This was published 1 year ago
Best stops on Highway 61 in the US: America's other legendary road trip
New Orleans' French Quarter.Credit: Mitchel Osborne
NEW ORLEANS
New Orleans has Spanish colonial architecture, restaurants enveloped in Cajun aromas, vampire haunts and voodoo shops clanking with bones. The puritanism of America frays here, giving way to a seductive, steamy atmosphere. Tourists dance along Bourbon Street, where Mardi Gras beads tinkle and music bellows from nightclubs. But the real music is down alleys where saxophonists busk; at Snug Harbor Bistro where Marsalis family members play jazz; or at Vaughan's Lounge, where you eat beans and rice within a trombone-stretch of the band. Cram into a wooden pew in Preservation Hall and soul music breaks your heart. See neworleans.com
ST FRANCISVILLE
Credit: Tim Mueller
Get your motor running on the music trail out of New Orleans. R&B, blues, gospel, jazz and rock 'n' roll got their start in towns along Highway 61, which heads through bayou to Baton Rouge before following the curve of the Mississippi. Everyone from Muddy Waters to Howlin' Wolf and Elvis soaked up the musical influences that tumbled out of the region's churches and ramshackle bars. But first, stop in St Francisville, a charming Louisiana town surrounded by plantation mansions such as Oak Alley (above), where you can learn about cotton growing, gracious living – and slavery. See louisianatravel.com
NATCHEZ
Highway 61 flashes past pentecostal churches and correctional facilities as you head to Natchez, a good place for a serious leg stretch or overnight. The town, older than New Orleans – it was first settled in 1716 – sits on a crumbling bluff above the Mississippi and has a wonderful downtown clogged with nearly 700 antebellum buildings, hotels and bars. Several grand mansions are open to the public. Jazz bands often play at historic Under-the-Hill Saloon, and you can fill up on Southern comfort food accompanied by live music at Biscuits & Blues. Natchez hosts an April blues festival. See visitnatchez.org
VICKSBURG
Credit: Visit Vicksburg
A lonely stretch of road leads to Vicksburg, where you can revive your caffeine levels at arty Highway 61 Coffeehouse, which has live music on Saturday afternoons. Vicksburg is the place to catch up on American history: a battle here in 1863 proved to be the turning point of the Civil War. Hundreds of monuments, memorials and cannons, linked on a 16-mile driving circuit, dot the National Military Park. Frequent re-enactments provide musket fire and the smell of gunpowder. Ironclad gunboat USS Cairo, moored on Mississippi River, is one of the weirdest-looking vessels you'll ever see. See visitvicksburg.com
CLARKSDALE
Credit: Tate K. Nations
It's two-and-a-half hours to Clarksdale through bayou country and cotton fields. Musicians wanted to escape this backwater region and they did, changing pop culture in the process. The Delta Blues Museum tells the story through exhibits ranging from Muddy Water's relocated childhood shack to John Lee Hooker's guitars. If you're looking for an obscure blues CD, head to Cat Head, run by a blues-obsessed white fella from Ohio called Roger Stolle. Take in live music at ramshackle Ground Zero, co-owned by Morgan Freeman, who grew up nearby. Hopson Commissary also has jam sessions, accompanied by barbecued chicken with slaw and pickles. See visitclarksdale.com
MEMPHIS
In 1951, a Clarksdale band headed up Highway 61 into Memphis to record number-one hit 'Rocket 88', considered the first rock 'n' roll song. Follow as the highway gains lanes and ugly fast-food billboards. At Sun Studios – where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and others got their start – you can stand by the microphone that recorded 'Rocket 88'. Jazz players and gospel singers who dream of making it big still perform in clubs along Beale Street. Other musts for music lovers: Stax Museum (a former recording studio), Gibson Guitar factory (pictured above) and Graceland, the hideous home of Elvis. See memphistravel.com
The writer travelled at his own expense.
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