Journey Through The States

As many of my friends on facebook know - I have just returned from a three week trip around parts of the US that have special meaning to me.  It was a great trip and in that time Jan and I heard music in Colorado, New Orleans, Nashville, Clarksdale and Memphis.  Once we got on the road we listened to music every night but two.  I came up loaded with new and old CDs and LPs and had to get creative so we would not be charged excess baggage.

Over the next week or two I will introduce to some of the music we heard and enjoyed and the musicians we met.

In Colorado we went up to the mountains and in a great setting with glorious fall colours heard some great americana music at the Beaver Creek Music Festival.  We saw Jason Isbell live in the mountains and a great set up close from Patty Griffin.




In New Orleans we

• visited Preservation Hall to experience a New Orleans Dixie Jazz Band up close and personal - 5 feet from the stage
• were surprised that the piano player was of Japanese descent
• heard some great soul, blues and zydyco music in the bars
• explored some backstreets and second hand stores 
• caught the street car down to Audobon park 
• ate gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish, catfish and grits, and red beans and rice

In Nashville we 

• visited The Ryman and felt the history,
• walked around Music Row in Nashville, seeing some of the studios where the best and worst of country music was made, 
• were stunned by almost all of the musicianship in Music City - it really , 
• ate the best Fried Chicken ever at Hattie B's
• Listened to covers of Chicken Fried  at least twice every night - a new honky tonk classic (how red is my neck?)
• tasted BBQ the Tennessee way

In Memphis we

• Had more fried chicken
• Visited the Lorraine Motel and the National Civil Rights Museum
• Got to know a few of the local bands
• Visited Sun and Stax Studios
• Visited the Soul Museum 
• Avoided Gracelands and the hoards of purple haired americans

Between these places

• visited the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio where the first proper album I ever owned (and many more I now own and cherish were recorded)
• Went to Tupelo and visited Elvis' birthplace
• Stood at the Crossroads trying to conjure up feelings of Robert Johnson
• Stood outside FAME (nothing to do with the TV program) Studios frustrated that it was working and no tours were happening that day
• saw the Mississippi Delta shining like a National Guitar - it really does!
• heard a National Guitar, played in as authentic a Mississippian Juke Joint as you could hope for
• paid a few $100 in tips to the working bands, buskers and others that gave us more than a fleeting moment of musical pleasure