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DECEMBER 2021
CAT HEAD UPDATE NEWSLETTER
"All the blues that's fit to print."
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Hohoho from Clarksdale, Mississippi — your vacation destination. Plan now for New Year's or the new year!
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Hello to all of our local, national and international friends and fans. Here's to a safe and happy holiday season! Since November 8th, we've started to see world travelers arriving again in Clarksdale in search of the blues. We're excited to have y'all back.
Wherever you are, we'll be ready when you are... with live blues 365 nights a year as well as over a dozen annual festivals. Plus, CAT HEAD is also still open 7 days a week (except for Christmas Day).
Now is the time to plan your 2022 pilgrimage. Go to my Music Calendar link below for our calendar of 2022 festivals and special events. Then, find your lodging — from hotel to hostel, from shack to loft, and beyond — at VisitClarksdale.com.
MUSIC CALENDAR: cathead.biz/music-calendar
TOURISM APP: VisitClarksdale.com
LIVE-STREAMING: LiveFromClarksdale.org
SHARED EXPERIENCES: SharedExperiencesUSA.com
BLUES TRAIL REVISITED: podcast
The holidays are coming are here, so please consider shopping your friendly neighborhood CAT HEAD store Mon-Fri 11am-4pm; Sat till 5pm; Sun till 3pm. PLUS, shop our WEB STORE 24/7 at www.cathead.biz. We ship daily!
Thanks and best,
Roger (shown with late Gip Gipson during JJF a few years back) and Santa Pug (shown near C'dale's "super bloom"; more on that below).
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Live blues and more 7 days a week (as in 365, y'all)... only in historic Clarksdale, Mississippi...
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Clarksdale celebrates friend, neighbor, blues fan, businessman, former mayor... BILL LUCKETT
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This past Saturday, December 4th, Ground Zero Blues Club in historic downtown Clarksdale, Mississippi, paid a rockin' blues tribute to its late co-founder Bill Luckett. Lucious Spiller and Christone "Kingfish" Ingram played... a special documentary film was screened... and Academy award-winning actor/co-owner Morgan Freeman spoke along with other Ground Zero Blues Club folks and members of Bill's family. A portion of the ticket price went to the wonderful Spring Initiative nonprofit.
LiveFromClarksdale.org (sponsored by VisitClarksdale.com) live-streamed Kingfish, and the results were impressing with "12,000 video views and counting" via https://www.facebook.com/GroundZeroBluesClub/videos/489420319038890. ALSO, at one point Morgan Freeman got up and sang with Lucious Spiller, which you can watch here: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4561764890566542&id=100001992290645.
It was a special evening and a fitting tribute to Bill. Here are a few snapshots from the evening...
      
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CAT HEAD is thrilled to celebrate our 20TH CHRISTMAS in Clarksdale, Mississippi! Shop us in-person or online in our expanded WEB STORE...
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CAT HEAD in Clarksdale, Mississippi, is stocked with lots of new and classic shirts, hats, vinyl LPs, CDs, DVDs, books, artwork, glassware and more. Check out our festive WEB STORE at www.cathead.biz. Or, SHOP IN-PERSON Mon-Fri 11-4, Sat till 5pm and Sun 11-3. Open every day but Christmas Day itself. 252 Delta Avenue, downtown. Thanks, y'all!
                   
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Did you miss KINGFISH in Clarksdale last weekend? Catch him THIS WEEKEND and next weekend, y'all!
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Mr. Christone Ingram was raised right. The young blues superstar isn't going to forget where he came from any time soon, and he's once again scheduled two Kingfish Homecoming shows at the two Clarksdale, Mississippi, blues venues that kicked off his skyrocketing music career. Book your flights, book your rooms, and bring it on home, y'all!
RED'S LOUNGE - This Sat., 12/11 - 6pm doors/7pm opener/9pm Kingfish - Christone "KINGFISH" Ingram Homecoming (Part I) w/opener TBA; no presale tix; plan to arrive early, y'all.
GROUND ZERO BLUES CLUB - Next Sat., 12/18 - 7pm opener/10pm Kingfish - Christone "KINGFISH" Ingram Homecoming (Part II) w/ Big A & Allstars opening. Details at https://www.groundzerobluesclub.com/events/kingfish-homecoming.
 
