Topic: Red Paden, Juke Joint ‘King’ Obituary

[lindy]

I was fortunate to visit Red's in the midst of its transition from a joint serving the black community in and around Clarksdale to an international blues tourist destination. Saw Robert Belfour perform there, a real treat.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/12/arts/music/red-paden-dead.html

Lindy

[Rivers]

Thanks Lindy, excellent article.

[lindy]

Rivers, remember that obituary about the WROX Clarksdale DJ Early Wright that I shared with the Weenie world about 20(!) years ago? (There's a quote from him that still shows up in the quote generator on occasion.)

Well, Red Paden, the subject of this obituary, operated his club right across the street from WROX.

Will the circle be unbroken . . .

[Rivers]

I remember it well. There are a few stellar Early Wright quotes in the system, I can pull them all out and post them if you'd like.

I also think I remember a piece on NPR about Early Wright and WROX, maybe on Nick Spitzer's American Routes? I'm not at all sure about that though and can't find any references to it at the moment.

[lindy]

Thanks for offering to pull the quotes, but no need, I still have the original article.

I was just reacting to a fleeting moment of nostalgia, you haven't been around much until very recently, there's a changing of the Weenie guard, I associate you with the Early Wright quotes, and the Red Paden story brought all that stuff back to the frontal cortex.

I also have a faint memory of an npr piece on Wright, but I think it was on one of the major news shows. That needs fact-checking, it was decades ago. Looks like WROX plays lots of R&B these days, but no blues. How a 1,000-watt music-format AM station survives today is amazing.

Here's a link to the original obituary, but I'm sure there's a paywall to deal with:

https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/17/arts/early-wright-84-disc-jockey-who-made-the-delta-blue-dies.html

Lindy