What's the real meaning of "juke joint"? Explore these special places for a special brand of the blues. Juke joint - two words often used, often abused. They convey an inherent promise of something real, edgy, from another time. All juke joints are blues clubs, but not all blues clubs are jukes. Here, artist recollections and insights delve below the murky surface to tell the tales, canonize the characters and explain the special brand of blues bottled in these quasi-legal establishments. Author Roger Stolle works from the inside to educate and entertain with a mix of history, anecdote and discovery. It’s a wild ride.
Roger Stolle owns Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art, a blues store in Clarksdale, Mississippi, as well as his own music and tourism marketing service. He is a Blues Revue magazine columnist, WROX radio deejay, XM/Sirius radio correspondent, Ground Zero Blues Club music coordinator and Juke Joint Festival cofounder. Award-winning photographer Lou Bopp has photographed a majority of the most significant Mississippi blues musicians in recent years, from James “T-Model” Ford to “Big” George Brock.