Bryson City, North Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia - from tranquillity to the terminal

Day 16 - Thursday, September 25

There was no breakfast at the motel so M&P went out foraging and we spent a very pleasant couple of hours in the rocking chairs with doughnuts and coffee.It was a glorious, warm early autumn morning and there were birds and ducks around the river - so we were in no hurry to leave. At one point I was startled by something flying at me very fast and stopping just a couple of feet short - it took a second or two to realise that it was a hummingbird. A nice encounter.

The drive south back to Atlanta took us alongside the Tuckasegee river for quite a few miles at the start - beautiful wooded country in the southern part of the Great Smoky Mountains.

But after that it was motorway all the way to the airport where we said goodbye to M&P at the terminal. Their flight was a couple of hours before ours.

And when we checked in we were again pleased to find that we had been allocated business class seats. On an overnight flight it's great to have a flatbed seat and it was a very welcome end to the trip.

Chattanooga, Tennessee to Bryson City, North Carolina - little biscuits and big steaks

Day 15 - Wednesday, September 24

A short while wandering about the hotel taking photos and then we drove to nearby Lookout Mountain - a huge promontory with spectacular views over the city and surrounding area.
From one point you can, allegedly, see 7 states - Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Virginia - but we didn't have the local geographical knowledge to verify that for ourselves.

We visited Rock City - an area of giant rock formations through which the owners have built pathways and tunnels and landscaped it with planting and viewpoints etc. It was OK - the main reason benefit was to get access to the views.
On the way in we stopped at a café for breakfast. The choice was limited but one of the things on their menu was "Bacon biscuit". Pete asked what this was and the lady gave him a long slow look and then said, in the slow southern drawl {phonetically} "Weeeeeeeell, it's a biiiiiiiscuiiiiiiiiiit ayned it's gaaaaart baaaaaaaaycon oooooown iiiiiit." 

(a "biscuit" in these parts is a sort of savoury scone often served at breakfast with "gravy" which is a mildly spicy white sauce - it can be quite nice with some bacon or sausage.)

We all had one - they were quite good - and, suitably fortified, had a wander through the rocks area. 

And then on to Point Park at the north end of Lookout Mountain where there are wonderful views over the entire city and the river.

By now it was early afternoon so we started our drive north to the Great Smoky Mountains. We went via the Cherohalla Scenic Parkway - "parkways" in the USA are highways, normally in scenic areas, from which trucks and other heavy vehicles are prohibited - and really enjoyed the views along the way.

We arrived at the motel called Lloyd's on the River between Bryson City and Cherokee - a lovely rustic sort of place where the rooms backed onto a long porch with rocking chairs looking out onto the delightfully named Oconaluftee River which, a few hundred yards downstream joins the equally attractive-sounding Tuckasegee River. A lovely spot to spend our last night.
We had stopped at Bryson on the way through to pick up some wine for later. Went into a huge liquor store and were very surprised to find that, despite there being a vast array of bottle on offer, it was only spirits - no wine or beer. I have never seen so much booze in one place - dozens of different brands of whisky, vodka, gin etc.  
But the guys there gave us directions to a nearby supermarket where we got ourselves sorted.
We got a restaurant recommendation from the motel people and headed back into Bryson  for dinner at a place called the Cork & Bean. As it was our last night we all decided it was our last chance to have a good American steak and we were quite disappointed when the waitress came back sheepishly a few minutes later to apologise and say that there were only three steaks left. I did the decent thing and changed my order to scallops - no real hardship there - but when the 3 steaks came we just burst out laughing - they were vast . They could quite easily have fed 6 or 8 people.

Back at the motel we sat in the rocking chairs on the back porch with our wine until very late - a really pleasant place.

God and Guns

Religion is a very big and very visible thing in this part of USA. It's in the heart of the Bible Belt.
I suppose it's because most churches in the UK are quite/very old and so built without much comfort or heating/aircon etc. that it's very noticeable that many of the US churches seem opulent by comparison.
Many are vast buildings with landscaped and immaculately maintained gardens around them.
And there are so many of them, even in the smallest town.
This is one of many in Rosedale - population less than 2,000

It's not uncommon to see huge billboards showing religious messages and it's quite normal for entertainers, musicians etc. to be very keen to express their christianity.

