Ate an oatmeal breakfast in camp, packed and took off. We dropped down out of the Mississippi hill country and down on to the flat Delta for ~ 50 mi before crossing the bridge into Helena AR.
Helena has seen more prosperous days when it was a big commerce hub. It was known to be a wild river town and blues artists were ferried across the Mississippi River to perform at the bars. Helena was once the home of Robert Johnson, Pinetop Perkins, James Cotton, Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Lockwood, Robert Nighthawk…more. Nighthawk, Lockwood & Williamson were the first to start playing with electric amplifiers paving the way for Muddy Waters in the early 40’s.
Sonny Boy Williamson started playing blues on the KFFA radio in 1941 on the “King Biscuit Time” broadcast which exposed music to people that had never heard “that kind of music” before. Upcoming blues artists like Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, BB King, Albert King tuned in to the live lunch time broadcast of Williams and his band. The show eventually switched to records and the KFFA blues broadcast is considered one of the longest running radio shows running from 1941 till now with the exception of being off the air 1980 to 1986. This The Blues is not just some history note… it seems engrained here… we frequently heard blues music at the local establishment like the local cafe at breakfast while eating eggs, bacon and grits.
As we walk out of our lunch in Helena and BAM!! ….. Bill rides up to us on his resurrected XR650!!! Great to see him and we are back to 3 riders! He tracked us down with his Garmin inReach.
