Blues Murals of Tutweiler
Written by Administrator | 
| 
| 
Tutweiler, Mississippi is where W. C. Handy said he first heard the sounds we now call the blues. "The Father of the Blues" as he was know, W.C. Handy claimed his first exposure to the blues as we know them was in the Tutweiler railroad station in 1903.
That site in Tutweiler, which I visited on my "blues history trip, is now an national historical landmark. Interestingly enough, the song Handy claims to have heard was "Where the Southern Crosses the Dawg" in Moorhead, MS. A picture of that location appears elsewhere on Bluejeans' Place.
This town, like many other hometowns of famous bluesmen and women, suffers from abject poverty, but has an overabundance of pride. Some years ago, Tutweiler created a panel of blues murals on the side of their businesses.
This first one appears on a door on the back of a grocery store.The next picture shows the Tutweiler railroad station to the left, the historical W.C. Handy and unknown bluesman scene in the center and a Delta cotton field cropduster on the right.
The final mural showcases the life of Sonny Boy Williamson II, the master of the blues harmonica, who rests in peace in an abandoned graveyard on the outskirts of Tutweiler.
* * * * *
Just as an aside, if you're looking for a quilt, potholders, oven mitts, wall hangings or table runners, why not get something really different at a good price? The Tutweiler Community Education Center, run by some Catholic sisters, offers a wide array of these products made by African-American women from the Tutweiler area. Their phone number is 601-345-8393. Visit this web site for more details:
And in you're in town, stop in and say hi to the Sisters--they loved it when I did! (They have great postcards for sale, too!)
