Aberdeen celebrates Bukka White

ABERDEEN, Miss. (WCBI)- Aberdeen residents celebrated the life of one of its favorite sons this weekend.

For 11 years, blues music fans have gathered on the banks of the Tennessee-Teeming Waterway for the annual Pukka White Blues festival. Besides music, there is a barbecue competition and a kayak race.

Some folks pulled their boats up on the dock to get a great seat for all the events.

And someone brought this mobile satellite receiver so nobody will miss the football games.

It’s all about Bukka White, who along with fellow blues legends Howlin Wolf and Albert King, are immortalized on this downtown mural commemorating Aberdeen being part of the Mississippi Blues Trail.

“In 1940, Bukka White recorded the blues song Aberdeen Mississippi Blues. And he lived here in Aberdeen in the 20’s and 30’s. His name was Booker White first, and it was mispronounced, and that’s how Bukka around and he recorded blues all over the world and with BB King and other artists and just a part of making Mississippi Blues history and putting us on the map,” said Paula Rhea.

And Rhea says the blues are synonymous to both the Delta and Northeast Mississippi.

“The legend is that Robert Johnson, of course, sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads at Highway 61 and just kind of made us famous and Blues is time Bukka White was in prison, and these men led these kind of lives where it was down and out, and they just express themselves with their music,” said Paula Rhea

And there is a great connection between the Blues and Barbecue.

“The blues go back a long way a lot of history in it. A lot of the young generation don’t understand how far back blues, and the barbecue cooking goes. It really originated in the south. I just think it’s a good thing,” said Tim Blake.

And what is the key to winning the barbecue contest?

“Preparing your meat, watching your temps on your cooker, getting your times right. There’s a lot of work to it, but it’s a lot of fun,” said Tim Blake.

The festival is continuing tonight with plenty of big-name blues artists performing.