Why I Didn’t 'Go Down to the Delta': The Cultural Politics of Blues Tourism

Abstract

Analysing the television documentary Rick Stein Tastes the Blues for common perceptions of the Delta, this book chapter explores ethical dilemmas associated with a particular music tourism. White visitors celebrate the black music heritage of what is still one of the poorest regions of the USA, but to what extent are they fetishizing poverty? The chapter argues that we can position blues pilgrimages as a form of cross-racial dark tourism. As a way to share concern for racialized creativity in the face of social neglect, blues pilgrimage has become a matter of empathetically hearing of black woe expressed and white guilt displaced by music from a different time, place and culture.