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PLAN NOW for January's 12th Clarksdale Film & Music Festival... featuring DEEP BLUES & more!
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Stay tuned for the final details and film lineup, but go ahead and book your rooms for a cinematic, blues-filled weekend — January 28-30, 2022 — at the small-but-mighty Clarksdale Film & Music Festival. Friday and Saturday will feature films, and Sunday will feature live blues. Updates "coming soon" to ClarksdaleFilmFestival.com.
This year's main pop-up movie theater venue will be Ground Zero Blues Club. On that Saturday, January 29th, the festival will feature a special tribute to club owner, actor and long-time festival supporter Bill Luckett.
After an encore screening of Ground Zero/Eric Meier's new documentary tribute to Bill, acclaimed filmmaker Robert Mugge will present an afternoon of his movies filmed (in part or total) at Ground Zero Blues Club (LAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI JUKES, BLUES DIVAS) before finishing with his newly re-released 1991 classic DEEP BLUES!
If you're a blues fan and never seen DEEP BLUES, then prepare for your mind to be blown.
I first saw DEEP BLUES at the Little Art Theatre in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1991. By 1996, I was sitting in a Mississippi juke joint with RL Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. By 2002, I had moved to Clarksdale. And the rest is history. Watching Bob's amazing film was one of the moments in time that helped to lead me here. It's that unforgettable.
Filmed in Memphis, the North Mississippi Hill Country, Clarksdale, Greenville, Bentonia, etc., it features: R.L. Burnside - Jessie Mae Hemphill - Big Jack Johnson - Roosevelt “Booba” Barnes - Jack Owens & Bud Spires - Lonnie Pitchford - Booker T. Laury - Wade Walton - Jessie Mae’s Fife And Drum Band - Early Wright.
IMAGES BELOW include Bob Mugge/Bill Luckett/Morgan Freeman/Irma Thomas during BLUES DIVAS filmings as well as DEEP BLUES photos and promotion...
     
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Can't make it for the film fest? Then have CAT HEAD send you the new DEEP BLUES DVD or Blu-ray...
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Buy the newly remastered/reissued DEEP BLUES film on DVD or Blu-ray from CAT HEAD in Clarksdale at https://www.cathead.biz/cds-dvds. We have both on sale now, and we ship daily. Or come shop in-person every day at 11am.
"Robert Mugge's Deep Blues is a movie no blues lover, no popular music aficionado, and no devotee of American culture and folkways should miss. It's a genuine document, deep and earthy; a peek into our national soul."
- Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times.
In 1990, commissioned by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, veteran music film director Robert Mugge and renowned music scholar Robert Palmer ventured deep into the heart of the North Mississippi Hill Country and Mississippi Delta to seek out the best rural blues acts currently working. Starting on Beale Street in Memphis, they headed south to the juke joints, lounges, front porches, and parlors of Holly Springs, Greenville, Clarksdale, Bentonia, and Lexington. Along the way, they visited celebrated landmarks and documented talented artists cut off from the mainstream of the recording industry. The resulting film expresses reverence for the rich musical history of the region, spotlighting local performers, soon to be world-renowned, thanks in large part to the film, and demonstrating how the blues continues to thrive in new generations of gifted musicians.
  
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LATEST BLUES, MISSISSIPPI, CLARKSDALE, JAZZ AND RELATED NEWS. Check out the links below...
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Deejay/blues fan Bill Bowker retires from his "real" job, but he's still dedicated to the music...
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Congrats to our deejay buddy Bill Bowker (who keeps Clarksdale's online blues-streaming station XRDS, www.xrds.fm, running, with the support of the Clark House) on retiring from his "real" job!
From California's THE PRESS DEMOCRAT: Crusader for the blues - His hair and beard are snow white, but deep inside, Bill Bowker, one of Sonoma County’s most beloved and enduring radio personalities, is all about the blues. It shows in his piercing blue eyes, and you can hear it in every song he picks to play. His voice, both on and off the air, is kind and intelligent, with a dash of gravel added for texture, which only enhances his charm.
Come Dec. 15, on his 78th birthday, Bowker will step away from the mic at Santa Rosa’s KRSH, where he has worked for the past 27 years. It will be a significant downshift in a career that he says is not entirely over, but retirement is as good a word as any for his departure....... READ ON AT https://santarosapressdemocrat-ca.newsmemory.com/?publink=2018cca24_1346029.
 
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Plenty of MISSISSIPPI BLUES in this year's GRAMMY NOMINATIONS. Congrats to all!
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Coahoma Collective's amazing SUPER BLOOM returned to Clarksdale's MLK Park in late summer...
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Thanks to Coahoma Collective for doing this again! CC is a "nonprofit that is catalyzing arts-driven, community-inclusive revitalization in downtown Clarksdale, Mississippi."
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THANKS for nearly 20 years of CAT HEAD in Clarksdale, Mississippi. We love our visitors, customers and friends. Here's to a fab 2022!
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CAT HEAD is open 7 days a week (though closed Christmas): Mon-Fri 11am-4pm, Sat till 5. Sun till 3. You can shop our expanded WEB STORE at www.cathead.biz... or just go there for information... including the area's only comprehensive live blues Music Calendar. Thanks for all of the support over the past 19-plus years. Let's make number 20 extra special. All the best, Roger Stolle (CAT HEAD).
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