Tag: http://www.msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/documenting-the-blues

America, Countries, Music

The Merseyssippi Blues

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It’s 4,351 miles between Jackson and Liverpool but nothing between them musically which is why today we’re celebrating the Merseyssippi Blues.

The blues and rock’n’roll-inspired Beatles and Merseybeat assured Liverpool’s place in the musical landscape.

And so it was only natural that when the string-plucking musicos of the Magnolia State decided to branch out.

Access all area: At the Cavern

To mark the Blues beyond their borders they decamped to Liverpool.

To unveil a Mississippi Blues Trail Marker, their first in Britain, at the Cavern Club where the Beatles made their names.

And where the Sixties British musical invasion of America took shape.  

And where now stands a special Blues plaque at the Club to commemorate the special relationship.

Devilishly good music

At the Crossroads: Dockery Plantation

How better then to mark the occasion than through music?

And who better than a Johnson… award-winning Mississippi blues artist James ‘Super Chikan’ Johnson?

Known for his electrifying shows at Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale.

No strings: Makeshift Blues

Super Chikan obvs has a Blues birthright as a Johnson.

Nobody did more for the Blues before BB King than Robert Johnson who sold his soul to play guitar at the crossroads at Dockery Plantation.

Which is the centre point for any music fan’s odyssey on the Mississippi Blues Trail.

Love, love me Blues

A Jay in the life: Jay Johnson

If Johnson is Blues royalty then Lennon is Beatles royalty.

And Julia Baird, John’s half-sister, represented the Fab Four, was there to roll out the Blues carpet for the Mississippians.

Of course, just as Johnson’s Crossroad should be on anybody’s visit to Mississippi.

Then the Cavern and the Beatles Story and any one of The Beatles tours out of the club should be on a tourist’s Liverpool itinerary.

And what better than the Magical Mystery Tour, run by Holly Johnson’s brother Jay.

See, it’s all circular.

So if you live on this island why not start your Deep South odyssey at the Cavern Club, the home of the Merseyssippi Blues.

Africa, America, Countries, Culture, Europe, Oceania, UK

Route 66 in an electric car

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It’s the world’s favourite road trip… but get your kicks on Route 66 in an electric car.

In the style of this site, of course, I’m working backwards!

I’ve forgotten something

At the end of Route 66, Santa Monica Pier, Southern California, on a scorching summer day.

Or a motorbike

Rev up: For Route 66

Your motorbike, the cooler choice, will have to pull up before the pedestrianised pier, and landmark.

We were first introduced to Route 66 from the classic song where we were encouraged to get our kicks.

As an introduction we are told it’s 2000 miles from Chicago to LA.

Smalltown America

There are bridges too

And in time-honoured American songs fashion a list of smalltown US follows and states.

We get Saint Looey, Joplin Missouri, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico, Flagstaff Arizona, Winona, Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino…

You get the picture.

And yes, I still have to get those stickers for my luggage.

Although I have a clunking keyring to fool people into thinking I‘ve done the hipsters’ highway.

Why am I flagging up Route 66 today? Well, why not?

But it also tops a survey commissioned by Continental Tyres for the new Extreme-E.

The Great Road Trips

Drive your ass off: On Route 66

Route 66 holds off Pacific Coast Highway and the Great Ocean Road in Australia for the top spot.

Wild Atlantic Way

While a cursory glance of the top ten also highlights Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way and South Africa’s Garden Way.

Now like all of those with adventure in out blood I have relished getting out on the road though perhaps not the iconic ones.

Snow in Mississippi

Rocket man: In Mississippi

And so I drove/was driven through the flatlands of the Blues Trail in Mississippi on my Deep South odyssey.

Where I fell asleep through the repetition and woke up with the fields covered white.

And, no, I wasn’t dreaming. Mississippians call cotton Snow.

Driven around the bend

Magical mystery tour: In Baviaanskloof

Or our own circuitous route around Monaghan’s townlands trying to find the Patrick Kavanagh Centre.

And being driven aimlessly around a South African park in the Eastern Cape late at night.

And that’s why the Lord gave zebras white stripes

Continental Tyres runs down the top 10 UK road trips and Scotland takes the plaudits with its North Coast 500.

While it’s good to see the Coastal Circuit in Northern Ireland getting a namecheck too.

The vital spark

Now electric cars are to be commended but I’m not sure how popular they would be with the Route 66 set.

I mean how many charging points would you need over that 2,000 mile expanse.

Never mind keeping up the cool quotient.

But the highway’s going nowhere and you’ll get longer to enjoy it.

So Get your kicks on Route 66 in an electric car.