FAT POSSUM

Mrs. E's Collectibles-The latest in Fat Possum CDs

The Place: Clarksdale, in the heart of the Mississippi Delta.

The Time: Near midnight.

The Setting: Crossroads juke joint, a rundown, beerstained, flatboard building known for serving Budweiser with mints (mints conceal the alcohol vapors from beautiful women and nosy state patrolmen) and for showcasing the world's finest blues.

The Culprits: Kenny Brown, best known as R.L. Burnside's guitar player (Burnside calls him that trusty "white boy on guitar"). And Paul "Wine" Jones?a short, ascetic black man with a graying goatee?one of the Delta's unsung heroes of electrified country blues.

Fat Possum is drawn like a magnet to rough-cut characters like Wine, to bluesmen so earthy their tattered trunks seem to sprout like trees right out of the Mississippi mud. "Raw" is the word most associated with Fat Possum, and only in recent years has the attention generated by the label's gritty, eccentric, mostly excellent recordings allowed part-time bluesmen like Wine to give up day jobs as farmers, welders, mechanics, and the like to play the blues full time.