Red's Lounge
Red's Lounge
The juke joint on Sunflower Avenue. No cover most nights — the hat goes round.
395 Sunflower Avenue, on the corner of 4th Street. Red Paden ran it until he died on 30 December 2023; his son runs it now. The building was Levine's Music Center, the shop where Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm bought their instruments before cutting « Rocket 88 ».
There is no website. There is no advance ticketing. Most nights the band plays for the hat, and the hat goes round. Lucious Spiller, Anthony « Big A » Sherrod, Watermelon Slim and Deak Harp are among the regulars.
Red's is the room people mean when they say the blues is still alive in Clarksdale, and not a museum piece. Low ceiling, red light, mismatched chairs, and a sound system held together by conviction.
Photograph: a Carol M. Highsmith image of a Clarksdale blues tribute, not the club's own frontage — see the credits.
Red's Lounge
Red's Lounge
The juke joint on Sunflower Avenue. No cover most nights — the hat goes round.
395 Sunflower Avenue, on the corner of 4th Street. Red Paden ran it until he died on 30 December 2023; his son runs it now. The building was Levine's Music Center, the shop where Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm bought their instruments before cutting « Rocket 88 ».
There is no website. There is no advance ticketing. Most nights the band plays for the hat, and the hat goes round. Lucious Spiller, Anthony « Big A » Sherrod, Watermelon Slim and Deak Harp are among the regulars.
Red's is the room people mean when they say the blues is still alive in Clarksdale, and not a museum piece. Low ceiling, red light, mismatched chairs, and a sound system held together by conviction.
Photograph: a Carol M. Highsmith image of a Clarksdale blues tribute, not the club's own frontage — see the credits.