Hotels in Clarksdale

There's a pitiful lack of decent hotels in Clarksdale. Your best bet is to grab one of the inexpensive to moderately priced chain properties along State Street. Equally amenable are the Comfort Inn, 818 S. State St. (tel. 662/627-5122), and the nearby Best Western, 710 S. State St. (tel. 662/627-9292).

Shacking Up -- In the lodging category of "too creepy for anyone but the most die-hard blues fan," there's the Shack Up Inn, 1 Commissary Circle (tel. 662/624-8329; www.shackupinn.com), on old Hwy. 49 south of Clarksdale. Billed as Mississippi's oldest B&B (Bed and Beer), the property is on the site of a weedy cotton gin littered with rusting farming implements, old road signs, and crumbling sharecropper shacks that have been modernized enough to accommodate easy-to-please travelers in search of a place to crash -- and great music at the on-premises Commissary Club. Some shacks have kitchenettes. Rates range from $50 to $75 per room. There's a $5 additional fee per person, but, hey -- rates include tax and a Moon Pie on your pillow.