The Blue Front Cafe is a historic old juke joint

Juke joint

Juke joint is the vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African American people in the southeastern United States. The term "juke" is believed to derive from the Gullah word joog, meaning rowdy or disorderly...

 made of cinder block

Cinder block

In the United States, a concrete masonry unit – also called concrete block, cement block, and foundation block – is a large rectangular brick used in construction. Concrete blocks are made from cast concrete, i.e. Portland cement and aggregate, usually sand and fine gravel for high-density blocks...

 in Bentonia

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

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 on Highway 49

U.S. Route 49

U.S. Route 49 is a north–south United States highway. The highway's northern terminus is in Piggott, Arkansas, at an intersection with U.S. Route 62. Its southern terminus is in Gulfport, Mississippi, at an intersection with U.S. Route 90. US 49 is approximately 516 miles in length.It...

, approximately 30 miles northwest of Jackson

Jackson, Mississippi

Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...

, which played an important role in the development of the blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 in Mississippi. The cafe has been given a marker and officially placed on the Mississippi Blues Trail

Mississippi Blues Trail

The Mississippi Blues Trail, created by the Mississippi Blues Commission, is a project to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the growth of the blues throughout the state of Mississippi. The trail extends from the border of Louisiana in southern Mississippi...

. It is owned by blues musician Jimmy "Duck" Holmes

Jimmy "Duck" Holmes

Jimmy "Duck" Holmes is a blues musician and proprietor of the Blue Front Cafe on the Mississippi Blues Trail.-Early life:He was born in 1947 to Carey and Mary Holmes, who were sharecroppers. His parents opened the Blue Front Cafe the year after he was born...

.

Located in the southern portion of the Mississippi Delta

Mississippi Delta

The Mississippi Delta is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. The region has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth" because of its unique racial, cultural, and economic history...

 in Yazoo County

Yazoo County, Mississippi

-National protected area:*Hillside National Wildlife Refuge *Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge-History:The area which is now Yazoo County was acquired by the State of Mississippi from the Choctaw Indians in 1820. Yazoo County was established on January 21, 1823. It was the 19th county...

 on Highway 49

U.S. Route 49

U.S. Route 49 is a north–south United States highway. The highway's northern terminus is in Piggott, Arkansas, at an intersection with U.S. Route 62. Its southern terminus is in Gulfport, Mississippi, at an intersection with U.S. Route 90. US 49 is approximately 516 miles in length.It...

, the field hands from the surrounding cotton plantations gathered at the Blue Front Cafe for relaxation and entertainment. This is the birthplace of a blues style known as the "Bentonia
blues."