Welcome to my inaugural blog posting! After several months of procrastination I have finally broken down and am sharing a little more of my world and self. Since my website is new, as of December, and is current with wedding shots, my first post is of personal work. One of my obsessions is travel and I love it all! Lately, I am learning to find the joy in little weekend excursions from Nashville. This past fall I made a trip to Clarksdale, Mississippi to experience the Mississippi Delta and stay at the every so funky Shack Up Inn. The Shack Up Inn is home to six shacks and the Cotton Gin Inn that are reserved year round. The Inn is quite popular and I was informed that it gets visitors from all over the world. During my visit I stayed in the Robert Clay Shack one night and a Gin Bin the second night. I never thought that I would pay money to stay in a shack but I must admit this was a very eclectic experience that I would do again!

While Clarksdale is a fairly small town it boast an impressive musical history. At one time is was home to famous Bluesmen as W.C. Handy, Robert Johnson, Son House, Ike Turner, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker and many others. Being a girl that grew up in North Dakota, along the Canadian border, I didn’t exactly grow up with the most rich musical heritage as my fellow Southerners. It was an incredible treat to step foot on the same soil that gave birth to so much talent!

As far as musical talent is concerned I was fortunate to meet Jerome & William (pictured below) while hanging out in a cafe one afternoon. These guys are two of the nicest guys and are very talented! They refer to themselves as “freestyle hip-hop artists” and I must say they are the real deal! While hanging out and talking about their passion for music and storytelling, they even indulged us with a little of their “freestyling.” Now I must admit I am not really into hip-hop or rap, but these guys really moved and inspired me! Their message is very honest and real but it does not glorify whatsoever that which shouldn’t be glorified. I really hope the best for these guys and that there music takes them where they want to go. Another musical talent that I heard perform was Robert Belfour. Here is a clip of him from YouTube doing a song that he performed at Red’s Lounge. Robert’s music was so soulful and hypnotizing and we hope to hear him perform again, perhaps at the Juke Joint Festival someday. Several people whom I met raved about the Juke Joint Festival. It would be exciting to attend sometime however accommodations typically book up a year in advance and being the last minute travellers that we are that doesn’t work out very well.

Well, I could add more about Clarksdale but don’t want to bore you with chattiness. Anyway to make a long story short, I really enjoyed my little Clarksdale adventure and all that it entailed! Below are a few of my fave pics!

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 12:47 am and is filed under Personal Work, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.