Roadside noticeboards outside churches often show eye-catching messages. We wished we had started collecting them, but one I remember amusing us was  "If the wages of sin is death, shouldn't you quit before payday ?"

There are also loads of billboards with slogans advocating the holding of guns or objecting to any form of gun control , and lots of adverts for "Gun Shows".

At the Country Music Hall of Fame there was a 1962 Pontiac Bonneville belonging to a famous country singer called Webb Pierce (no, me neither) which had door handles in the shape of pistols and and rifle was mounted on the bonnet and another on the boot.

I already mentioned in an earlier post about how the Reverend Al Green had been very vehement in expressing his desire to take guns and personally "shoot up" all of the members of the Islamic State group.

While we were stopped at one viewpoint we got talking to a couple, probably late 30s or early 40s, who were travelling on a Harley. A nice chat about our respective trips and then somehow the conversation turned to guns. We explained the philosophy in the UK and most of Europe which was pretty much beyond his comprehension. He said he had 8 guns, one of which was an assault rifle, and that he wouldn't dream of travelling without one. He then proceeded to open up his saddlebag to get it out - fortunately in a case inside a fabric bag. We stopped him getting it right out, but it occurred to us that it wouldn't be much use anyway  in an emergency if it took a while to access it.
We explained that although mass shootings had occurred in UK they were very rare because people generally don't have guns, but that there are frequent instances in USA.
He offered his opinion which was that the best way for people of our view to create an environment where the law could be tightened was to send someone into a school and shoot a load of kids. 
Terrifying........and he was a normal friendly guy out on a trip with his wife.

By contrast, it can be quite difficult to buy a bottle of wine. Many counties in this part of the country do not permit the sale of alcohol and this is not unconnected to the prevalence of churches described above. 
In one supermarket we asked where the wine was and she replied "Dry county, honey". It surprised us that people seem to put up with it in "the land of the free". They'll put a bullet in you if you try to take their guns away but they are OK with being prevented from buying a bottle of wine. You'd have thought it would be quite easy to prove that it's unconstitutional that you can't buy a bottle. 
By a lovely irony, the Jack Daniel's distillery is in Moore County which is dry - so their products are not available for sale locally, although they have a dispensation to sell "souvenir bottles" actually at the distillery.

Nashville to Chattanooga - whisky, pork and trains

Day 14 - Tuesday, September 23
We left Nashville and travelled south through lovely Tennessee countryside to the George Dickel distillery, one of only two approved to make "Tennessee Whisky". The other is Jack Daniel's in nearby Lynchburg.
Another one is trying to get approval but the key criterion is that the whisky must be aged in new barrels for all production, and they are trying to get this relaxed on cost grounds. The existing two are naturally resisting this. They send their used barrels to Scotland apparently.

Interesting fact - the barrel-ageing process takes about 12 years (they have ageing stores in many locations around the state containing vast quantities of whisky) and during that time over 50% of the production is lost to evaporation. As in Scotland, they call it "the angels' share" - I think the angels must have parties every weekend.

We took the tour around Dickel - which uses water direct from a nearby natural spring arising from a limestone aquifer, and filters the spirit through charcoal made in the open on the premises - they were preparing to make some as we were there. 

We enjoyed the tour of the distillery, which is located in an idyllic little wooded valley with a crystal clear stream running along it, but the main point of interest was this guy who was part of the group......

After the tour we went on to Lynchburg. We'd read that the tours of Jack Daniel's can be very crowded, which is why we went to Dickel, but, as JD is usually my spirit of choice when I don't want to drink any more beer, I wanted to at least have a look at Lynchburg.
We stopped for lunch in the town square - an attractive mix of old buildings, now almost all containing JD related businesses. After lunch we had a JD and raisin ice cream. Yum yum.

Then onto Chattanooga where we were staying at the old station which has now been converted into a hotel - called, naturally, the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel. 

The station concourse is now the lobby - a huge hall under a dome - and the bar and restaurant have been retained and modified to current standards. All very atmospheric. 

