Red’s

You aren’t meant to see the building during the day. It hides under old signs, a beaten brick building with a broken awning and wood panels against its door. A few old beer signs and a handwritten schedule almost give it away, but it isn’t until the sun goes down and the red string lights illuminate the facade that you can really see Red’s, the legendary juke joint in Clarksdale, Mississippi. 

Inside, the space is intimate—a small room bathed in red neon signs and Christmas lights strung along the ceiling. The walls are a collage of old posters, memorabilia, and quotes from Cornelius Orlando “Red” Paden, the former owner who called himself the “king of the juke joint runners” and who passed away in late 2023. Red was a pillar of Clarksdale, a true keeper of the juke joint tradition who presided over this space from the early ‘80s until the end of his life. And within these walls, his legacy lives on.  

There’s no stage at Red’s, just a large red carpet and some scattered instruments where the bands set up. Here, every seat is a front row seat. 

One night when Edna Nicole & the Delta Ave play a set, their drummer is nowhere to be found. For the first several songs the band passes tambourines into the audience, bringing us all into the music, allowing everyone to share in the rhythm, to feel a part of something larger and older than themselves. History, maybe. Or just a loud, atonal mess that the band casually shrugs off, Edna’s voice loud and angelic over the din of our banging.

As Red once said, “Well I come in after work and I need a place to unwind, so I invite all my good friends in to come and unwind with me.” He called it his living room. He called it everyone’s living room. It’s a space where history lives on, pulsing with every beat, with every shared moment.