THE DOGRUN

I made a recent trip to Clarksdale, Mississippi to stay at the Shack Up Inn and listen to the Blues in the old juke joints in the famed Mississippi Delta. Nearby are the building remnants of Dockery Farms, where over four hundred african-american and sharecropper families worked in the cotton fields. After a hard days work, some would gather to give birth to the Delta Blues. The central figure at Dockery was Charlie Patton who influenced the legendary Robert Johnson, Chester "Howlin’ Wolf" Burnett, Roebuck "Pops" Staples, and David "Honeyboy" Edwards. The wood and corrugated metal buildings themselves are of interest architecturally, where their large overhangs protected cotton bales from weather or the more utilitarian barn-like structures with minimal overhangs were used for equipment storage or work spaces. The Shack Up Inn    The Shack Up Inn Dockery Farms. Birthplace of the Blues. Dockery Farms. Dockery Farms Dockery Farms Dockery Farms Dockery Farms Dockery Farms  Dockery Farms