Mr. Tater

I mentioned in an earlier entry about the outsider bluesman from Clarksdale, Mr. Tater. Here are photos of him taken by Jerry Litton of Lightscribe Photography.

Clarksdale

Last weekend I attended a holiday party in Clarksdale, Mississippi hosted by John Ruskey who runs Quapaw Canoe Company. Quapaw's trips on the river are truly a local treasure. John used to run the Blues Museum in Clarksdale and several of his friends played at the festivities.

The most unusual was Mr. Tater. The best way to describe his work is "outsider blues." Instead of three chords there was only one and much of his singing was incomprehensible. Instead of boring, I found his work to be hypnotizing. You were free to imagine the lyrics... Check out a brief sample of his music.