"Mississippi" Fred McDowell

Rossville gave McDowell his start, and Mississippi gave him his name. He took up guitar at fourteen and played for tips at local dances, moved to Memphis in 1926 to work in a feed mill that processed cotton into oil, and by about 1940 was farming in Como, Mississippi, playing on weekends at dances and picnics. Folklorist Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins recorded him there in 1959 on their Southern Journey trip. Within a couple of years he was a professional recording artist, with LPs and festival and club dates around the world.

What the plaque says

"Mississippi" Fred McDowell 1904-1972 Born in Rossville on January 12, 1904, Fred McDowell was one of America's eminent blues artists. His work, rooted in the Delta blues tradition, won him international fame. Of his unique bottleneck guitar style he said: "I make the guitar say what I say, if I play 'Amazing Grace,' it'll sing that too." His influence spread beyond blues to gospel and popular artists. He died in Memphis on July 13, 1972.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rust College — 19 mi
  The first historically Black college founded in Mississippi, started in 1866 in a Holly Springs church by a formerly enslaved minister and a white Methodist clergyman.
• Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum — 19 mi
  The house in Holly Springs where Ida B. Wells was born into slavery in 1862, now a museum of African American history, art and culture.

More markers nearby

• Rufus Thomas — 7.3 mi
• Tent City — 17 mi
• Home of Lucy Holcombe Pickens — 17 mi
• Davies Manor — 17 mi