The loos also are in the old grand style, spacious and with lots of dark wood and old fashioned tiling.
A couple of tracks remain and these hold a few railcars which have been converted into hotel rooms - they are quite expensive so we didn't stay in them - but we got a key from reception to have a quick look.

The other tracks have been converted into gardens with the platforms now acting as pathways.

Altogether a great idea and we're glad we stayed there but, to be honest, the rooms were a bit shabby and the whole thing needs some investment to improve the overall quality.

And yes, the Glenn Miller version of the song was on the playlist.

Chattanooga itself is a city which has seen hard times but it seems to be on the up now, with a busy city centre and some nice modern buildings alongside some interesting old ones.
The location is nice - on a huge bend of the Tennessee River.

We had dinner at a restaurant called Alleia just around the corner from the hotel. A very nice place where we were seated in an outside dining area where there was a pleasant buzz of people but very low lighting.The waiter left menus but it was impossible to read so we used the light from our phones. When the waiter came back he asked, as they do, whether we had any questions about the menu, to which Mary replied "yes - what does it say ?".
We eventually sorted it out and had a very good evening - our first without live music for a while.

Contrast between Memphis and Nashville

Although we had a great time in both Memphis and Nashville we noticed huge differences between the two cities.

Memphis is predominantly black, with widespread very poor areas -  I've never seen so many payday loan type business, pawn shops etc.  and lots of boarded up homes and businesses.
The city centre is a bit run down, despite Beale Street being a thriving visitor area.

Nashville on the other hand is predominantly white and obviously prosperous and thriving. Apart from the downtown area where all the music is, we saw lots of smart new developments and many upmarket neighbourhoods with lots of restaurants & shops etc.  

We were only in each place a few days and obviously didn't see everything, so I may  be misjudging them - but that's certainly the impression I got.

Nashville - skyline and music

Day 13 - Monday, September 22

A very late start after the last e night on Sunday. Too late for breakfast at the hotel do we went to a place called 47 Union Café (at 47 Union Avenue - what are the chances ?) for brunch.A nice place with interesting civil war photos, paintings and maps on the walls.
Pam's meal came lukewarm so we sent it back - it came back about 5 minutes later still lukewarm. Not good. How hard can it be ?

After brunch we walked over to 4th Avenue and onto the pedestrian bridge which crosses the Cumberland River and affords great views back towards the city.

Nashville Skyline.

We walked through downtown to the Tennessee Capitol building......

and then onto Bicentennial Park where there is a full-size replica of the Parthenon built in the 1920s

and why not..........

We had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack off Broadway and then went to the Listening Room Café, which is a similar format to the Bluebird only quite a bit bigger.
The idea is that songwriters and would-be recording artists display their talents.
two young guys on first, alternating songs. It would have been better if they's taken their baseball caps off and their chewing gum out - but, hey, it's supposed to be informal.
The songs were OK but all seemed a bit angsty (is that a word ?).
Then a group of four two girls and two guys again taking turns. These were mainly even more angsty. Two songs from one of the guys stood out - one was called "Dixie Crystal" about kids in the south "either finding the road, finding god or finding Dixie Crystal (local-made methamphetamine and a pun on the name of a brand of sugar)".
Sadly, I can't remember what the other song was about.

An interesting place but on the night we were there there wasn't enough light and shade or humour or variety in the material. Great sound system though.

On to Roberts Western World - a good ol' country band with guys in hats and a great banjo and fiddle. And later to Layla's bar - country with a harder edge and nice steel guitar.
A great night with lots of fun and lots of drinks.

The Night We Hit Rock Bottom

Still Day 12 - Sunday, September 21
The evening started with a trip to the Bluebird Cafe a few miles west of downtown.
It's a place where there's no noisy bar-style atmosphere so there's more emphasis on the songs themselves.
We knew that it had become hugely popular since featuring regularly in the TV series but we didn't know how early we would need to get there for a first come first served performance on a Sunday evening. We arrived soon after 7.30 but there was already a line of around 50 people plus presumably more already inside. It's a strange place in the middle of a typical suburban shopping area and it's quite small -  we didn't get in. But we did get a photo.......

And then we moved on...............

