The capital city
Glitz, glamour, golf and more
Center of the Blues Universe
tours, baby animals, organic goat cheese products
Family farm offering educational & other events.
Tour the process of gourmet pecan production, cleaning, shelling and roasting - candies, gift items and baskets for sale
A Mississippi Blues Trail Marker is located at Dockery Farms, home of early blues musician Charlie Patton. His style influenced the development of the Delta Blues.
Benoit native Eddie Taylor was an architect of the post-World War II Chicago blues genre. Eddie Taylor is revered as one of the most influential guitarists in Chicago Blues history. As a child he was influenced by Delta Bluesmen Charley Patton, Son House, and many more.
During the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, the Elks Harts Lodge No. 640 at this site was one of the most important venues for Rhythm and Blues in the Delta. Particularly during the segregation era, fraternal organizations such as the Improved Benevolent Protective Order of the Elks of the World (the "black Elks") were central to African-American political, cultural, and social life, and played an important role in the Civil Rights movement.
Elsie Williamson McWilliams (1896-1985), the sister of Jimmie Rodgers's second wife Carrie, wrote or contributed to music and lyrics for thirty-nine of the songs that Rodgers performed or recorded, although she never received full credit for her work. A Meridian housewife, mother, and Sunday school music teacher, she became the first woman to sustain a successful career as a country songwriter and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1979.
Raised on country here in Tupelo, first introduced as “The Hillbilly Cat,” then by RCA Victor as “the hottest new name in country music,” Elvis Presley’s revolutionary musical mix always had country as a key ingredient. Appearing on the country charts over 50 times, Presley’s music pushed traditional country towards the modernizing Nashville Sound, which followed the pop, if not the rock ‘n roll path he’d fashioned. Elvis would record the country songs he loved throughout his career.
This park contains the gravesite of Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.
The first Mississippi Delta Blues Festival was held on October 21, 1978, here at Freedom Village, a rural community founded as a refuge for displaced agricultural workers. In 1987 the festival moved to a location closer to Greenville.