker for about 20 hours. The smell is superb.

0:55:150:55:21

You see, Harlan, I'd love this job because I think it's a job for real men.

0:55:230:55:29

Not for TV cooks, you know what I mean?!

0:55:290:55:33

So what does barbecuing mean to you, then, Harlan? You must be...

0:55:330:55:36

-Well, it just means who's got the best butt!

-And do you think yours is the best?

0:55:360:55:41

-I think so.

-Why?

0:55:410:55:42

Because it's as tender as my heart, y'know.

0:55:420:55:46

That's why love it, it's as tender as my heart.

0:55:460:55:48

People are very passionate about their barbecuing.

0:55:480:55:51

And they're very passionate about their music.

0:55:510:55:54

And this is something everybody in the Delta does, everybody barbecues.

0:55:540:55:57

And it's like the music, it's very simple music but it's good

0:55:570:56:01

and it's really passionate and heartfelt.

0:56:010:56:04

-Is that for me?

-Oh, absolutely.

0:56:040:56:07

Seems... That's... Seems very..

0:56:070:56:10

I feel very, very privileged.

0:56:100:56:13

To be the first of the TV crew to find it because they'll all be salivating at this stage!

0:56:130:56:18

Ummm.

0:56:200:56:22

That's so good, the smoke, it tastes really clean.

0:56:220:56:26

Well, I must say it seems quite a big portion, is that normal?

0:56:260:56:28

Oh, absolutely, that's about a normal sandwich, normal.

0:56:280:56:32

Nobody's going hungry on my watch!

0:56:320:56:34

BB King said scholars love to praise the pure Blues artists or the ones

0:56:390:56:44

like Robert Johnson who died young and who represent tragedy.

0:56:440:56:48

He said it angered him how the folklorists associate

0:56:480:56:53

the blues with tragedy.

0:56:530:56:55

BLUES MUSIC PLAYS

0:56:550:56:59

Everywhere I went in Mississippi

0:57:070:57:09

I was welcomed with open arms.

0:57:090:57:11

I don't think I've been to a more hospitable place

0:57:110:57:15

and before I came on this trip,

0:57:150:57:17

if someone had asked me to describe the blues

0:57:170:57:20

I would have said a form of music born out of despair.

0:57:200:57:24

But having spoken to a number of bluesmen here, I'm not so sure.

0:57:240:57:29

I think it's that indefinable feeling that comes right from the soul.

0:57:290:57:34

APPLAUSE

0:57:370:57:39

Terry Bean has the last word.

0:57:440:57:47

My grandfather played gospel on Sunday mornings,

0:57:470:57:50

with acoustic guitar but it were nothing but the blues,

0:57:500:57:55

they just change the levers around

0:57:550:57:57

and boy they get to clap and stomp and hallelujah.

0:57:570:58:01

Man, I tell ya,

0:58:010:58:04

every... All music has got the blues in it,

0:58:040:58:07

if you ain't got no blues in it, man, you ain't got no music!

0:58:070:58:11

I don't think I want to... That is perfect, that is...

0:58:140:58:17

That is the way we finish the whole film, for God's sake!

0:58:170:58:21

BLUES MUSIC PLAYS

0:58:210:58:25

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:58:340:58:38

E-mail [email protected]

0:58:380:58:41

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