Site of Hi-Hat Club gets blues trail marker

Published 12:00 am Thursday, February 11, 2010

HATTIESBURG (AP) — A ceremony was held Wednesday in Hattiesburg to add the site of the city’s original Hi-Hat club to the Mississippi Blues Trail.

The Hattiesburg American reports that the site was chosen because it was once a key stop on the so-called ‘‘Chitlin Circuit’’ where black musicians could perform. The club attracted entertainers that included B.B. King, Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown and Otis Redding.

Family, friends and community leaders gathered at the Palmers Crossing location to celebrate the legacy of Milton Barnes who opened the club in 1943.

Email newsletter signup

Barnes, a successful businessman, died in 2005.