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John Peel OBE, 1939 - 2004
“RAILROADIN’
SOME” by 'Mississippi'Max Haymes
(The Tennessee, Mississippi & Arkansas Book Signing Tour)
This is the tale of
'Delta Bound Blues: 3 Brits Hit the
South' - the jottings and photos of our recent book signing trip to the Southern
States. Max Haymes is the storyteller (with interjections from 'Ramblin' Rex and
'Pic-poppin' Al) and Alan White is the photographer and website master. Hope
y'all
enjoy it!
_______________________________________________________________________________
DAY TWO: Friday, 1st September 2006
Wine tasting at the Old Millington Vineyard and Winery, Millington, TN then
shopping on Beale Street, Memphis, TN,
and finally back to David's home for an evening of blues guitar
Woke
up this mornin' feeling kinda tired (after such a long first day and a half
travelling!), so we piled into David’s ‘Caddy’ and eased on down to Payne's
Bar-B-Q for lunch and had a 5-slab of ribs of pork in barbecue sauce with sweet
corn and coleslaw. It took all our time to eat it – but it was so good it was
outa-site! Later, we went downtown Memphis to get Rex a hat from Schwab's Dry
Goods Store, Beale Street (opened in 1876, the oldest store in Memphis - not a
lot of people know that!). After picking up a hire car to facilitate our travels
and ease on down the road, Alan gingerly coaxed it back to Dave's pad (phew
those Interstate road signs and intersections are confusing!)). Much later that
afternoon.... to the sound of at least a trillion
cicadas, very much like an ethereal sawmill lurking invisibly behind the levee
of the sprawling Mississippi River, David took us to the Old Winery which is
about 20 minutes from his beautiful tree-circled pad in Millington, Tennessee,
some 15 miles north of Memphis.
In an almost completely rural setting of
seemingly never-ending fields of cotton, corn, and soya beans, we met
proprietors Perry and Carrie Welch of the Old Millington Vineyard and Winery (to
give its official title). A more friendly couple I have yet to meet. The
wise-cracking and expansive Perry offered us sample after sample of his very
fine wines – and man, did he have some – I mean DID he have some! Tennessee
wine was a new concept to the three of us but we all bought bottles for our next
base down in the Mississippi Delta. At least that was our excuse. Perry, that
Muscadine is to die for! Perry and Carrie (an extremely lovely and very
interesting lady) have been running the Old Winery since 2000 and I’m warning
California wine-growers here and now – in blues speak – you-all better sluice
mo’ juice ‘cos the stuff is here! Right here in the Volunteer State.
While we were sippin’ and a-slidin’
(!) I mentioned to Perry that Rex was a fine blues guitar man. He immediately
pointed to an old acoustic guitar in the corner and we were all soon having a
foot-stomping time; keeping in line with the wine – doncha know. And all the
while, Alan is clickin’ and a-flickin’ on his brand new Canon digital camera-obile
(with apologies to Lightnin’ Hopkins!).
In the early evening back at David and Marice’s cool pad, David and Rex sat on
the wooden ‘stage’ out on the back patio and sang and played while Alan and I
watched and drank! With the sun shining in a cloudless sky, exotic blue and
yellow butterflies opening and closing their wings to the guitar rhythms (what
do you put in this beer, David??) and the ubiquitous cicada, in tune, this was a
perfect end to a fantastic day.
Day Three: Saturday, 2nd September
To order the 'Railroadin' Some' book click here
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Text (this page) © Copyright 2006 Max Haymes, Rex
Haymes & Alan
White. All
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