Menu

WHY CLEVELAND

 

Visit Cleveland.png       DR_Sticker_white (1).png      KCB2.jpg
                       Cleveland logo.jpg    Dockery Farms.png    Mississippi_Blues_Trail_logo_215x215.jpg   
                                    
Visit-Mississippi.jpg

 

Visitors to GRAMMY Museum® Mississippi often ask us “Why Cleveland?”  Our Museum was inspired by the original GRAMMY Museum® located in Los Angeles, California, the second largest city in the United States.  For many would be visitors, it’s surprising that a town as small and rural as Cleveland, Mississippi, is home to the second GRAMMY Museum in the world.  Until they have explored our exhibits and our Mississippi Gallery, visitors don’t know that Mississippi, more notably the Mississippi Delta, has one of the richest musical histories and lasting legacies of any place on Earth.

Because without Mississippi... there would be no American music.

Bob Santelli, Music Historian and Founding Executive Director at GRAMMY Museum® at L.A. Live

 It was at a cotton gin called Dockery Farms, just four miles east of Cleveland, that blues pioneers such as Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Honeyboy Edwards, and Pops Staples worked while writing songs that would inspire rock, R&B, soul, blues, and country music for the rest of time. In addition to the Mississippi Delta’s early influence on American music, the state also has more GRAMMY winners per capita than any other state in the U.S. Mississippi has been home to a diverse group of musicians in all corners of the state. From Laurel where an opera star by the name of Leontyne Price was born and raised, to Tupelo, a town that birthed the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” to the Mississippi land in and around Meridian where The Temptations’ David Ruffin and the “Father of Country Music” Jimmie Rodgers once called home, this state has been home to some of America’s most influential artists and the musical legacy continues.

“...You might say it all started right here.” - B.B.King

Cleveland, in particular, was chosen because of its location on the Mississippi Blues Trail, its distance between both Memphis and Jackson, and because of the educational opportunities by which Delta State University, the Delta Music Institute, and the Museum can mutually benefit.​


MISSISSIPPI GRAMMY ACHIEVEMENTS

Almost 8% of all GRAMMY® Lifetime Achievement Award Winners are Mississippians

Charley Pride.jpgCharley Pride

Jerry Lee Lewis.jpgJerry Lee Lewis

Elvis.jpgElvis Presley

 

Robert_Johnson_1000.jpgRobert Johnson

David_Ruffin.jpgDavid Ruffin - The Temptations

BBK_140.jpgB.B. King

 

Sam Cooke pub photo 1.jpgSam Cooke

Leontyne_Price_Bender_photo.jpgLeontyne Price

Jimmie Rodgers railroad 1.jpgJimmie Rodgers

 

Bo_Diddley.jpgBo Diddley

The_Staple_Singers.jpgThe Staple Singers

Eddie Willis.jpgEddie Willis-The Funk Brothers

 

JJenning's John Lee Hooker.jpgJohn Lee Hooker

Muddy_Waters.jpgMuddy Waters

PinetopPerkins.jpgPinetop Perkins

 


MISSISSIPPIANS HAVE RECORDED ALMOST 8% OF ALL GRAMMY® HALL OF FAME SONGS

  • "JAILHOUSE ROCK" - ELVIS PRESLEY

  • "FRANKIE AND JOHNNY" - MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT

  • "THE THRILL IS GONE" - B.B. KING

  • "GOT MY MOJO WORKIN" - MUDDY WATERS

  • "GREAT BALLS OF FIRE" - JERRY LEE LEWIS

  • "PONY BLUES" - CHARLEY PATTON

  • "RESPECT YOURSELF" - THE STAPLE SINGERS

PLUS MANY OTHERS

 

WC marker_imagerow
Cheer_imagerow