We thought we'd console ourselves with a drink at Patterson House - an upmarket cocktail bar not far from our hotel. It was going to be expensive but we thought we'd treat ourselves.
When we got there they said that the place was full and we'd probably wait around half an hour for a table. It's one thing to wait for dinner, but to wait for a drink ?..........we declined.
So we moved on...............

We went to a big bar/music venue called The Station - a well-known place which was quite crowded when we got there but we were pleased to find a table.We got some drinks and waited for the music which we thought was scheduled to start at 9 - it was by now not long after 8.30.
After a few minutes we realised that it was already going on - Sunday evening was an acoustic jam, and about a dozen people were over in a corner giving it their all playing fiddles, banjos, bass, guitar, harmonicas etc. but the hum of general conversation was so great that we couldn't hear a thing. But at least we'd had a drink.
So we moved on..............

This time we left the car at the hotel and decided to eat at one of the restaurants nearby which we'd noticed on Friday evening - buzzing and with live bands. On Sunday they were empty and quiet.
So we moved on..............

We decided to try the Wild Horse Saloon downtown. We'd looked in during our walk on Friday morning - it's a huge place with bars on three levels and looked like it might be fun on a good night.............

and I'd met some new drinking buddies there

But when we got there they wanted a $6 a head cover charge and we could see that it wasn't very busy inside, so not too appealing.
So we moved on...........

........looking for somewhere to eat. 
By now it was around 9.30 and we felt that after 2 hours and 5 places the evening hadn't yet really started. So when we came across the Rock Bottom Restaurant we felt that we had found the the right place to turn our evening around.
It wasn't too busy but we had a good dinner and a bottle of wine revived our spirits before we moved on to the Whisky Bent bar where we'd spent time on our first evening.
A great band was on and there was a large group of young people (who looked like they'd all come independently) there just for the dancing.  They were interchanging partners all the time and at one point all the guys danced a sort of "gentleman's excuse-me" with the best dancer of them taking the lady's role. Great fun and probably a sight which, only a few years ago, might have resulted in unpleasantness in a southern bar. 
We stayed a long time enjoying the band and the dancing and then sometime after midnight, as the crowd thinned out, we moved a few doors down to the Stage Bar which was still packed and rocking.
Another, even better, band playing all sorts from country to soul to rock. There was a great atmosphere and we stayed till gone 2am - and the place was still crowded as we left.
A memorable evening after a very shaky start.
But a shame about the Bluebird. I'll regret it every time we see in in the next series of "Nashville".

Nashville hinterland - from football to Franklin

Day 12 - Sunday, September 21
The day didn't start well - I followed most of the MUFC v Leicester game which was an early kick-off in the UK - breakfast time in Nashville.
We went 3-1 up just after half time and then proceeded to lose 5-3. Shambles.

We drove out to Franklin - a pleasant prosperous town a few miles south of the city, with lots of big historic (by US standards) houses. We stopped for a coffee and a walk about and then moved on to the nearby Carnton Plantation. On the way out of town we noticed this house which was Hallowe'en-ready about 6 weeks early...

Franklin was the site of a major civil war battle in November 1864 and resulted in a catastrophic defeat for the confederate forces. Carnton was commandeered by the confederates as a field hospital. Apparently the family who owned the house got heavily involved in the care of the wounded and subsequently created, on their estate and not too far from the house, a huge confederate war cemetery. The graves are grouped by state.

The events of the battle and Carnton's role is described in the novel "Widow of the South" by Robert Hicks.

We drove back to Nashville via a lovely village called Leiper's Fork, where we had lunch at the general store/cafe, and via a small part of the Natchez Trace Parkway which winds through lovely scenic country for 444 miles south from Nashville.

Central City back to Nashville - Grand Ole Opry

Day 11 - Saturday, September 20

Before we left Central City we went downtown - not far, it's only a small place - because This is where the Everly Brothers are from and we wanted to see the monument.

We crossed Everly Brothers Boulevard on the way.

There's not a lot else in Central City, Ky so we headed back to Nashville.

