Indianola

So we were on the move.

And we ended up in Mississippi, 'cause my father, he is from Mississippi, Indianola to be exact.

When I was at the union hall at the union meeting last night, I, I told everybody, "Now you probably have never heard of Indianola, Mississippi, but I'm pretty sure you've heard of B.B. King."

Oh.

That's where B.B. King is from, Indianola.

Oh, awesome.

Amazing.

Don't get me all worked up.

Our guest and author spent 38 years as the editor and publisher of the Enterprise Toxin and Indianola covering the Mississippi Delta through enormous social and political change.

He also served in Vietnam as a U.S. Army correspondent and photographer and was a student at Ole Miss during the 1962 James Meredith crisis.

He spent much of his life telling the stories of the Mississippi Delta, and now he's telling his own.

And what appealed to me about this is, first of all, Jim's a fine writer in his own right, and he's been doing it weekly.

I published a weekly newspaper for a short period of time, so I understand the unbelievable pressure that there is to get a weekly newspaper out with only two or three people on the staff.

I'm married to a woman who was born and grew up in Indianola where Jim lives.

I love the rich history that ranges from, oh, my God, B.B. King to, oh, oh, my God, no, this white citizens council.

But we're going to have a big, big celebration of 20 years at the B.B. King Museum in December, early December.

And right up the road from Indianola, where the B.B. King Museum is between Indianola and Leland, is Holly Bluff.

And that's where Charlie Patton is buried.

And where he's buried is the site of the first Mississippi Blues Trail.

Blues Marker Trails coming up.

That's all somewhere else but at B.B. King's.

If you've never been to the Blues Museum, B.B. King's Museum there, it's unbelievable in Indianola.

It's miles apart from most museums.

And the argument for it is that the father of country music, Jimmy Rogers, he was from Mississippi, Meridian.

The king of the blues, B.B. King, he's from Mississippi, Indianola.

Well, Elvis Presley, king of rock and roll.

Well, Little Richard's also the king of rock and roll in my heart, but that's a whole other podcast.

This is a coercive separation performed on two people who never asked for it.

Protective and hostile work mirror one another, and Ortiz Powder Maker's fieldwork in Indianola, Mississippi in the early 1930s caught both faces.

One woman, pestered by a man's unwanted attentions, was given by a local voodoo doctor a paper sealed with wax so that she could not read it she wore it in her stocking and the attentions ceased another wife blamed their marriage's incessant quarrelling on a small black bag she found under the front steps dug it up, found needles and spices inside, and destroyed it at once.

Between them, these cases hold the practical repertoire, the carried charm concealed on the body and here concealed even from its owner, which suggests that part of its force lay in the worker's secret.

Go to Tupelo, see Elvis' home.

Go to B.B. King's beautiful museum in Indianola, Mississippi.

Uh, go to the Grammy Museum in Cleveland, Mississippi.

Uh, come down and see us in Greenville, Mississippi.

Blending gaming with warm Gulf water just steps away.

And the B.B. King Museum in Indianola traces the life of one of the Blues' greatest legends, born right in the surrounding Delta cotton fields.

A few things worth knowing.

Biloxi's casino resort restaurants often charge premium prices for food.

This is King of the Blues.

He was born in Mississippi in 1924 He was born in Mississippi in 1924 Left his home with no money He had to pay his dues Lucy, what's her name? He lost his heart to a woman Lucy, what's her name? When he hears her sing so sweetly He knows he just can't lose Mississippi in 1924 He was born in Indianola, Mississippi Make him hell of news.

Does he need no premise? Like Freddy down in Dallas? You can call him what you like.

I call him King of the Blues.