Blue Front Cafe - Mississippi Blues Trail
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Blue Front Café has been in operation since 1948.
![Sky, Cloud, Window, Door](https://storage.googleapis.com/clio-images/medium_5160_6.jpg)
Blue Front Café is featured on the Mississippi Blues Trail.
![Motor vehicle, Font, Commemorative plaque, Signage](https://storage.googleapis.com/clio-images/medium_5162_4.jpg)
Visitors from all over the world come to experience Blue Front Café.
![Tire, Vehicle, Sky, Plant](https://storage.googleapis.com/clio-images/medium_5163_3.jpg)
At one time, due to segregation laws, Blue Front was not legally allowed to sell Coca-Cola products.
![Property, Green, Door, Blue](https://storage.googleapis.com/clio-images/medium_5164_1.jpg)
Jimmy "Duck" Holmes has operated Blue Front Café since 1970.
![White, Black, Black-and-white, Hat](https://storage.googleapis.com/clio-images/medium_5297_jimmy-duck-holmes.jpg)
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Carey and Mary Holmes opened Blue Front Café in 1945, in addition to their eighty-acre farm. The couple raised their ten children and three nephews to help around both the café and the farm. By the time he was a teenager, their son Jimmy "Duck" Holmes was managing the day-to-day business of the cafe; When Carey died in 1970, Jimmy officially took over the business.
Though Blue Front Café is known as a music venue (a "juke joint"), there is no stage in the café. Live music at the Blue Front was historically an impromptu performance. The musicians stand level with the diners, and today instruments are left around, free to anyone who wants to "pick the guitar" while they're visiting.
Over the years, several popular blues artists have come through Blue Front Café, including Skip James, Jack Owens, and Henry Stuckey. Musicians would also perform on special occasions on the Holmes farm, which has now evolved into the Bentonia Blues Festival.
Sources
Blue Front Cafe, Mississippi Blues Trail. Accessed April 15th 2021. http://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/blue-front-cafe.
Wirt, John. Bentonia Blues at the Blue Front, Country Roads Magazine. August 27th 2017. Accessed April 15th 2021. https://countryroadsmagazine.com/art-and-culture/visual-performing-arts/bentonia-blues-at-the-blue-front/.
https://thesouthlandmusicline.com/photos-and-music-art/photos/the-legendary-blue-front-cafe-in-bentonia-ms/
https://thesouthlandmusicline.com/photos-and-music-art/photos/the-legendary-blue-front-cafe-in-bentonia-ms/
https://thesouthlandmusicline.com/photos-and-music-art/photos/the-legendary-blue-front-cafe-in-bentonia-ms/
https://thesouthlandmusicline.com/photos-and-music-art/photos/the-legendary-blue-front-cafe-in-bentonia-ms/
https://countryroadsmagazine.com/art-and-culture/visual-performing-arts/bentonia-blues-at-the-blue-front/