we got to leave work early on friday. BB King was playing at his own blues festival in the town of Indianola where he grew up and our boss decided it would be benefical for us to attend. it was about an hour and a half out of Jackson and i spent about an hour and half with my nose pressed against the window fascinated by the landscape of the mississippi delta. it was littered with catfish farms, dozens of small square ponds lined up in rows along the highways. i imagined them as tiny fish universes, with all the families squashed together, not knowing from any other way of life besides those shallow muddy ponds. i had never seen anything like it and squealed as we passed a sign for “catfish museum” which i will certainly be visiting sometime in the near future.
we entered the field, which was right next to the local cemetery and smiled at each other. numerous food trucks were parked on one side and a huge stage at the center. people were in chairs and some were even dancing to the blues pumping out of the speakers. we were so happy.
i wanted was a fried catfish platter. 5 huge strips of fish, a basket of fries and a coke for 8 dollars. the 10 of us planted outselves on the lawn and i devoured the most succulent fresh fish i had ever tasted. and followed it with a blue raspberry shaved ice. bb king was late, so the band “homemade jam” played for over 2 hours straight. which would be a feat for any band but especially incredible because it was made up a 9 year old girl on the drums her father and 13 year old brother on guitars that they made themselves out of car mufflers. !!!!.
i was impressed by the diversity of the crowd, and how it seemed the music brought everyone together. in between they played the “cupid shuffle”. i immediately got up about to do that embarrassing dancing in public thing i do but much to my delight i saw another 20 people also get up and we all lined up to do the dance together.
bb king finally made it onto the stage. he sat down with a great smile and told us how happy he was that we were here. his voice bellowed out into the crowd and we all got up to dance about as he played songs about loving life and women.
then he announced the dance contest. he shouted
” i want five boys and five girls ages 4 to 6!”
” i want them mixed! boys here to my left, girls here to my right!”
all was well until the fireworks went off. since bb was so late they couldn’t push bad the fireworks and he was not happy about it.
“well no one wants to see the kids dance where there are these pretty lights in the sky.” he continues to murmer on. “don’t shove the children!” and my favorite “the dance contest will begin when the fireworks cease!”
he then went on with the contest. playing some music. the kids were too small and too scared and were only prompted to move around a bit after a few minutes when bb shouted “DANCE!” one small girl did a classic booty drop and grinded her little body around in a circle.
we could not stop laughing. we thought this scene couldn’t get any funnier until bb asked his manager “mr. lebowitz” to give each of the kids a dollar and the winner five dollars
it would have been grand if he didn’t have 4 more contests with different age groups. but the songs he played were unreal and his performance was perfect for the community he was in. on the way home we thought how cool it would be to grow up and say you danced on stage with bb king as we leaned our heads out the window to look at the mississippi sky that was made up of the most stars we had seen in a long time.
