Hotels We Like: March 2007 Archives

9:34 p.m. March 29
My mind has been in Mississippi.
I just finished Larry Brown's last (unfinished) rugged novel "A Miracle of Catfish" (Algonquin) and with murky headliners like John Mayer and Rod Stewart, I will pass on this year's New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, perhaps in favor of a trip to the Delta.
This piece was published Jan. 20, 2002 in the Sun-Times. Remember back then? We were in the cold shadow of 9/11 and people set out to retouch America. What went wrong? I went to the Shack Up Inn and wound up being one of the first travel writers to discover the place. I've visited the Shack Up Inn a couple of times since this article appeared and it continues to expand by spirited leaps and bounds I've edited this piece and for more background, please visit www.shackupinn.com. Tell 'em this Yankee sent ya'.
CLARKSDALE, MISS.--- A funky piece of folk art commemorates the intersection of Highways 61 and 49 in downtown Clarksdale. A welded pair of 900-pound metal guitars point toward the heavens because this is supposed to be the place where bluesman Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil. The truth is that it is unlikely the mystical 1938 detour took place at this intersection. As Steve Cheseborough points out in his fine road book Blues Traveling (The Holy Sites of Delta Blues), even then downtown Clarksdale was too busy for such an event to happen. I am driving Highway 49 outside of Clarksdale, looking for the Shack Up Inn, Mississippi's "Oldest Bed & Beer (est.1998)." ............