Clinton recording studio honored with Blues Trail marker
By Randy Bell
A Mississippi Blues Trail marker honoring the Grits and Gravy studio is unveiled during a ceremony March 5.
Dolores Ulmer remembers visiting the Grits and Gravy recording studio for the first time as a teenager in the 1960s.
“This is very vivid,” she says. “I walked in and thought ‘what kind of studio is this? It goes downhill.’”
Ulmer, who was Dolores Thomas back then, was there to see her brothers, Cliff and Ed Thomas, who operated the studio along with engineer Bob McRee, working with producer Huey Meaux in the old Hilltop Theatre at 304 Capitol Street in Clinton. The building’s past life as a place to watch movies was the reason she had to walk “downhill” to get to the end of the aisle, where Thomas recalls seeing a baby grand piano.
“And there were some young women standing around, there and they were all getting ready to sing.”
The historic studio recorded such artists as Dorothy Moore, Junior Parker, Barbara Lynn and Freddy Fender. And the song “Pickin’ Wild Mountain Berries” earned two Grammy nominations for Peggy Scott and JoJo Benson in 1969. It lost to Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” for Best Rhythm and Blues Song and to The Temptations’ “Cloud Nine” in the category of Best Rhythm and Blues Performance by a Duo or Group, Vocal or Instrumental.
During a ceremony on March 5, a Mississippi Blues Trail marker was unveiled at the site of the studio where the Mississippi College president’s home now stands. The building which housed Grits and Gravy and later MC’s Choctaw Band Hall was demolished in 2013.
Mississippi Blues Commission Chairman Craig Ray told the crowd it’s the 218th marker to be dedicated at locations related to the birth, growth and influence of the blues worldwide.
“We [have] one hundred eighty markers in the state of Mississippi [and in] seven other states and six countries,” Ray said. “And it just continues to grow.”
It’s Clinton’s second Blues Trail marker. The first, dedicated in 2022, honors blues artists Eddie Cotton and Jarekus Singleton along with poet Sterling Plumpp, while exploring the connection between Black churches and the blues.
“Today, we add another chapter to Clinton’s connection to Mississippi’s rich musical heritage,” Mayor Will Purdie said at the Grits and Gravy marker unveiling.
Kammie Carpenter with Visit Mississippi also spoke at the dedication, saying the music recorded at the studio reached audiences across the nation.
“The recordings produced here were distributed by major labels, such as Atlantic Records, ABC Records, MGM Records and Mercury Records, helping spread the sound of Mississippi soul across radio stations, jukeboxes and record players throughout America.”
Carpenter said Mississippi College deserves recognition for its role in preserving the site for many years after the studio closed.
She said Grits and Gravy was part of a broader network of musicians and producers shaping the Jackson area music scene.
“Many of the artists and session musicians who worked here also contributed to recordings at Malaco Records, another cornerstone of Mississippi’s musical legacy.”
One of Malaco’s owners, Wolf Stephenson, attended the ceremony. He says he visited Grits and Gravy not long after he moved to Jackson.
“I don’t think I had ever been in a recording studio before that,” said Stephenson.
Stephenson says Grits and Gravy’s reputation is well deserved.
“They cut a lot of good stuff. I remember hearing ‘Pickin’ Wild Mountain Berries’ and [another Scott/Benson hit] ‘Lover’s Holiday’ on the radio.”
The city’s latest Blues Trail marker has been in the works for a couple of years. Former Clinton Visitor Center Director Marsha Barham continued to work on the project, even after her retirement last November.
“It takes a while to put it together,” Barham says. “And then, of course, you’ve got to have a good marker location.”
Barham says she hopes people stopping by the Olde Towne Historic District will take the time to park their cars and get out to read the inscriptions on both sides of the marker and view the photographs on the back to learn more about the studio.
During his remarks at the dedication, Craig Ray put the community on notice to expect a lot of visitors who decide to include Clinton on their itineraries because of the Blues Trail markers.
“I promise you, you will see travelers,” he said, noting that many of those will likely be from other countries. “You all today are part of this Blues Trail. You officially will be on the app, on the website. Any traveler that were to come to the state or to the United States to visit the Trail, you’ll be a part of that.”
All of this because of a studio which was more of a hobby than a full-time job for Dolores Thomas’ brothers, although certainly a step up from their previous location in a gas station in Jackson.
“Bob McRee was a fabulous engineer,” she says. “And Cliff and Ed and Bob worked beautifully together.”
They put together many of the tunes recorded at Grits and Gravy.
“They would write a song, cut a song and would all stand around and say, ‘It’s a hit,’” she remembers. “Sometimes they were right, and sometimes they were wrong. But it was always fun for them.”
