odradek

It wasn’t accepted among the comments, so I’m trying to post it here.
It’s a great article about Juke Joints...

United States, along the roads of the juke joints
Myths / Old venues where blues has always been a daily soundtrack. Traveling from Memphis to New Orleans. Meeting places that have helped build and spread African American culture

United States, along the roads of the juke joints

Gianluca Diana

On December 30, 2023, Cornelius Orlando “Red” Paden passed away at the age of sixty-seven, a figure almost unknown to most but central to the African American contemporary blues scene. He was known as Red or, even more simply, Red’s, which is also the name of his juke joint in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Telling his story and, in turn, that of the physical space forever tied to his memory means delving into the concrete mythology of the blues, made up of the women and men who have traditionally lived in and inhabited those places. It is an endeavor that risks descending into the worst kind of rhetoric, the one connected to the imagery of the last blues musician and the equally final juke joint: “last of the bluesman and last of the real juke joints” are the worst clichés one can apply to contemporary African American culture, giving a distorted image of reality.
People were already speculating about “lasts” at the beginning of the Sixties, predicting the imminent end of the blues and those who embodied it, claiming that the revival icons of the time—among the main ones, let’s remember Mississippi John Hurt, Big Bill Broonzy, Son House, Nehemiah Skip James, and Mississippi Fred McDowell—represented the end of an era. Since then, countless cotton-Delta blues and new blues talents have flourished, demonstrating that the main American folk expression is alive, well, and in great shape. So if you avoid donning the clothes of a compulsive tourist, always eager to capture unbelievable moments on social media like no one else in the world, today’s Deep South is a wonderful place to visit. To do so in the best, most correct, and respectful way towards those communities, it may be helpful to have a similar approach to the masters of wandering like Bruce Chatwin and Joe Sacco. The ability to listen and observe will help you understand that with Red’s passing, nothing has truly ended: another chapter in the story has simply been added.

THE EPICENTER
Cornelius was born on November 27, 1956, in a tiny rural settlement in northwest Mississippi called Alligator, in Bolivar County. From a young age, he was nicknamed Big Red, a name he would carry throughout his life. As a young man, he distinguished himself with quite a good career on local football teams, which he later left to complete his studies at Jackson State University. Once he finished that path, he made Clarksdale, where he began working as an entrepreneur, the center of his life. The childhood memories of some of his family members involved in the jukebox trade postremo: