Dark End of the Street

I knew I wouldn’t come back here for a while. I wanted to believe the bar was still there, that the next time I was ever in the Quarter I could stroll down Conti Street and hear the music from blocks away.

I flipped the photograph around in my hands and tucked it back into a pile of soot and ash. The night air was cold and punk music began to blare across the street as if the town bully was announcing he’d won the neighborhood fight.

I listened for a while and smoked a couple cigarettes. I was almost done when I saw JoJo round the curve, this time with Loretta in his front seat. She waved. Her face glowed with a mammoth smile.

“You want to get somethin’ to eat with us in Vicksburg?” she yelled to me.

I nodded, stubbed out the cigarette, and got off my ass.

I jumped into Gray Ghost, much uglier than she’d been a few weeks ago, but still running. I thought about that for a long while as we turned onto the old blues highway and headed north.

Acknowledgments

TO MEMPHIS AND BACK, the following provided needed help, inspiration, or some top-notch grub: my family, Michael Baker, B. F. Vandervoort, Gayle Dean Wardlow, Jim Kennedy, Harry Smith, Debbi Eisenstadt, Bogie “Raven” Miller, Joe Durkin, Darryl Wimberley, Burnis Morris, Elvis (my canine companion), the gang at Square Books, and the staff at Ajax Diner, Taylor Grocery, and the Bottletree.

Much thanks to Richard and Carolyn for their continued direction, support, and for being great friends to Loretta. I’m looking forward to many more adventures.

Without a doubt, Peter Guralnick’s Sweet Soul Music transported me to Memphis 1968, and Edward Humes’s Mississippi Mud took me into the core of the Dixie Mafia. Shangri-La Records’s Lowlife Guide to Memphis and Tad Pierson provided invaluable information and true “grit” away from Beale.

Special thanks to Robert Gordon, whose article, “Way Out on a Voyage,” gave voice to Clyde James and Paul Bergin, who heard of an evil woman that I had to meet.

While writing this book, the world lost three soul legends: Johnnie Taylor, James Carr, and Rufus Thomas. Without them and their inspiration, this book wouldn’t be in your hands.

About the Author

Ace Atkins, author of Crossroads Blues and Leavin' Trunk Blues in the popular Nick Travers series, lives somewhere in Mississippi with his dog Elvis. As a football star at Auburn University he made it onto the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1993 for a perfect season. As a crime reporter for the Tampa Tribune Ace was short-listed for a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 and the Livingston Award for outstanding journalism in 1999 and 2000. Today he writes about music and murder and whatever else he finds on Highway 61. Visit www.aceatkins.com.

Credits

Jacket design by Marc Cohen

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint from the following:

“The Dark End of the Street.” Words and music by Dan Penn and Chips Moman © 1967 (Renewed 1995) SCREEN GEMS-EMI MUSIC INC. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Used by permission.

“Still Here” from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes, copyright © 1994 by the estate of Langston Hughes. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

“Polk Salad Annie.” Words and music by Tony Joe White © 1968 (Renewed 1996) temi combine inc. All rights controlled by combine music corp. and administered by emi blackwood music inc. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Used by permission.

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