Exerpts from

The Diary of a trip with Toby Walker on a
Mississippi Delta Pilgrimage

Mike Herman
Summer 1990

June 4
...............drove through the rest of Tennessee and hit Mississippi at about 2:00pm. First we hit Robbinsonville and Commerce where Robert Johnsson supposedly grew up. Then we went to Stovall's plantation............... and we found Muddy Water's shack that was still standing without a roof............... this green pontiac came driving up the dirt road with a guy and two girls............... The guys name was Dave Porter and he played some real good Delta blues. We gave him ten bucks and he played a tune for us...............were supposed to interview him and record him tonight...............half the campsites are under water cause the river is rising...............

June 5
...............made it to Dave's...............a little while to loosen and warm up but he finally came arounda and played some good songs and gave us a good interview...............took us to Earnest Roy's House. They say he's the best in town, he said he wasn't up to it today...............to the stockhouse and we met Jim O'Neil. He knew who Toby was and he had a list of players in the state for us...............made our way over to Dockery's Plantation where Charlie Patton grew up...............the house was very big and old and Joe Rice Dockery's daughter, who was very friendly, invited us inside to meet her mother who was a great lady...............she gave us a fantastic interview...............then we helped a car out of the mud that one of the twelve year old girls had gotten stuck...............we cruised on down to Son Thomas' house in Leland...............he was great...............stting on the porch...............with Charles from Georgia and his son Pat...............got the guitars and him and Son played some fine blues...............then Toby played with Son, then Dean and Erik did...............Son seemed to enjoy that...............back up to Rosedale...............The mosquitos though are unbearable...............

June 6
...........up pretty early without a very good night of sleep because of the mosquitos...........to Earnest Roys house...........wasn't home...........the Delta Blues Museum. I watched a video on Sam Chatmon...........drove down to Bentonia to meet Jack Owens...........called Jack from a general merchandise store where Jack got his mail and stuff from...........the old man there knew Jack and told us a joke and gave us directions...........down this long dirt road...........He was absolutely terrific...........He played and talked and drank some vodka we had that he said helped his fingers move!...........85 years old he could still play and sing just great...........stayed for about 3 hours...........we gave him the food we had...........took the interstate up to Durant...........made camp...........and we are away from the mosquitos...........

June 7
...........hung around camp all day...........listened to the tapes we're making and did some playing...........Toby called Bud Spiels...........had some real good jams and crashed...........

June 8
...........headed over to Jack's place to pick him up and go to Bud Spiers place...........on the way to Jack's we got some more groceries for him...........he was on his porch eating some of the food we gave him toe other day...........we put the food in bottom of old refrigerator...........we got him canned goods...........noticed a 22 Ruger he kept right outside his bedroom...........ended up taking it with him to Buds...........couldn't keep it in his place because...........kids always break in and take things...........especially food...........Bud was great...........a few minutes to realize he was blind...........just a real nice and friendly person...........listened to Bud and Jack play some real good blues...........we recorded it and got a good interview...........brought Jack back home...........drove back to camp, hung around, played, and crashed...........

June 9
..........pretty early..........headed over to Son Thomas' place..........watched Son make a clay casket for Dean..........Son signed our guitars and we said good-bye..........to Greenville..........went looking for Eugene Powell..........Was sitting on the porch when we got there..........didn't look too good..........didn't hink he could help us because he was sick from this poison whiskey he drank a week ago..........said he would talk for a little while..........he got around to doing some playing and he was great..........wants us to keep in touch with him..........wants us to send him a copy of the tape we made and to send him some of the pictures we took so he could remember us, he said..........he seemed to look a lot better when we left..........got directions to Bubba Barnes Playboy Club..........we were the only white boys there..........the bad part of town..........almost weren't going to go in..........Bubba came out..........made it look like he knew us..........met Sandie Lee Johnson..........was studying the Electric Delta Blues..........working at Bubba's as the var maid and his singer..........she was great..........Bubba was great...........bass player and drummer cooked..........

June 10
...........up to Holly Springs...........stopped at Clarksdale to see if Earnest Roy was ready to do some playing, but he wasn't...........made camp...........went to find R.L. Burnside...........was home...........seems like a great person...........all he had was an electric without an amplifier...........we didn't bring our acoustics...........he seemed really into it...........played us a tape...........we'll stop back tomorrow...........back to camp, had some beef stew for dinner...........jammed then crashed...........

June 11
...........up early...........to R.L. Burnside's place...........whole family was there...........seemed like they liked having us there as much as we liked bing there...........got some candy, baseball cards and drawing pads for the kids, and Erik and Dean gave them their harps........... R.L. ws just great............... played us about five or six songs outside with the rooster crowing and everything. It just doesn't get much better...........R.L. and his family were real friendly people...........we said good-bye...........

June 12
...........drove down to the University of Mississippi's Blues Archives...........watched some cool videos...........and listened to some records...........back to camp...........walk around the lake..........some pasta...........went to sleep...........

June 13
...........Last day in Mississippi...........packed up and split back to New York...........