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For his fans he never really left us but, get this, a hologram of the King of the Blues as BB comes back to life at 100 in Mississippi.

All thanks to our friends at Visit Mississippi, with whom we shared an unforgettable odyssey along the Blues Trail.

And who are only unveiling a life-size hologram of BB.

Who is set to take the stage at Club Ebony at the BB King Museum in his home town of Indianola.

In a full concert performance on September 13.

Where you can see him sing again his most beloved songs, including The Thrill is Gone.

BB’s Big Birthday

Club Ebony has been renovated in 2023 ahead of BB’s Big Birthday.

All of which gets the thumbs-up from his daughter Karen Williams.

‘I’m absolutely amazed at what the museum is doing with this wonderful tribute to my father,’ she said.

On the right track: Bandanaman on the Blues Trail

‘I have a two-fold wish – that he had lived to be one hundred so we would still have him.

‘And also that he could see all these celebrations. They are more than what any of us had expected.

‘My Dad was a one-of-a-kind people person, and he loved people almost as much as he loved playing the blues.

Just the ticket

Visit Mississippi and the Mississippi Blues Trail commission recently honoured the B.B. King Museum & Delta Interpretive Center.

With the unveiling of a NEW Mississippi Blues Trail marker.

That recognises the museum’s dedication to preserving and celebrating the life, music, and legacy of the Great Man himself.

Of course, for many of us, our first close connection with BB is in Memphis at his iconic Beale Street club.

And while we all, of course, got into the spirit of the Blues band from the balcony above.

And as luck would have it I still have a drinks voucher in the pocket of an old waistcoat I never wear.

Singing the Blues

For the Dutch member of our party (and I’d always recommend at least one) BB King’s was where he got the chance to live out a dream.

And get up on the stage and play trumpet and get paid into the bargain.

Which is how they do it in the Deep South, and as it should be.

Of course, when BB comes back to life at 100 in Mississippi in a hologram that might be one way around it.

America, Countries, Music

The Merseyssippi Blues

4th November 20244th November 2024 funtime65

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.

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

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.

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

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.

America, Countries, Music

Where Y’all Country roads lead

30th September 202430th September 2024 funtime65

And as the world remembers the Kolossal Kris Kristofferson today we take the opportunity to revisit where Y’all Country roads lead.

Tennessee and Mississippi, the centres of the music world, billing themselves as the birthplace of Country, as well as Blues and rock’n’roll.

You can follow in the footsteps of those titans of their genre, as we did, along the Mississippi Blues trail.

And converge at the crossroads where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for playing the guitar.

And pay pilgrimage at Sun Studio and Graceland to the King of Rock’n’roll in Memphis, Tennessee.

A night at the Opry

Y’all Country roads, we know, end up leading to The Grand Ole Opry which celebrates its 100th centenary next year.

The world’s longest-running radio programme will have more shows on their calendar than ever before in 2025.

All of which give visitors more opportunities to see a performance live and in person all year long.

And all year long too you can live Country music at the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum in downtown Nashville.

The world’s largest music museum, it boasts more than 350,000sqft of galleries and displays.

The collection includes Carl Perkins’ blue suede shoes, Elvis’ Cadillac and gold piano and Hank Williams’ Western-cut suit with musical note appliqués.

The current exhibition is Luke Combs: The Man I am.

Get Carters

Dynamic duo: Johnny Cash and June Carter

For those who wish to take the journey on at the Smithsonian The Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, Tennessee.

And hear the story of the 1927 Bristol Sessions and the Carter family and Jimmie Rodgers shaped Country music.

Through multiple theatre experiences, interactive displays, texts and artifact.

Pathways to success

For a state with only 7 million natives, Tennessee sure punches above its musical weight.

And you can learn more if you take the Tennessee Music Pathways which tells the story of the state’s musical heritage and its influences around the world and its live music scene.

The lives and careers of Mississippi’s trailblazing country music artists, from the “Father of Country Music,” Jimmie Rodgers, to the “First Lady of Country Music,” Tammy Wynette, are immortalized on the state’s Country Music Trail.

Historic markers have been placed throughout Mississippi to mark important country music sites.

And commemorate Mississippians who have contributed to the music genre.

With, of course, Elvis’s birthplace Tupelo, Jimmie Rodgers’ grave in Meridian and Charley Pride’s hometown of Sledge.

New on the scene

And introducing Mississippi’s newest country music attraction Marty Stuart’s Congress of Country Music in Philadelphia, Mississippi.

