The Road to Turkey
Scratch
April 9 - 15,
2002
Photos by Lee Gabites (UK) and Jan Høiberg (Norway), from a road
trip in Tennessee, Mississipi and Arkansas. The route was Memphis,
TN - Clarksdale, MS - Helena/West Helena, AR - Marvell/Turkey
Scratch, AR - Batesville, AR - Memphis, TN.
[Clarksdale, MS] [Helena, AR] [Marvell, AR] [Turkey Scratch, AR] [Batesville, AR] [Memphis, TN] [On the Road]
Photos from Wednesday April 10th. Clarksdale is Muddy Waters' home
town. Very nice blues
museum in a converted railroad building.
Wednesday April 10th and Thursday April 11th. We spent Thursday in
Helena and Marvell with Levon Helm and local friends C.W. Gatlin,
Bubba Sullivan and others - a great day.
Helena is definitely worth a visit, both for the history and the
music. Stop by the Delta Cultural Center
(Levon and the Barn Burners played at their
opening in 2000) for your history lesson, take a walk on the
levee along the Mississippi to see the wall with paintings of
Levon, Sonny Boy, James Cotton and other Southern greats, then
experience the blues on Cherry Street. There you'll find the shop/
offices of the King
Biscuit Blues Festival (that gathers a large crowd every
October) the Sonny
Boy Blues Society and the radio station Helena KFFA 1360, where
Levon used to go as a kid to listen to Sonny Boy Williamson II and
his band. The radio show, King Biscuit Time, is still on
every day around noon, hosted by the legendary "Sunshine" Sonny
Payne. If you stop by, he'll put you on the air! For the best
selection of blues and Southern music, posters and videos, visit
Bubba's Blues Corner, and you may pick up a blues harmonica at the
legendary Gist music store, where Levon got his first guitar. And
don't forget to check out the casinos on the MS side of the river,
just across the Helena bridge. No entrance fee - and the drinks are
free(!)
Thursday April 11th. Levon took us to his home town Marvell in his
SAAB convertible and treated us to burgers at the old cafe where he
used to eat as a kid. He is definitely a "local hero" - kids lined
up for autographs as we stood outside eating, and everybody seemed
to know him (they all call him "Lavon" - pronounced the French
way). Except for the local police officer (or whatever that b***ard
was), who wasn't too pleased about Levon taking his shirt off in
the hot sun - I thought we should end up in a fight there for a
little while.
Wednesday April 10th. We went to find the place where Levon grew
up, north of Marvell. Driving through those endless cottonfields,
with Little Walter and Sonny Boy Willamson blasting out of the car
speakers, was quite an experience. Turkey Scratch is just a road
crossing, with some farm houses ("up on stilts", as Robertson said
when he came down South for the first time, to avoid flooding) and
the same grocery store that was there when Levon was a little kid.
Friday 11th - Sunday 13th April. Batesville is located in the Ozark
foothills, a mainly white and rather wealthy community - a very
different place from the flat Mississippi Delta with it's poor
black neighbourhoods. If you go there, watch out - it's a dry
county! We ended up driving 50 miles the first night just to get
beer...
There was a film festival on in Batesville this weekend, with a
Levon
Helm tribute on Saturday. The day started with screening of
several of Levon's films, then there was a meet-and-greet session
where Levon signed books and albums and such for a large
crowd of fans. Later that night he played with the Cate
Brothers Band at the Melba Theatre. The Cates were very
friendly (special thanks to bassist Ron Eoff) and absolutely
phenomenal musicians, catch them if you ever get the chance. Levon
came on to standing ovations from a sold-out theatre. After
greeting the audience and talking warmly about being back in
Arkansas, he called us two foreigners up to the stage and
introduced us to the crowd - a great honour, of course. They then
did some blues and Band songs together with C.W. and a guest harp
player, Levon grinning from ear to ear and enjoying playing with
his old friends again.
Sunday April 13th - Tuesday April 15th. The road trip started and
ended in Memphis (we flew into the Memphis Airport from Amsterdam),
We did the tourist thing - Sun Records (nice) and Graceland (sort
of... at least we were there) - and drank our way through Beale
Street. B.B. King's Blues Club was good, we were treated to some
excellent blues by B.B. King Jr. and his band on Lee's birthday.
Some travel pics.