In the afternoon we visited the Country Music Hall of Fame not far from Broadway. It's a huge building, with lots of interesting exhibits exploring the origins and development of country music. There are instruments, costumes, narratives and the history of many of the more famous people. A number of them were unknown to us but we enjoyed it nevertheless.

A memorable moment was seeing these....

The Hall of Fame itself is a light and airy large circular room with plaques on the wall honouring anyone who's anyone in the business. 

The phrase "Will the circle be unbroken" is one we came across elsewhere. It relates to a very well-known (although not to us) country song, with strong religious connections, but the phrase seems to have been acquired by the business to refer to the continuation of the traditions of the genre.

After our visit we had lunch at the rooftop bar of Tootsie's Orchid Lounge on Broadway.

Tasteful and discreet, isn't it ?

We went in through the main door on Broadway and made our way through 3 floors to get to the roof terrace - it was mid-afternoon on Saturday and the place was rammed, with a different band playing on each level. We managed to get a table at the front corner and could hear live music coming from all directions - and on another rooftop across the street there was a wedding going on.

Early evening we drove about 20 minutes east to get to the Grand Ole Opry - we'd booked tickets months earlier. It's the longest running live radio show in the world and moved some time ago from the Ryman Theatre just off Broadway to its current huge venue.

A main feature is that they cut out a circle of wood from the centre of the Ryman stage and incorporated it into the new stage, so that current artists would be able to stand on the exact same floor that all their predecessors had. A nice idea and fits in with the "unbroken circle" concept I mentioned earlier.

The format is four half-hour segments each hosted by a different artist who sings one song and then introduces a couple of guests. The MC/announcer also doubles as the reader of frequent sponsor commercials.

The show was a mixture of old and new performers - Little Wille Dickens is 93 years old but still able to put on a good performance, wearing something that looked a bit like a mariachi suit.

Two singers who are in the TV series Nashville performed well - we loved the first series but somehow missed the second so we didn't know them. Apparently the third series is imminent so we'll need to catch up.

There was also a great bluegrass band from North Carolina who had a virtuoso fiddle player.

A guy called Bill Anderson, familiar to most but not to us, sang an entertaining song called Bubba Garcia's about the son of a redneck mother and mexican father opening a bar/restaurant.

In the final segment Ricky Skaggs introduced Ry Cooder but they only performed together - no RC alone - which was disappointing.

Altogether it was a great slice of American tradition which we enjoyed.

After dropping the car back at the hotel we got a cab back to Broadway. Started off with margaritas at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville bar - named after his famous song - and then on to the Wheel bar to see frenetic punk rockabilly outfit, which reminded us a lot of a band called the Cats who we'd seen a couple of times at the Colne Festival.

Country Music

Why isn't country music more popular in the UK ? 
Would it be if it got more airtime ?
The music is almost always very accessible and the quality is generally very high.
Is it a cultural thing ?  i.e. songs about pickup trucks, highways and rodeos don't travel very well ?
I'm sure people would write great songs about Fiat Puntos, the A41 and bingo if there was a market for it.
But there's a lot more content which would seem to be universal.
And there can be a lot of humour as well. One song we heard a number of times was called "Drunk on a plane" about a guy whose fiancee had called off the wedding and, as he couldn't get a refund on the honeymoon tickets, he was going to Cancun anyway - alone. And getting drunk on the plane.
A lovely song, sad and funny at the same time.

Another one we picked up on during a previous trip is "All my Ex's live in Texas" (great rhyme) - it goes "All my ex's live in Texas, which is why I hang my hat in Tennessee"

I could go on - but if people ignore country music I guess it's their loss.

Nashville, Tennessee to Rosine, Kentucky

Day 10 - Friday, September 19

We drove downtown and parked near the river and walked for a while. There is a huge new park being constructed along the riverfront. We wandered through the historic 2nd Avenue area which had a nice atmosphere and around midday the live music started in all Lower Broadway bars - mainly solo or duos at this time of day, so it was lower key than the more raucous feel of the previous evening. Many places were filling up with a lunchtime crowd. 
We stopped at a place called Rippy's where there was a nice male/female duo playing and singing - songs which were very familiar to most of the clientele if not to us.