The five-time Grammy winner is developing a 50,000sqft campus featuring a performing arts centre.

And, coming soon, a world-class country music museum stocked with items from his personal collection.

America, Countries, Deals, Europe, Food & Wine, UK

Czech Pilsner is the first among Urquells

14th August 202414th August 2024 funtime65

A toast to Scottish lager Innis & Gunn on winning gold in the Olympics of Beer, but patriotism aside Czech Pilsner is the first among Urquells for us.

Innis & Gunn’s successes in the Country and Taste Categories and silver in the Taste category at the World Beer Awards is deserved for a fuller lager.

With Scotland not known for its lager, whisky yes, but amber nectar.

With the electric fizzy Tennent’s the template for the less sophisticated Scottish palate.

Until, of course, you get out to see what proper lager is all about at the Nirvana of Nectar, Oktoberfest in Munich.

Not that any amount of Tennent’s can prepare you for steins of the finest Hofbrau, Lowenbrau or Paulaner.

Thing is though that once savoured you’ll never go back to electric fizzy beer.

And so began a life mission to road test as many different lagers.

Across the world’s great lager-drinking nations of the world to find out which is best.

So here are my alternative podium, my 1-2-3, or top of the froths if you will.

Czechs mate

Look at the head on that: Zatec, Czech Republuc

Pilsner Urquell: And any reason to flag up the oft-repeated claim that the Czechs drink more lager than any other country in the world per head of population.

And that Czech Pilsner is the first among Urquells.

Our Bohemian friends don’t just drink it, they also bathe in it.

And dedicate astronomical clocks to it and have competitions measuring the girth of their beer bellies, as they do in Zatec.

And if you want to try something more left-field then the Loket Ruby beer was so good I took as much of it back with me in my luggage as I could.

Best of the Fest

Hofbrau: And a big-up to the classic Bavarian beer in an attempt to get my ban lifted from 1986.

For trying to split up Bayern and Nuremberg female football fans from fighting, for which I copped a broken nose.

Hofbrau, which is protected under the German Purity Law, is the quintessential Bavarian beer.

But don’t take the word of a tipsy Scot coralled by Aussies and Kiwis. Ask, of all people the Swedes.

During the Thirty Years’ War in 1632, Munich was besieged by Swedish troops but they came up with a wizard wheeze to get them to stop.

They offered the Swedes 23,168 litres from the Hofbräuhaus to spare their city.

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby: And a 24-hour bar in Munich

These days the celebrated Hofbrauhuis is the best place to clink your steins and sing Ein Prosit.

While your own award-winning Travel Editor is clearly being seen in a different light.

With Ruby Lilly and Ruby Rosi dropping me what they’re offering which is a 24-hour bar service for residents.

With rates from €331 per room per night during Oktoberfest, or from €123 at other times.

Check the Ruby Hotels website for rates, booking and the Oktoberfest Guide.

Beers to American IPA

Avery day’s a school day: With Travis in Colorado

American IPA: OK, I’m cheating here because every time I find a favourite American lager I go to another state and am knocked out by a new one.

I’ve been knocked over by lagers from Angel City Brewery in Los Angeles, perfect prep.

For your La La Land trip to see Los Angeles Angels baseball game.

Through Denver, which bills itself as the beer capital of the US.

And where because it’s the Mile High City you get twice as drunk for half as much.

And Colorado and Avery Brewing Company where Travis works as a beerologist.

Tracing ancient booze from the Biblical times… and I still want his job.

Down to Texas and its Shiner Bock which will salve even the salsaiest Tex-Mex food.

Popping into Mississippi and sopping up your soul food and grits.

Before paying tribute to Old Sam himself, Samuel Adams in Boston, the birthplace of the American Revolution and the American story at Samuel Adams Tap Rooms.

America, Countries, Europe, Ireland, UK

Dragging up the statue debate

9th April 20239th April 2023 funtime65

News that 70,000 fans have signed a petition to have an erection of Paul O’Grady (he’d appreciate that) put up in his hometown Birkenhead sees us dragging up the statue debate again.

Whether the proposed O’Grady statue over the Mersey from Liverpool would be of pets’ pal Paul with a beloved pooch.

Or his beloved alter ego, Lily Savage, a celebration of this towering figure would be most welcome.

We make no apologies for dredging up this contentious subject again because simply put statues are a fixture of every tourist’s city break trip.

And it is our mission to redress the balance.

