Moorhead : Background, Blues Musicians and Photo Gallery
“Where the Southern Crosses The Yellow Dog”
The junction at Moorhead looking to the west (the Southern Railroad, now the Columbus & Greenville) running west and east and the Yellow Dog (the Yazoo Delta Railroad), running north and south.
© Copyright 2008 Alan White. All Rights Reserved
Background
Moorhead is a city in Sunflower County, Mississippi. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 2,573. Moorhead is along U.S. Route 82, east of Indianola. Moorhead is located at the intersection of the Southern and Yazoo Delta railroads. This is the origin of the legendary blues crossroads phrase “where the Southern cross the Dog”.
A historic plaque in Moorhead is located where the Southern Railroad once crossed the Yazoo Delta Railroad (known as the “Yellow Dog”). The Southern travelled east-west, and later became the Columbus and Greenville Railway, while the Yellow Dog travelled north-south, and later became the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad. The level junction (diamond) is still preserved as an historic site, though the north-south line has since been abandoned through Moorhead. This railroad crossing is very significant in the history of blues music. It is widely believed that W. C. Handy, after hearing an old man singing about “where the Southern cross the Yellow Dog”, was moved by the sound and began what came to be known as the “blues”.
Source: Wikipedia
Mississippi Blues Trail Marker : Where the Southern Cross the Dog – Moorhead
Full text:
W. C. Handy, “The Father of the Blues,” immortalized the crossing of the Southern Railway and the Yazoo Delta (“Yellow Dog”) Railroad at Moorhead in his 1914 song “Yellow Dog Rag,” better known under its later title, “Yellow Dog Blues.” Handy wrote that he first heard the line “Goin’ where the Southern cross the Dog” sung by a guitarist at the Tutwiler train station (c. 1903). Moorhead became a hub not only of rail transportation but of blues activity in local juke joints.
Moorhead was a thriving frontier town in the late 1890s built upon the local lumber trade, and an important stop on the Southern Railway in Mississippi. The Yazoo Delta Railway was incorporated in 1895 by Chester Pond of the Moorhead Improvement Company, who previously owned a narrow gauge railway used to transport logs and lumber to and from his mill. The “Y.D.” opened in August of 1897 with 20.5 miles of track running north from Moorhead to Ruleville; in 1900 the railway was incorporated into the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad (Y&MV), a subsidiary of the Illinois Central Railroad, and extended from Ruleville to Tutwiler and south to Belzoni. The origin of the nickname “Yellow Dog” is debated. The most common explanation is that it stemmed from yellow-painted rolling stock bearing the initials “Y.D.”; other theories include the barking of an actual yellow dog, connections with the political term “yellow dog Democrat,” non-union labor, and railway lore of “dog” as a short line (another Delta branch of the Y&MV was called the “Black Dog”). Despite the Yazoo Delta’s brief existence the name “Yellow Dog” continued to be applied to the Y&MV and became an iconic symbol of the Delta and railway lore.
The assertive rhythms of trains were stylistic foundations for blues and jazz. In early blues lyrics trains figure importantly both as literal objects and as metaphors for topics including escape and long distance, as illustrated through W.C. Handy’s “Yellow Dog Blues” and other songs that refer to the crossing or the Yellow Dog, including Big Bill Broonzy’s “Southern Blues,” Charley Patton’s “Green River Blues,” Lucille Bogan’s “Pay Roll Blues,” and Sam Collins’ “Yellow Dog Blues,” a different song from Handy’s. The creation of a railway crossroads in Moorhead spurred the development of restaurants and hotels here. At its peak eight passenger trains a day passed through Moorhead; white passengers could take luxurious Pullman cars from here to Memphis on the Y&MV, while African Americans rode in separate cars. Moorhead became a bustling town, especially on Saturday nights, as local resident Jim Harrison recalled: “A few white folks and many, many black folks came to town to celebrate the end of a hard week of manual labor. They shopped, socialized, and generally turned the town into a mini-Mardi Gras. . . The streets and sidewalks were so packed you could hardly walk.” Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Johnson reportedly played together in Moorhead in the 1930s, and bluesman Booker Miller recalled hearing Willie Brown here. Musicians who lived in the Moorhead area include Charley Booker (1919-1989), Eli Green (1897-1968), James “Boo Boo” Davis (b. 1943), Chicago bluesman Willie Hudson (b. 1942), southern soul vocalists Chris Ivy aka “Mr. Ivy” (b. 1976) and Jimmy Hicks (b. 1938), and gospel singer Brother O’Neal.
Source: http://msbluestrail.org/
Where the Southern cross the Dog
Click here for an extract of ‘Railroadin’ Some’ by Max Haymes – “Goin’ where the Southern cross the Yellow Dog”.
Railroadin’ Some – Railroads in the early Blues
By Max Haymes
Published by Music Mentor Books
ISBN: 0-9547068-3-8
Click here for an essay “This Cat’s Got the Yellow Dog Blues” – origins of the term Yellow Dog – by Max Haymes
Charley Booker
Charley Booker (September 3, 1925 – September 20, 1989) was a blues singer and guitarist from the Mississippi Delta, who recorded in the early 1950s for Modern Records.
Booker was born in 1925 on a plantation between the Mississippi communities of Moorhead and Sunflower, the son of Lucius Booker. There is some doubt about his date of birth: in interviews, Booker stated that he was born in 1925, but Social Security records give the date as September 3, 1919.
He learned to play guitar from his uncle, who had played with Charley Patton. Booker stated that as a child he saw Patton perform near indianola, Mississippi. He worked occasionally as a musician from the late 1930s. By the early 1940s he had moved to Leland, Mississippi, and in 1947 he moved to Greenville, Mississippi, where he worked with the pianist Willie Love and also met or worked with Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Milton, Ike Turner and Houston Boines. By 1951 he had his own radio show (possibly on station WDVM).
In 1952 Booker was approached by Ike Turner to record for Modern Records. The recording session was set up by Joe Bihari of Modern Records at the Club Casablanca on Nelson Street, in Greenville, on January 23, 1952. Booker was backed by Houston Boines on harmonica, Turner on piano and Jesse “Cleanhead” Love on drums. The same band also backed several songs by Boines. Despite the piano being “horribly out of tune” and problems with local law enforcement, the session resulted in two singles released under Booker’s name, one on Modern Records and the other on the associated Blues & Rhythm label, as well as releases by Boines. The Blues & Rhythm release, pairing “No Ridin’ Blues” with “Rabbit Blues”, sold well locally, but Booker did not record again for Modern. A session later the same year for Sam Phillips was unreleased at the time.
Early in 1953 Booker moved to South Bend, Indiana, and ceased playing music as a full-time occupation. He continued to play locally, but his only further recording was a live appearance with Joe Willie Wilkins at a 1973 blues festival at the University of Notre Dame, in South Bend. He died on September 20, 1989.
Source: Wikipedia
Photo Gallery
Loking west along the Southern Railroad, running west and east
Sorry about that – just could’nt resist posing for a photo at such an iconic location
Looking east along the old Southern Railroad, running west and east
Looking north along the Yellow Dog (the Yazoo Delta Railroad), running north and south