After lunch we left Nashville to head up into Kentucky. We were staying in Central City in order to spend the evening at a place called Rosine - it was about 30 miles away but this was the nearest decent hotel we could find.
I'd read that every Friday evening in a big barn in Rosine local musicians gather to play bluegrass music. It sounded like it might be entertaining. 
Rosine is a tiny place and we had no problem finding the barn - a number of vehicles outside and the place about 3/4 full inside.
It could have been a highlight of the trip but, to be honest, the music wasn't great although the atmosphere was nice and people-watching the locals was interesting. A number of oldish guys in bib overalls with long beards - who looked like they'd come straight from the fields. 
To our dismay we found that this is a dry county so the only refreshment on offer was coke and popcorn.
After a couple of hours or so we headed off to nearby Beaver Dam where we found an old chrome-style diner with red/black/white interior. Lovely.   

Memphis to Nashville via Sun and Nutbush

Day 9 - Thursday, September 18

Checked out of the hotel and the first stop was only a few hundred yards along Union Avenue at Sun Studio.
This is the legendary place where Elvis made his first records and where so many other greats recorded. It's only small and a guide takes you through the two rooms - the first of which tells the history of Sun (and of rock and roll), via artefacts and a soundtrack. It was very well done and the guide was a very enthusiastic young guy who really seemed to relish the story.
He took us through early recordings of Howlin' Wolf, to Rocket 88 by the band led by Ike Turner Band (arguably the first rock and roll record) and on to Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison - playing the relevant tracks at each point.
And then we were taken downstairs into the studio (still used to record during the evenings)
which has been retained just as it was. There is a wonderful photo on the wall - in the room where it was taken - showing Elvis at the piano with Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash standing behind him.
That's it also on the outside of the building

We were told that the microphone there is the original - I'm always a bit sceptical about these things but it didn't stop me having a look........

and yes, I know, my stage posture needs a little work...............

The visit to Sun was a very worthwhile experience.

And then we left Memphis.

I got a little bit of stick for what came next. We were heading for Nashville which is only a few hours drive up the interstate but I wanted to do a detour to go through Nutbush - I knew it was tiny with not a lot to see but I wanted to go anyway - see the comments in an earlier post about Rosedale and Winslow - but I'm afraid I hadn't communicated this as fully as I might have to my travelling companions. 
So when we arrived there was a degree of disappointment - along the lines of "why the bloody hell have you brought us here ?".

This was why......

but, clearly, they couldn't even get the damn sign right......

But there is also this......

There are two of them - one at the beginning of town in each direction.
They are about 200 yards apart............

And this gives a flavour of the place...

But it's still a cracking record and very time I hear it in future I'll remember our visit.

A few miles down the road we stopped at a diner in Brownsville for some lunch. It was only when were already inside that we realised it was a chinese buffet diner - unusual, but we for stuck in and it was very good. We're normally very wary of buffets - food sitting around for long periods and then maybe again the next day......... - but this seemed to be fine.

We finally arrived in Nashville late afternoon and after a rest and wash and brush up headed down to Broadway. It's about a 20 minute walk but we saw a guy in a golf cart waiting outside the hotel - he runs people around town for tips and on the way he gave us some info about the city. He had a radio going and as we crested Broadway and got our first sight of the lights of all the bars at the bottom of the hill in front of us, with Jimi Hendrix playing Purple Haze it was a memorable moment.

When we got out there was immediately a tremendous buzz - lots of lights, people, bars - all with live bands so that there was music coming from all directions.
Some of the places have several floors with a different band playing on each floor.
Virtually all the bars are narrow but go back a long way. The band is usually positioned just to the side of the entrance door so you have to pass them on the way in and out. This seemed to have two advantages - the sound easily gets out into the street to attract people in, and everyone has to pass the band's tips bucket on the way out. The normal routine is for there to be no cover charge or entry fee, but every hour or so they take a short break while someone goes around with the bucket. 
It was tough to choose so we pick a place with a decent crowd inside and a band which sounded good from the pavement - a bar called Second Fiddle. Then next door to Robert's Western World and on to Honky Tonk Central - all big bars with great atmosphere and very good musicians.
Then dinner at Merchant's Restaurant - good but huge - and the on to the Whiskey Bent bar where there was an excellent band being led by a fill-n singer who was great - really got the crowd (lots of drunk young women) going. Seriously good fun and we stayed till very late.
If you enjoy music and drinking, this is the place.

