There's just something about Helena

As we do our eastward swing, we're still targeting wanna-be Helenas along the way.  Couldn't miss out on Arkansas' offering, and weren't disappointed.
Situated along the Mississippi River in eastern Arkansas, it is a scenic setting, with some nice bluffs, lots of hardwood forest, and the inevitable levee riverside.  Downtown has numerous historic red brick buildings and as we drove along checking them out, I saw a sign in the Delta Community Center it was the home to the King Biscuit Time Radio Show, a blues program I used to listen to on KUT while at Texas.  We pulled in and started visiting with the staff at the Center and checking out the displays they had for the tremendous amount of musical talent that called Helena home and spent time on the King Biscuit program.  I was forced to confess that back in the 80s, when the show was called the King Biscuit Flour Show, I thought it was spelled 'flower' like psychedelic stuff, and not related to the local flour company that sponsored the show in Arkansas!
Of course we ended up meeting everyone associated with the museum (they'd never heard of Helena, Texas <<gasp>>), including "Sunshine" Sonny Payne, the deejay for the program since the '40s.  He didn't know where Helena, Texas was, but he was mustered out of the Army in 1947 at Ft Sam, so he knew enough about South Texas to remember boarding a train in SA and getting off in Helena, AR and starting with KFFA right after.
He then insisted we join him on his Wednesday show broadcast from 12:15-12:45.  So we sat in and chatted a bit on-air.  Then Sophia read the ad for the museum store like a pro.  Really enjoyed watching Sonny work - he's so passionate about the blues ... this was his 16,627th broadcast... and while the music was playing, he was describing the musicians, instruments, solos, and heart of each song for us.
If you would like to have a listen, here's the link for Sophia's broadcast debut!
http://kffa.dataride-previews.com/radioaudio/kffa/kbt112812.mp3

 

 

If you didn't believe in mojo before, you gotta be getting on board now!  Can't imagine planning to visit the roots of the blues and get Sophia on a national radio program ... just had to flow with it to put us in that place at that time.  Like riding along on a river.  Or closing your eyes and getting lost in a twangy blues rift.

As Sonny is so fond of saying ... "Hey!  How 'bout that?!"