Juking it up

Jeff Konkel

When I visited my first juke joint at the age of 23, my life was changed forever. That probably sounds like hyperbole, but it isn’t.

Like a lot of juke joints, Green’s Lounge in South Memphis was a funky, down-home club in a low-slung building on the wrong side of the tracks. The band on the stage that night – and on most weekend nights – was the Fieldstones, featuring the great Wilroy Sanders. Their music was a searing blend of raucous Delta blues and sweaty Memphis soul. Cold quarts of beer were brought to our table at regular intervals by a young man with a jagged scar and an impressive collection of gold teeth. Couples danced lasciviously. The vibe was relaxed and casual.

For a young blues fan like me, it was heaven. I left Green’s Lounge that night determined to make a habit of visiting such venues. I didn’t realise that Southern juke joints were already an endangered species. As if to prove that point, Green’s Lounge burned to the ground a few weeks later.

In the years since, I have often hung out in juke joints throughout the American South and, particularly, Mississippi. I have seen a few new juke joints open in that period. I have seen a great many more shutter their doors forever.

In late 2005, I launched Broke & Hungry Records, a small record label dedicated to recording and promoting the kind of low-down blues music these jukes support. Several of our CDs have been recorded in rustic jukes like the Blue Front Cafe in Bentonia, Mississippi and Red’s Lounge in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

In 2008, I collaborated with my pal, Roger Stolle, owner of Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art on a film that celebrates the Delta blues scene as it exists in the new millennium. That film, M for Mississippi, attempted to shine a light on some of the waning musical traditions in the Delta.

Last May, Roger and I – along with our small production team – began working on a follow-up film. The new film, We Juke Up in Here, will explore what remains of Mississippi’s once-thriving juke joint culture. From May to December 2011, we filmed a number of riveting musical performances and insightful interviews with musicians, juke joint owners and music-lovers.

Although our production took us to clubs and jukes throughout the Delta, the vast majority of our time was spent at Red’s Lounge in Clarksdale. Over the past decade, as venues have closed with alarming frequency, Red’s has emerged as a bulwark of juke joint stability. Thanks to the efforts of its owner, Red Paden, blues fans from around the globe have experienced the real deal: incredible musical performances delivered in the one of the most low-down joints imaginable.

In an era when most juke joints have abandoned live music for deejays (or no music at all), Red continues to book world class musicians every Friday and Saturday night. I won’t go so far as to proclaim Red’s to be the last of the Delta jukes – there are other venues in the region that offer a similar experience, albeit on a less regular basis – but there can be little doubt that it is a beacon at a time when the era of juke joints is coming to a close.

I can’t help but lament the coming demise of juke joints. They are an important American tradition – and, as long as they exist, we’ll continue trolling the back country roads of the Delta looking for new opportunities to proclaim, ‘We juke up in here!’

We Juke up in Here will be released in a DVD and CD set in April. It is available now for pre-order.

Jeff Konkel is the owner of Broke & Hungry Records; an award-winning producer of several acclaimed blues CDs; and co-producer of the film M For Mississippi.