And when we finally decided to call it a night there were plenty of taxis around for us to get back to hotel. 

Greenwood to Memphis - a day of legends and history

Day 8 - Wednesday, September 17


An early start because we wanted to get back to Memphis by early afternoon and there were things to see along the way.
The first stop was at Robert Johnson's grave on a back road just north of Greenwood - an informal graveyard - just a patch of grass really - next to a small country church.

His grave is at the back, almost in the trees, and various items had been left - empty bourbon bottles, plectrums etc.

It was a lovely peaceful spot.

On via backroads to Parchman, home of the legendary Parchman Farm - the Mississippi State Penitentiary. 

On the way, we passed this

I don't think that it's the Tallahatchie Bridge but it's certainly a Tallahatchie Bridge.

Nothing much to see at Parchman other than the trail marker outside the main gate.

The next stop was Tutwiler. It was allegedly here that WC Handy heard  a street musician singing about "...Goin' where the Southern cross the Dog", was inspired by the sound and went on to develop it into the blues. His song "Yellow Dog Blues", later recorded by Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong among others, apparently derived from this encounter.

Maybe.......

The line above refers to a point in nearby Moorhead where two rail lines - The Southern Railroad and the Yazoo Delta Railroad (also referred to as the "Yellow Dog" (Y.....  D....) which was then shortened to "The Dog") - crossed at right angles.

The junction is preserved as a historical site....

Near Tutwiler is another gravesite - this time that of Sonny Boy Williamson.Again an informal graveyard and again various artefacts, including harmonicas, left at the grave.

He is the first delta blues singer I remember ever seeing - on TV in about 1964/65. A number of performers were doing a tour following up the success people like the Stones, Yardbirds and John Mayall had been having in covering their music. 

The last stop on the way back to Memphis was at Vance where there is a trail marker commemorating the fact that John Lee Hooker grew up there.

When I was planning the route, I'd taken time to create playlists on Spotify, including the music of as many as possible of the people noted on the markers we would visit. It was quite special to travel through the region listening to the songs created by all these influential people.

When we arrived back in Memphis we went directly to the Civil Rights Museum (stopping first for lunch at the excellent Central BBQ restaurant next door). The museum is based in the Lorraine Motel which is where Martin Luther King was murdered in 1968. The outside of the building has been retained as it was, so the balcony is still there and readily recognisable from the news reports of the time.

The museum itself is an outstanding collection of artefacts, documents and displays covering the origins of slavery and the subsequent efforts to achieve first emancipation and then equality. There is much about the turmoil in the South in the 1960s.

Perhaps the thing most shocking/surprising to me was a recording of a telephone conversation between President Kennedy and the Governor of Mississippi when there was a huge amount of violent unrest going on as people were trying to enforce their constitutional rights to equality - Kennedy clearly wanted only for the governor to put a lid on the situation. Not at all in line with the image of Kennedy as an enlightened force for freedom.

The museum was fascinating and informative but I came away thinking that I would have liked to have learned more from the other (white) point of view. What were they thinking at the time, what do they think now in retrospect about what they did at the time, and what do they think now about the changes which have occurred in the last 40 years or so ?

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the top of Beale Street to see the Elvis statue..

Later we had dinner at McEwan's restaurant near the hotel  (very good - proper food with even some vegetables) and then went to BB King's club on Beale Street. We paid a $5 cover charge each and were there for 2 hours during which the band was on stage for only about 45 minutes (between 8.45 and 10.45 i.e. peak time !!) - and, even then, they seemed to be largely going through the motions. Not good.

So we went back to the Blues Hall where a great band was playing who sadly got hijacked after a few numbers by a girl at a table near the front who wanted to sing with them. She did but she couldn't - so we went next door to the Rum Boogie Bar where then excellent 901 Blues Band entertained us very well.

And during the evening I added another statue to my growing collection....

The inscription is not clear in the dark - it's W.C. Handy in the eponymous park on Beale Street.