The Blue Front Cafe | Bentonia, Mississippi

The Blue Front Cafe in Bentonia, Mississippi, is a shotgun-style cinder block building featuring an exposed concrete floor. It also happens to be the oldest operating juke joint in the world. The Holmes family opened the Blue Front in 1948. Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, known as the last of the Bentonia bluesmen, took it over from his parents in 1970.

Jimmy "Duck" Holmes (R) chats with Alan Gross of the Blues Doctors (L)

Blues legends such as Skip James, Jack Owens, Son Thomas and L.C. Ulmer all played here during their time.

A photo of Bentonia bluesman Jack Owens hangs by the back door.

I stopped in the Blue Front during the 2015 Bentonia Blues Festival and captured some shots of the regulars.

All photos © 2015 Steve W. Likens

To get to Bentonia from Memphis via the blues trail, take Hwy 61 south to the "Crossroads" in Clarksdale. Then, follow Hwy 49 south to the Skip James blues trail marker at the corner of Hwy 49 and Wilson Street/Hwy 433. Turn left. After a couple of miles, the road makes a sharp dogleg to the right. Bentonia (pop. 411) is just a few hundred yards further up the road on the left. The Blue Front Cafe is downtown across the railroad tracks.

As an added bonus for reading to the end, here's a black and white of the woman at the register published in the December 2017 edition of Clash magazine in the U.K. 

Thanks for stopping by.

- Steve