By putting up more cultural figures on pedestals to match, replace or overtake the mystery military statues that look down on us.

Who’s a hero?

A horse, a horse: Stonewall Jackson at Manassas

Statues was all the talk in of all places Barbados a few years ago.

When the Ski Club of Virginia made their annual pilgrimage down to the Caribbean.

And our new friends from the Deep South were alerting us to the gathering storm.

Over the statues of the Confederate leaders proliferating there.

Which I saw for myself when I went out to Virginia.

And visited Manassas, site of the first fighting in the Civil War, and home to Stonewall Jackson.

And alas the fighting was to resume not long after on the streets again.

I was fortunate to illicit the opinions of those on both sides of the divide through further adventures in the Deep South.

And meet the likes of Dr Martin Luther King and his unfinished statue in Washington DC.

And Fannie Lou Hamer, the little big woman who got tired of being tired in Mississippi.

The extraordinary ordinary

In the name of dog: Greyfriars Bobby in Edinburgh

Of course for every celebrated soldier, conceited king or quaffed queen there are real heroes and heroines who have rightly been placed in marble and stone.

Such as Anne Frank in Amsterdam, Workers’ champion Jim Larkin in Dublin or devoted doggie Greyfriars Bobby in Edinburgh.

Ah yes, you’ll see the message we’re sending out here, more children, women, working-class heroes and animals.

Gay giants

And LGBTQ+ champions and more drag queens.

Our trawl of statues turns up unexpectedly and disappointingly precious few of either.

Again our beloved Ireland leads the way somewhat and in spite of its repressive Catholic past.

With the louche and lounging statue of Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square.

While he is lauded and lipsticked in his gravestone in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, his last resting place.

Where Wilde led, the likes of Harvey Milk, the ‘Mayor of Castro Street’ in San Francisco.

Whose bust smiles at us from its plinth in City Hall, followed.

And Greenwich Village in New York, spiritual home for the Gay Liberation Movement, made a statement with a bust to Marsha P Johnson.

All of which makes the case for more statues which truly represent the people who live among them and represent them.

Redressing the balance

Alas, here in the UK as in most places representation is in short supply.

With only Alan Turing, the decoder who helped defeat Hitler, represented long after he was vilified and criminalised for his homosexuality.

So let’s hear it for the real heroes and heroines of our society.

Those we can identify with and look up to.

And that’s who I want to be looking at it on my city breaks.

And why I’m dragging up the statue debate again.

America, Countries, Music

Grammys boomers

4th February 20234th February 2023 funtime65

They must have seen something in my re-recording of John Lee Hooker to reach out to me for my Grammys boomers.

And ask me for my vote… although I dare say the judges have made up their minds already about who they will be rewarding this Monday, February 6.

Now if you don’t get an invite out to LA for the big prize-giving or miss the broadcasts fear not.

Because the Grammy Museum themselves will give you everything any music fan will ever need.

Disney sound bad

The Grammy Museum (no, there are three) are the Disney of musical exhibitions.

And helpfully like Walt’s wonderlands they are spread around to be near you.

If you live in the States.

Or travelling, and believe me if you are near Los Angeles, Newark, Nashville or Cleveland, Mississippi, then tick off a Grammy before you head home.

Hooker by crook

Yes, you’ll get a chance to make your own re-record of Blues legend Hooker.

At the end of your odyssey around the history of music.

But be sure to leave yourself enough time.

Because you’ll find yourself dwelling at all the other boards and exhibitions along the way.

And your party, or the staff, will have to remind you that they have places to go.

The exhibits, of course, are being currently updated alongside the staples.

I want my Mississippi

And so we can look forward to celebrating MTV turning 40 from May 13-February 19.

With the tagline the memorable refrain from Dire Straits ‘I want my MTV’.

While the Deep South, the cradle of the Blues, Soul, Jazz and Rock’n’roll obviously runs right through the Cleveland museum.

And you’d do well too to run right through the Blues trail which covers Tennessee and Mississippi.

Rock it

Here at the Grammy Museum Cleveland they are in the middle of a year of celebrating the Sounds of Southern Rock too until September 3.

And among the exhibits are Duane Allman’s and Dickey Betts’ Gibson guitars.

And that namecheck just allows me to show off, with me rocking Prince‘s guitars with a colleague strumming BB King‘s guitar Lucille.

They were all called after her which all BB fans will know but I still like to remind everyone anyway.

And that as they say is a wrap for today.

