And unlike the comfortingly predictable 12-bar blues most ... B.B. King—Bentonia blues has a loose structure. There is no chorus, no set number of times to repeat a musical pattern.

In 1975, he and a partner bought the place, lock, stock and 12-bar blues. He was Sam Louie, noodle maker, restaurateur and trading company proprietor. Grossman’s was a grungy but beloved saloon ...