Bentonia, Mississippi

Bentonia is a town in Yazoo County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 500 at the 2000 census. Some blues scholars maintain that there is a "Bentonia School" of blues singing and guitar-playing, and that "Bentonia-style" is a distinct style of Delta Blues, but Bentonia lies outside the Mississippi Delta proper. The "Bentonia School," "Bentonia-style" or "Bentonia Blues" is more accurately described as the unique, haunting, Country Blues style that originated in and immediately around the small town of Bentonia, Mississippi. The annual Bentonia Blues Festival is held the third Saturday of June in downtown Bentonia. The festival's Blues Stage is always set up in front of the world-famous Blue Front Cafe, which is still operated by proprietor Jimmy "Duck" Holmes who, as a young man, largely learned the local style from Bentonia Blues master Jack Owens.