By Michael Wagg
I will be brief (ish) after a particularly light week here in Mississippi. It’s the first time AFTLS have toured to Mississippi State University and I hope it won’t be the last. The Magnolia State and the Bulldogs of MSU keep on giving. Southern hospitality is palpable – everyone says hello, all the time – and hidden gems reveal themselves round every grand or shabby corner.


It’s a state wrapped in an extraordinary creative, particularly musical, heritage. A trip to the modern Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience here in Meridian reveals, for example, a list of the brilliance born in Mississippi: Jimmie Rodgers, the father of country music; Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Sam Cooke, Tammy Wynette, to name but a few. Not to mention Elvis himself, born just up the road in Tupelo. Such is the talent here that when the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll entered the Jimmie Rodgers competition in 1953, he came third!

We started our week in Starkville, home of the main MSU campus and a tidy Main Street, with a workshop and performance at the handsome Bettersworth Auditorium; before heading 100 miles south to Meridian. It’s a small city, with a smart downtown where rejuvenated late-nineteenth century buildings rub up against ghostly shells yet to be; scratch below the surface and the delights come thick and fast. First stop, the impressive Threefoot Hotel. Its 16 storeys, including roof terrace bar on the 11th, recently restored to their late-1920s Art Deco glory dominate the skyline.

Having celebrated closeness last week up north in Indiana, it turns out it’s Meridian, MS that takes top prize. Just a skip across the road from the Threefoot Hotel is not only the Threefoot Brewing Company (where I whiled away some hours in the company of a cat called Sarcasm) but also the stage door to the theatre where we played on Friday. So close it’s possible to throw a line of verse between the three, or from the roof terrace for that matter, the real delight came once we stepped inside.
What’s now known as the Riley Center houses Meridian’s Grand Opera House. I’ve been lucky enough to play in some beautiful theatres over the years, but this one might just be the loveliest of them all. Built in 1890, its lavish, compact auditorium, with gently snaking circles and layer upon layer of rich wallpaper, is also known as The Lady after the portrait painted above the proscenium arch. The Lady watches over the stage of this very special building, hauntingly.


Stunned and humbled, I gazed back at her from my bed at the Threefoot Hotel opposite (before heading to the brewery to tell Sarcasm all about it) grateful that our Hamlet’s Ghost got to travel across its solid wood. We’ve walked in the footsteps of Sarah Bernhardt, Gladys Knight, Bo Diddley, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys and Ibsen’s Ghosts among many others. Such a treat.

And here in Meridian the treats kept coming. They included a late-nineteenth century German-built carousel (the only remaining two-row stationary Dentzel menagerie in the world, I’m told, so I had to have a trot, much to the bemusement of the watching adults). A restaurant opened by a Swiss chef in 1870 and Mississippi’s oldest (think fried green tomatoes and Black Bottom Pie). A quiz at the Brickhaus Brewtique (the less said about our score the better!). A forest hike for Sadie and Jo; and a swirl around Jimmie Rodgers’ place to the sound of the Blue Yodeler himself, for me. A lively community street party with live country rock topped it all off.


After a cracker of a time here in big-hearted Mississippi – and small but endlessly surprising Meridian – we now go our separate ways for a week, before bigger cities to come. Propelled, by the pulse of the Delta blues and the promise of the open road.



