Jackson Free Press

The intersection of U.S. Highways 49 and 61 in Clarksdale look similar to many highway crossroads in Mississippi. A green road sign tells you to head straight on 61 to get to Memphis or head down 49 to get to Greenwood. Businesses such as a carwash and a gas station surround the sign. But a tall sign with three blue hollow-body guitars and placards that read "The Crossroads" tells a different story.

Legend has it that it's the intersection where blues legend Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil.

As a young man living on a plantation in rural Mississippi, Johnson had a desire to become a great blues musician. Late one night, he went to a crossroad near Dockery Plantation in Clarksdale. When he got there, a large African American man (presumed to be the devil) took his guitar and tuned it. He played a few songs and then gave the instrument back to Johnson, who then became a master at it. In exchange for his soul, he was able to create his legendary music.

The actual location of where this could have happened is unclear. Some say it was in Clarksdale, some say it was in Rosedale. While the blues great himself is long gone, a likeness of him playing a harmonica with a guitar in his lap sits above The Iron Horse Grill in 
downtown Jackson. He's one of the many music figures depicted in the restaurant's "Mississippi Music Experience" museum upstairs.

It features life-size representations of Mississippi's music legends, in every genre from blues to rock 'n' roll. The figures are so realistic that it if it weren't for the glass, you'd think they could jump out and touch you. Jimmy Buffet stands smiling on a beach, an old single-lens reflex camera partially buried in the sand beside him. Blues musician Pinetop Perkins plays an old vertical piano. Music legend B.B. King sits playing his guitar. Johnson plays his harmonica, an authentic autographed Gibson guitar in his lap. Beside him is his tombstone.

The museum, which the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame sponsors, is a large part of Iron Horse's music-education focus.

Owner Joseph Simpson says that it, along with making the business a concert venue as well as a restaurant, has always been part of the plan since they redeveloped Iron Horse two years ago. He says it's a way to educate Mississippians and the world on the state's rich 
music history.

"You look towards Memphis, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, I mean they've taken our musical heritage that we started with, and they've run with it, and it's become a huge economic generator," he says.

"... And we want it back," continues Anne Robin Luckett, the artist behind the museum's figures. Simpson says that people from Europe have visited the museum on their way to Memphis and a group from South Africa stayed two extra days just so they could see it.

"I don't know how they're starting to hear about it, but they're just blown away," Simpson says.

As you walk into the space, you see Luckett's face and photos of the figures in process. To create them, she takes clay and rolls and sculpts the figures. She says it took about two months to make each one. Luckett, who has a bachelor's degree in fine art and master's degrees in art and guidance from Mississippi College, began sculpting figurines and dolls in 1994, and in the following year, she was accepted in the Professional Doll Makers Guild. She says that originally, she was a painter. She taught art classes in Jackson Public Schools from 1965 to 1977, and with her job and raising her four daughters, she didn't have time to do her own art.

When Luckett got back into it, she started with a new medium. She found some wheat paste, and then grabbed some paper towels, a gourd and cut her horse's tail off to make a man. She says that doll-making was fun for her, and as her daughters grew up, she started doing it more and more.

For many years, she showed her work around the world, as she says Mississippi artists weren't working in that medium. She was asked to create "American Girl" dolls (though she ended up not doing it) and has done pieces such as the "Wizard of Oz" collection at Michael Jackson's Neverland and many others.

The museum itself took about two years to create. The memorabilia came from some of the musicians themselves, such as the signed Lucille guitar that B.B. King holds and the clothes that Jaimoe, the lead drummer for The Allman Brothers Band, wears (Jaimoe also donated the drum set), and museums such as the Delta Blues Museum and the B.B. King Museum, who are museum partners, donated items. The hallway that wraps around the exhibits, which serves as a small Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame, tells the story of the state's music, from its roots in the delta at Dockery Plantation to current day. You can view photos and read information on many other famous acts from the Magnolia State, including Elvis Presley, Britney Spears, and Paramore, whose lead singer, Hayley Williams, is from Meridian.

Currently, Iron Horse is trying to set up tours with middle and high schools and junior colleges. The Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame that runs along the hallway has accredited videos so teachers can get credit for the field trip. "We've had teachers that have come that actually shared their curriculum with us, so we have those available, where they work with a music history class prior to coming, and then as they draw those high-school students in, they're familiar with it," Luckett says.

The "Mississippi Music Experience" museum is on the second floor of The Iron Horse Grill (320 W. Pearl St., 601-389-0151) and is open when the restaurant is. Iron Horse's hours are Monday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight, and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The museum is free to the Iron Horse customers, and schools can tour it. For more information, visit theironhorsegrill.com. For more photos, see jfp.ms/musicexperiencemuseum.