increase of 13% if our tourism tax numbers. reporter: all of that in the middle of a recession? absolutely. we are open for business. reporter: some say the surge is because the blues speak to folks in hard times. some say because people here are doing a better job marketing their attractions. bill luckett and owner of the grounds zero blues club, he says, whatever the cause, the results are undeniable. reporter: how important do you think that is to building up this part of america in these hard times? we have lost a lot of our factories, a lot of our base manufacturing wise. blues music and tourism and interest in blues music is replacing that as an industry. reporter: according to lore, the great blues man, robert johnson, met the devil at this crossroads and traded his soul for the gift of music. that s just a legend but this is a fact. the tourist attraction used