The departure date gets closer, and I just get more pumped up to go. It has been an interesting week. First, the church next door to me, the oldest black church in our county, had a funeral on Thurs. afternoon, which meant I got to listen to the church band practice on Wed. and then got to listen to the fire and brimstone service and the music on Thurs. I can hear all of this because our two buildings only have about 2 feet of air space between them and they are both very old buildings. I always enjoy listening to the band, because it is spiritual and very rousing. I hear the bass player plunking around now, at 1PM on Monday, so they must have a funeral again during the week. That's as close to the blues we have here in Dade City.

The weekend was interesting because the new band I am playing guitar with, DOGHOUSE, played our first gig this weekend at a place called Whiskey Willies in Land o Lakes, Fl. Thats me in the shadows on the far right.

Well we leave tommorrow at 5:39. I am looking forward to a great time and I hope to have lots of great stories and pictures to share with you. Until next time....on with the quest.

I have finished the book, Blues Taveling..... Holy Sites of The Delta by Steve Cheesborough.
It's a great travel book, available at Cat Head, and suited perfectly for this quest we are on. The one thing I had overlooked in my initial search for the real crossroads, was the movie Crossroads. The movie was filmed in part right where we were going to be, and as the book pointed out, the movie was responsible for the renewed interest in the tale, so the crossroads used in the movie, since it was only a few miles south of Rosedale in Beulah became an important destination. By the way, if I haven't stated this Roger from Cathead(www.cathead.biz) has been very helpful, so if you are in Clarkdale, stop in and say hello.
Dave and I realized last evening when we got together to jam a bit, that we were within a week of leaving, and we are stoked! Our flight from Tampa leaves around 5 on March 1st, and arrives in Memphis at 6:45. We are going to start the quest in the rain I'm afraid, according to the extended forcast, but it does look like Fri, Sat, and Sun will be better. I'll try to post at least once more before we leave, if anyone is reading this, leave me a comment

Whenever I go on a trip, I usually do so much preplanning, I kind of ruin the effect somewhat of seeing new places. However, I don’t miss much or spend a lot of time searching for things to see, so I guess it all evens out. For the quest for the crossroads, massive preparation is needed. There are so many out of the way, hidden and forgotten places that make up the fabric of this story, you have to search them out and plot your steps, so as not to miss anything relevant.
I start with the internet, because, that’s what any reasonable person would do. A quick search for the crossroads brings up some interesting discussion points. A crossroads is mentioned in the Bible in the book of Ezekiel “For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the fork in the two roads”. Early Christians buried criminals and suicide victims at a crossroads after nightfall, to more replicate pagan rituals and confuse the rouge spirits should they arise. Robert Frost, the great 20th century poet, even mentions the divergence of two roads in the middle of a forest. A crossroads has always meant a choice. You take the high road, I’ll take the low road, the path less taken, and of course the crossroads has always held a mystical aura in the voodoo, and conjuring religions of Africa.
So here I am at the first crossroads. Do I want to leave on Thursday night, or Friday? Since I am an independent businessman during the day, closing on a Friday was tough. As a blues fanatic and guitar player who hasn’t had a vacation in about 6 years, it took all of 1 minute to cross that road.
It is my belief, at least the belief I choose to follow, that a true crossroads is not just a regular intersection. If that were so, then one could choose to follow the same path they were on. No, a true crossroads always involves a choice, a fork in the road literally, and figuratively. Good or Evil. Left or Right. High or Low. Easy or Hard. Go this way, and lose your horse; Go that way and lose your head the ancient Russians would say. So off I go to continue preparation. Until next time…..the quest continues.

This idea of a pilgrimage to the Delta began long ago. I think every musician who has ever played the blues can imagine themselves standing at the crossroads, brave enough to be there at midnight, waiting for the dark man. When the opportunity to go on a short quest with my good friend and little brother, Dave, I jumped with both feet. We had decided to fly to Memphis on a Thurs. and spend Fri, Sat and Sunday on a driving tour of music’s most historic area. Sometimes Delta music gets overlooked as to the extent of its influence on what music has been produced since early in the 20th century. Really, its influence on all recorded music since then is really more the case. Most music historians, when talking about the greatest influence on modern music will mention, Elvis, The Beatles, and the Nashville sound. Guess what folks; none of it happens without the old slave music. Beginning during civil war times, the sound of the Delta spread throughout the country, fueling the ragtime of the 20’s, the jazz and swing of the 30’s and 40’s, the western cowboy, and eastern country of the 40’s and 50’s and finally the rock of the 50’s.Then it went worldwide. The British bands of the 60 have got most of their influence from the rocknroll that came from the Memphis area. Nearly all the truly influential musicians of the 60’s from England studied the early Sun Records recordings. That led them deeper into the influences of the Robert Johnsons, the Elmore James’, the Muddy Waters, etc. What happened then is the truly remarkable thing about music. Since it had influenced so many famous musicians, the common man started paying attention to the early music. The not so famous musicians started hearing it too. As recording technology improved, more music became available and more people had the privilege of hearing it. And the surprising thing is, it sounds just as fresh and energetic as when it was new. So when they say Memphis is Mecca to music, the idea is solid.
The crossroads is a matter of much debate. Where is it? Which one is real? Does it really exist? Well, those are the questions, and over the next few weeks, I will try to explain my experiences, and my feelings, and my reverence for the crossroads to supply my answer.
I’ve been playing music since 1965. Guitar has been my main instrument, although I started out playing bass. One of the first guitar players I was in a band with, was what we would call today, a Johnnie Winter clone. Here I was, a 17 year old boy from farm country in Ohio, playing “white hot” blues tunes in bowling alley lounges, and that’s pretty much how I got my start. I look at the old song lists from those days, and it amazes me how much blues we did. I had a lot of exposure to bands from Detroit in those days and they were all playing the same stuff, old rockers that were old blues songs. And it keeps happening over again. Every new project I begin, it seems the same songs show up, and it’s usually the blues tunes. I’ll bet if we could look ahead 100 years, somewhere, somebody would be rerecording Love In Vain to the enlightenment of another new generation. The quest begins.