So enjoy the awards next week and do get along to the museums and take in the Grammys Boomers.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

America, Countries, Cruising

To Miss With Love From Lulu

18th January 202318th January 2023 funtime65

A twist on the old favourite To Sir With Love… To Miss With Love From Lulu.

This Miss is Mississippi and the good news is that Sixties icon Lulu will be rolling, rolling, rolling down the river.

On a cruise along the river and through the American heartland.

Imagine Holidays bills its 12-night package thus: ‘From its rich complex history to its multitude of dialects, bubbling mix of cuisine to its colourful neighbourhoods and passion for music…

‘The bold and beautiful Deep South is a region that dances to its own unique rhythm.’

For anyone who has witnessed the journey of Marie Lawrie (her real name) from wee Glasgow lass to transcontinental superstar will know.

That she has a multitude of dialects as she showed in one return for the 1990 New Year’s Day celebrations in George Square in Glasgow.

Of course, I couldn’t talk… no, literally, I was too far gone to. And when I did find my voice I was speaking in tongues.

Rolling down the river

Lulu, of course, is the consummate professional and she will of course nail it.

The Mississippi is very much on the radar of my own little songbird here at home.

And I have promised to take her out there to Memphis which of course is a hotbed of music.

And that is embedded in the very river itself where one of the bridges is named the Dolly Parton bridge (you work it out yourself).

Memphis magic

Welcome to the Jungle: Elvis’s Jungle Room

You’ll get three nights in Memphis before the off staying in a swanky hotel.

Arriving during the vivid and thrilling Carnival Season, you’ll be immersed in Memphis’s colourful streets, with bunting and festival decor.

Naturally you’ll visit Elvis’s Graceland and learn about the birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll during a visit to the Smithsonian Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum.

From here, you’ll embark American Queen, the largest steamboat ever built, for a journey along the Mississippi.

The Big Easy

Take in the antebellum mansions, the historical port of Vicksburg, the oldest city on the Mississippi.

St. Francisville boasts a lifestyle of a bygone era, and Nottoway, an exclusive stop where you’ll visit the largest standing antebellum mansion in the south.

Your cruise ends in the unique New Orleans and enjoy two nights in the Big Easy.

Exploring the French Quarter and the charming neighbourhoods of the Garden District and Treme.

Learn about city culture and history as you venture along Frenchmen Street and Esplanade Avenue, and marvel at magnificent sites including St. Louis Cathedral, Cabildo, The Presbytere.

Queen of ships

The American Queen certainly lives up to its name judging by the specs.

We’re encouraged to dine on delectable flavours in the elegant J.M White Dining Room.

Soak up the sun from the top deck and enjoy live music performances including the lovely Lulu.

And expertly crafted cocktails in the Engine Room Bar.

While there’s also award-winning, Broadway-calibre entertainment in the Grand Saloon.

So why not take up the offer To Miss With Love From Lulu. Prices from £3499pp, depart February 16 2024.

Africa, America, Countries, Ireland, UK

A town called Patrick

17th March 202217th March 2022 funtime65

Happy St Patrick’s Day everyone and here off pat around the world we celebrate you if you’re from a town called Patrick.

And there are surprisingly few too.

There are only eight Patricks across three countries.

McCool kid

And even more startlingly none are in the country where St Patrick is most celebrated, Ireland.

But in an island in the Irish Sea, all right, the Isle of Man.

Patrick (population 1,576) is in fact more of a parish, in the west of the isle, than a town.

The Isle of Man, of course, is a well-trodden soil for the Irish…

Mighty craic

And the craic there is always 80.

Of course it was invented when Irish giant Finn McCool was chasing a Scottish giant across Ulster.

He picked up a handful of earth and chucked it at him…

The sod created the Isle of Man and the crater he left behind is now Lough Neagh.

Moving on, and such was the footprint that the Irish have left on the USA that you won’t be surprised to see some Patricks there.

Off Pat in the USA

And so you’ll see a Patrick in Mississippi, Nevada, Arkansas, South Carolina, Kentucky and Texas.

Whisper it but the Patrick commemorated isn’t our snake-chasing saint.

The Nevada one is an American soldier Patrick McCarran, who bought the land and also begat a US senator.

The Texas a postmaster Patrick Gallagher.

Both obvs Irish-American.

Now we can only imagine Patrick and its region St Patrick (see we got one) in Lesotho is the Irish missionary influence in Africa.

The land-locked mountainous country is completely encircled by South Africa.

