Wine tasting and Blues Markers

With Lonnie at Williams Winery

Now we have no plans for today except that we think there may be a winery at Greenwood so we drive in that direction. We find the old fire house which has been converted into a winery but it says on the door that wine tastings are only on Friday or Saturday, but just as we’re about to leave the owner opens the door, come in he says, I have 4 folks here from Switzerland just starting a tasting come and join them. The tasting only costs $5 and covers 8 wines, a lot of blues and southern history along with lots of stories from Lonnie the owner and wine maker. Partway through, Lonnie’s friend drops by to take pictures for an article about Lonnie’s Fig wine. Not only does he want to photograph the wine and Lonnie, suddenly Dave and I and our 4 new Swiss friends are part of a fashion shoot! Many photos later, (oh how I wished I’d washed my hair and put on some makeup) and armed with ideas for blues history site to visit, we leave Lonnie.

Dave and WC Handy Marker

Next stop, the blues trail marker of where WC Handy first “got the blues” in 1902. It turns out to be a plaque by a deserted railway line in a very rundown collection of houses, I can almost hear the guitar being played with the knife and the train leaving the station. Round the corner is a plaque to Emmett Till the young man whose death sparked the start of the Civil Rights Movement. We continue on our travels spotting another blues trail marker for the Staples Singers and here we have our luckiest encounter of the day. A local man spots us taking pictures and directs us to Dockery, the birthplace of the blues a short drive away. Here there are plantation buildings that have been restored and tell the story of how the tenant farmers started singing to communicate with each other, pass the time and entertain themselves on a Saturday when work was done. It’s all accompanied by some video footage and traditional blues music over loud speakers throughout the farm buildings. It’s so eerie to hear those voices it takes us back in time.

Dockery Restored Plantation Buildings

We continue on to Cleveland and the Grammy museum but a Taylor Swift exhibit is not enticing so it’s a short drive home for a meal in Nola, a local Indianola restaurant where we discover grits and shrimp.