The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center is a museum in Indianola, Mississippi dedicated to the Delta blues and music legend B.B. King.
The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center is a museum in Indianola, Mississippi dedicated to the Delta blues and music legend B.B. King.
The stated mission of the museum is to "empower, unite and heal through music, art and education and share with the world the rich cultural heritage of the Mississippi Delta." [1]
The museum was first announced in January 2004 in B.B. King's home town of Indianola, Mississippi, with a planned groundbreaking in June 2005. The plan included a $10 million facility encompassing 15,000 square feet. [2]
The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center opened on September 13, 2008. The museum features a restored brick cotton gin building where B.B. King worked in the 1940s. The museum also contains an extensive collection of artifacts owned by King and displays exhibits about his life and the lives of other musicians of the delta region and the culture where the blues arose. The museum commemorates the famous blues artist B.B King, who was from the Mississippi Delta. The museum has multiple exhibits highlighting King's Delta Blue music using interactives, King memorabilia, and stories. Exhibits also explore the culture of the Delta birthplace of the Blues, including the troubled times of the Jim Crow era and the struggle of the Civil Rights Movement. [3] The museum seeks to help preserve Delta Blues and its culture by promoting its importance.
In 2015, shortly after his death at age 89, King was buried at the museum and center in a planned memorial garden. [4] [5]
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County, in the southwesternmost part of the state, and is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-most populous city in Tennessee after Nashville.
Sunflower County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,971. Its largest city and county seat is Indianola.
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Clarksdale is a city in and the county seat of Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. It is located along the Sunflower River. Clarksdale is named after John Clark, a settler who founded the city in the mid-19th century when he established a timber mill and business. Clarksdale is in the Mississippi Delta region and is an agricultural and trading center. Many African-American musicians developed the blues here, and took this original American music with them to Chicago and other northern cities during the Great Migration.
Itta Bena is a city in Leflore County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 2,049 at the 2010 census. The town's name is derived from the Choctaw phrase iti bina, meaning "forest camp". Itta Bena is part of the Greenwood, Mississippi micropolitan area. It developed as a trading center of an area of cotton plantations.
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The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers. The region has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth", because of its unique racial, cultural, and economic history. It is 200 miles (320 km) long and 87 miles (140 km) across at its widest point, encompassing about 4,415,000 acres (17,870 km2), or, almost 7,000 square miles of alluvial floodplain. Originally covered in hardwood forest across the bottomlands, it was developed as one of the richest cotton-growing areas in the nation before the American Civil War (1861–1865). The region attracted many speculators who developed land along the riverfronts for cotton plantations; they became wealthy planters dependent on the labor of people they enslaved, who composed the vast majority of the population in these counties well before the Civil War, often twice the number of whites.
Albert Nelson, known by his stage name Albert King, was an American guitarist and singer who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists of all time. He is perhaps best known for his popular and influential album Born Under a Bad Sign (1967) and its title track. He, B.B. King, and Freddie King, all unrelated, were known as the "Kings of the Blues". The left-handed Albert King was known for his "deep, dramatic sound that was widely imitated by both blues and rock guitarists."
Helena–West Helena is the county seat of and the largest city within Phillips County, Arkansas, United States. The current city was consolidated, effective January 1, 2006, from the two Arkansas cities of Helena and West Helena. Helena is sited on lowlands between the Mississippi River and the eastern side of Crowley's Ridge. West Helena is located on the western side of Crowley's Ridge, a geographic anomaly in the typically flat Arkansas Delta. The Helena Bridge, one of Arkansas' four Mississippi River bridges, carries U.S. Route 49 across to Mississippi. The combined population of the two cities was 15,012 at the 2000 census and at the 2010 census, the official population was 12,282.
Stephen Thomas Azar is an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and philanthropist. Active since 1996, he has released a total of seven studio albums: one on the former River North Records, one on Mercury Nashville, and five independently. Azar has charted nine times on Billboard Hot Country Songs, most successfully with his late 2001-early 2002 hit "I Don't Have to Be Me ", which reached the number two position there. After leaving Mercury in 2005, Azar began recording independently; Slide On Over Here, his second independently-released album, charted the top-40 country singles "Moo La Moo" and "Sunshine " in 2009.
The Mississippi Blues Trail was created by the Mississippi Blues Commission in 2006 to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the birth, growth, and influence of the blues throughout the state of Mississippi. Within the state the trail extends from the Gulf Coast north along several highways to Natchez, Vicksburg, Jackson, Leland, Greenwood, Clarksdale, Tunica, Grenada, Oxford, Columbus, and Meridian. The largest concentration of markers is in the Mississippi Delta, but other regions of the state are also commemorated. Several out-of-state markers have also been erected where blues with Mississippi roots has had significance, such as Chicago.
Indianola Mississippi Seeds is B. B. King's eighteenth studio album. It was released in October 1970 on ABC Records on LP and May 1989 on MCA Records on CD. On this album B. B. King mixed elements of blues and rock music. Producer Bill Szymczyk decided to follow up on the success of the hit "The Thrill Is Gone" by matching King with a musical all-star cast. The result was one of King's most critically acclaimed albums and one of the most highly regarded blues crossover albums of all time.
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Stax Music Academy is an after school and summer music school in South Memphis, Tennessee. The program has included instruction from many prominent musicians. Alumni include Kris Thomas, a top ten contender on The Voice and Kirby Lauryen, a Roc Nation songwriter and performing artist who was a winner of the 2017 "ASCAP Women Behind the Music" Award and is the first graduate to serve on the board of directors of the Soulsville Foundation.
GRAMMY Museum Mississippi is a 28,000-square-foot (2,600 m2) interactive music-centered museum and event center located in Cleveland, Mississippi, United States. It focuses on the history of The Grammys, the continuing musical achievements of Mississippians, and much more.
George Hunt was a Southern American artist, best known for his portraits of Blues musicians and illustrations for Blues Festivals, which ended up in many private collections in addition to galleries, museums, and the walls of Memphis businesses. He was primarily a painter, though he added collage highlights to some of his acrylic paintings that gave a distinctive three dimensionality and texture to the works. For 28 years, Hunt created the official poster for the Memphis in May Beale Street Music Festival. Many people have seen his work or might even own it on a poster or T-shirt without knowing his name. He was selected to be the "official artist" of 2003's "Year of the Blues," a congressionally endorsed effort to increase appreciation of the Blues as one of America's great contributions to international arts culture, and toured to many places promoting the celebration.
33°26′58″N90°38′44″W / 33.449582°N 90.645661°W
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