A reader has drawn our attention to a 1965 painting by Carroll Cloar entitled “Where The Southern Cross The Dog” which depicts a railway crossing in Moorhead, Mississippi. This railway crossing became part of the lyric in W.C. Handy‘s Yellow Dog Blues.
Our reader was wondering whether we knew where he could buy a print of this painting. We couldn’t find any available prints of this painting. If any of our readers know of any commercially available prints of this Carroll Cloar painting, please let us know via the dialog box below. We will pass the information along.
Here is how the same scene in Moorhead, Mississippi appears today.
Each month we feature a Blues Artist of the Month.
Our Featured Blues Artist For August 2017 is Muddy Waters.
The Mississippi Blues Trail has placed a marker at the site of Muddy Waters’ House at Stovall Farm, outside Clarksdale, Coahoma County, Mississippi. Our page on Muddy Waters’ House is one of most frequently read pages on our MississippiBluesTravellers.com website.
During the late 1920’s Howlin Wolf lived and worked on the Dockery Farm, the the Dockery Plantation, in Sunflower County, Mississippi.
The Dockery Farms entrance sign, Highway 8, Sunflower County, Mississippi
Howlin’ Wolf made his first recordings for Sam Phillips at Memphis Recording Service (later Sun Recording Studio) in Memphis in 1951. Sam Phillips considered Howlin’ Wolf the most important artist he recorded.
The Memphis Recording Service, Sun Records and Sun Studio, 706 Union Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee
One of readers, Keith Petersen, used our website’s information on Emmett Till to plan a visit to sites connected to the Emmett Till murder in August 1955. Keith Petersen is associated with The Killer Blues Headstone Project.
Keith Petersen has kindly provided us with some photos he took of the site of J.W. Milam’s former house in Glendora, Mississippi and the adjacent M.B. Lowe’s Glendora [Cotton] Gin. Keith Petersen took these photos during his recent trip to Mississippi.
In August 1955, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, the owner of Bryant’s Grocery in Money, Mississippi, beat and then murdered Emmett Till in a barn behind J.W. Milam’s house. They then took a 70 lbs. metal fan from the adjacent M.B. Lowe’s Glendora Gin, attached the fan to Emmett Till’s body with barbed wire and threw the body and the fan into the Tallahatchie River, where Emmett Till’s body was found a few days later.
The former M.B. Lowe’s Glendora Gin building is now the site of the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Centre.
Milam’s House sign, at the site of the former house of J.W. Milam, one of the two men who murdered Emmett Till in August 1955, Glendora, Mississippi. The Glendora Gin building, now the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center, is in the background. (courtesy of Keith Petersen)Milam’s House sign, at the site of the former house of J.W. Milam, one of the two men who murdered Emmett Till in August 1955, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)Glendora Gin sign, near the site of the former house of J.W. Milam, one of the two men who murdered Emmett Till in August 1955, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)Glendora Gin building, now the site of the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Centre, near the site of the former house of J.W. Milam, one of the two men who murdered Emmett Till in August 1955, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)Glendora Gin building, now the site of the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Centre, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)
Our thanks to Keith Petersen for providing the photos above. We have not yet visited this site but we plan to do so on our next trip to Mississippi.
Glendora, Mississippi is also the birthplace of Sonny Boy Williamson.
Sonny Boy Williamson Birthplace sign, Glendora, Mississippi (courtesy of Keith Petersen)
Readers interested in Sonny Boy Williamson may also want to visit his grave outside Tutwiler, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi
Sonny Boy Williamson grave near Tutwiler, Mississippi. The grave stone was placed by Lillian McMurray, whose Trumpet Records label made the first Sonny Boy Williamson recordings.
A new book about the Emmett Till Murder in 1955, called The Blood Of Emmett Till, to be released next week, reportedly states that Carolyn Bryant Donham, now 82, has recanted her 1955 statement that 14 year old Emmett Till made sexual advances to her at Bryant’s Grocery in Money, Leflore County, Mississippi.
In August 1955, the then 21 year old Carolyn Bryant claimed that 14 year old Emmett Till had made sexual advances and comments to her in Bryant’s Grocery, the store she ran with her then husband Roy Bryant.
Caroline Bryant’s allegations resulted in Emmett Till being kidnapped, tortured and murdered by Caroline Bryant’s husband, Roy Bryant and his half- brother J.W. Milam.
A few days later, Emmett Till’s mutilated body was discovered in the Tallhatchie River.