But it is timely to mention that it resisted the interference of South Africa and continues to do so.e

Even if it that means a continuing water dispute.

Water of the good life

Of course, today is more about the Guinness than the water.

And so if you’re a Patrick, come from a place called Patrick, or a region St Patrick’s.

As in the region north-west of Sir Grantley Adams Airport, Barbados.

Then you’ve got an extra reason to celebrate today on St Patrick’s Day.

We celebrate you if you’re from a town called Patrick.

America, Countries, Europe, Ireland, UK

A kick in the baubles

18th December 202118th December 2021 funtime65

A kick in the baubles… I’ve lost my battle with The Scary One and her apprentice.

It’s five years since our MLK50 group was serenaded with Merry Christmas Everyone by a Southern singer at an antebellum guesthouse.

The Southern Ball

Southern baubles and belles: Mississippi

And every year when I see the Fairview Inn bauble from Jackson, Mississippi, I think of that Deep South Family…

Her, her husband and their eight kids.

This year though I have to crane my head around the back of the tree to see the Mississippian bauble.

Because The Scary One and her mini-me have decided to hide it there behind glittery shop decorations.

It is a daily ding-dong to get my baubles on the tree…

My belle and her baubles

We both love Venice so the Grand Canal bauble makes it.

While my Irish harp (an extra greening this year didn’t go down well).

Countered, of course, by the red phone box, a symbol of Englishness.

And a sorting hat and Harry Potter’s Gryffindor scarf.

Tigger doesn’t deserve to sit below Potter but I expect him to get up the tree.

He has the bounce after all.

A Christmas laaf

Up there and deservedly so are my favourite urchins, the Laafs I fell in love with in Ireland.

But who hail from the Netherlands.

Baubles were born in Germany as was the Christmas tree.

So if you were able to get to one of their Christmas markets then you know how tinseltastic they are.

Birthplace of baubles

Lauscha is the birthplace of the bauble and celebrates it every November with its kugelmarket.

Yes, you guessed it, it translates as bauble market.

And it all started in the glassworks of this German mountain town near the Czech border.

With craftsman Hans Greiner moulding the ornaments into the shape of fruit and nuts in 1847 and exporting them to Britain.

Neither of which would work with Santa’s little helper in Chez Murty who clears the tree of hanging chocolate every year.

Before moving my keepsake… it’s a real kick in the baubles.

America, Countries, Culture, Music

The Deep South have a lot to sing and write about

2nd September 20212nd October 2021 funtime65

‘Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… that’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’ And doesn’t Harper Lee’s state Alabama and the Deep South have a lot to sing and write about.

That great novel, To Kill A Mockingbird was 60 years old last year.

And it is regularly listed as one of the public’s favourite books and Harper Lee is rightly celebrated in the Deep South state.

So much so that the good residents of her own Monroeville homestead live the story every year.

With the locals actually becoming part of the cast alongside Jem, Scout, Boo Ridley, Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson.

Part of the cast

Every April and May, a version of Mockingbird is put on by people from the community.

And you’ll see the jury preside over Tom Robinson’s trial is selected from the audience before each performance.

While just a short drive away lies Montgomery where Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald lived from 1931-32 and where Scott worked on Tender is the Night.

You can visit the Jazz Age couple’s Felder Avenue home is now the site of the F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald Museum.

And a two-bedroom apartment that can be booked by literary lovers on Airbnb.

The Sound of the South

It is no coincidence that Hollywood mines the Deep South for epic movies.

William Faulkner, the Poet Laureate of the South says it better than ya’ll could.. certainly this scribbler.

Faulkner is the author of the classic The Sound and the Fury.

And he opined: ‘I discovered that my own little postage stamp of native soil was worth writing about and that I would never live long enough to exhaust it.’

And you can learn much more about Faulkner and other alumni from the Magnolia State including Richard Wright and Eurdora Welty on The Mississippi Writers Trail.

All of which is a good bookend to the Mississippi Blues Trail which of course is richly infused through the Civil Rights Struggle.

While Faulkner will forever be linked to the Deep South, that too is the case for Tennessee Williams. Well, how could it not as he carried it around the state in his name?

Good ole Southern Boys

Like many famous Tennessee legends, like BB King and Elvis Presley he is in fact a Mississippian.

The Deep South includes Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi & Tennessee.

And to immerse yourself in the region is to step right into the pages of these great storytellers.

Yes, truly, the Deep South have a lot to sing and write about.