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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, Music

King for the day in Memphis

14th August 2023 funtime65

For Dutchie it was his first paying gig and few better places than BB’s Blues Club, he was what he‘d always wanted to be… King for the day in Memphis.

You don’t, of course, have to possess the guitar-playing abilities of Dutchie to fulfil your musical dreams in Memphis.

Or be asked by Muriel to do a little number at ‘the Hollywood’ to be rockin’ in Memphis.

You just ideally need the services of insiders who know the town.

Like, say our friends at Irish travel providers Cassidy.

Anyone for Tennessee

Memphis, and Tennessee as a whole, has indeed been richly blessed for music.

Maybe that’s down to the gospel choirs or their antithesis, the devil’s drinking dens that spawned the likes of Robert Johnson.

Who famously sold his soul to the Devil so he could play perfect Blues guitar.

But Memphis, adopted home of WC Handy, BB, Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes and actual birthplace of JT, Justin Timberlake, is the gift that keeps on giving.

I got rhythm

As are Cassidy’s, who again bring us another package ‘Rhythms of the South, which is music to our ears, a four-nighter from €1,529 with flights from Dublin.

You’ll travel out on December 2 and get to stay four nights at the 3* Holiday Inn Nashville.

And three nights at the 4* Doubletree Hotel Memphis.

A night at the Opry

Now in a state so richly blessed for music as Tennessee there’s naturally a friendly rivalry.

As to which is considered the most musical city.

Of course, you can always settle that debate by just claiming it, as has Nashville.

By putting it in your marketing… Nashville Music City.

Because Nashville, home of the Grand Ole Opry and country music has become more, much more than that.

Nashville boasts 150 live venues, many of them Honky Tonk bars.

Where you can hear the best With more country, rock’n’roll, jazz, bluegrass, folk, and Americana.

Tale of two Southern cities

Ten feet off of Beale: Walkin’ in Memphis

Now should you be curious to know the difference between Memphis and Nashville and that’s the journalist in me.

Then my old friend Tennessean Heather, from our unforgettable Tennessee and Mississippi trip to trace Martin Luther King’s last days, helpfully explained.

If you want to meet someone in music in Memphis you just go up and introduce yourself.

In Tennessee you get your people to talk to their people and then you’re up and running.

Heather, is, of course a Memphian, and the best representative a city could want.

I was lucky enough to be introduced to their people, the Nashville delegation.

When they visited Dublin and partied with us.

And yes, they offered to introduce me to their people and come out to their city.

Which doggone I couldn’t at that time because I was jet setting off somewhere else.

Of course good ole Southern folk never forget y’all so we will get over.

Made of New Orleans

So whether you want to be King for the day in Memphis or Cash in in Nashville then just put yourself forward (Dutchie did) and let Cassidy do the rest.

And if you’ve the time complete your Southern musical odyssey down in ole New Orleans, home of jazz.

Cassidy offers aUSA Food Tour of Nashville, Memphis & New Orleans

Tastes and Sounds of the South is a ten-days/ five cities/nine nights/nine breakfasts/four dinners bonanza.

They promise jazz, soul food, country music, and a whole lot of rock’n’roll.

Showcasing the rich culture of Memphis, Nashville, Natchez, and New Orleans, plus a trip to Graceland.

From €3,000pps, flights not included.

And when you do get to New Orleans say hi to me to jazz great Kermit Ruffles.

And remind him of how we rocked the San Antonio River Walk.

America, Countries, Deals, Music

Elvis – How Great Thou Art

8th January 20238th January 2023 funtime65

And I shall bow in humble adoration
Elvis – How Great Thou Art

Happy 88th birthday Elvis – How Great Thou Art.

And if there is a heaven then Elvis will be on a cloud singing to Gladys and Vernon and his twin Jesse.

It was to How Great Thou Art, one of Elvis’s favourite hymns, that The Great Man was guided to his rest at his funeral service.

All of which was fitting as The King of Kings was at heart a gospel singer.

And How Great Thou Art was one of his gospel standards.

Elvis’s last stand

There is surprisingly little evidence of how important faith was in the life of the Southern Baptist Boy around his home Graceland.

And visitors’ attention is mostly focused on the Jungle Room.

But the most moving corner of his Memphis home is outside in the Memorial Garden where Elvis lies for all eternity.

Next to his parents and the twin who did not survive birth.

And in the Games Room where Elvis, his girlfriend Ginger, and his cousin Billy and his wife Jo kicked back on his last day.

And played racquetball,

But more importantly where Elvis played two songs on his piano, Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain and Unchained Melody.

It is poignant to reflect that were Elvis still with us today then none of us would get beyond the big black door.

Priscilla’s promise

And, of course, we have Priscilla Presley to thank for that.

Alas, with every passing year there are fewer of those in Elvis’s inner circle to relay how Elvis lived.

With Billy Smith, the last survivor of the Memphis Mafia.

Although Priscilla, Lisa Marie and her kids are regular visitors where they stay in the roped off quarters upstairs.

For the rest of us, of course, there is Downtown Memphis within easy reach of Elvis touch points.

Sun Studio, Marlowe’s restaurant, where he had his own booth (well, you would) and Beale Street.

Be our guest

Or you could stay at the Guest House Graceland where you can attach a Graceland package.

With a stay, VIP tour + planes package for two from $335 or a Graceland Experience Package from $269.

All of which will mean you can devote the whole day to Elvis’s home and the warehouses which house his clothes and cars.

Of course music is always in the air as a reminder of his enduring appeal. Elvis – How Great Thou Art.

America, Countries, Music

Caught in a trap in Elvis’s wardrobe

3rd July 2022 funtime65

Can you just help me leaving… I’m caught in a trap in Elvis’s wardrobe?

Anybody who has been to Graceland (and you should) will know that you can get lost.

In the warehouses that stock his jumpsuits and his planes, bikes and cars.

Or was that just me? And I must admit I had a suspicious mind about my party leaving me there on my own to get lost.

Movie masterpiece

We get glimpses of Graceland in the epic Baz Luhrmann biopic of Elvis which we sang all the way through at the cinema.

But what you can’t appreciate until you actually get there is just how homely and remarkably unremarkable it is.

Sure, we’ve heard of the Jungle Room, but it’s really just a man cave with some Seventies wildlife furnishings.

While the dining room is a presentable front room where a family and their friends would feel comfortable.

It is here that Lisa Marie would say that Elvis would hold court in his hearty Deep South droll and they would all eat soul food.

The upstairs are roped off as that’s Priscilla, Lisa Marie’s and their family’s quarters.

Lisa Marie’s memories

But Elvis’s only child leaves us with a lasting image of the King in an audio reveal in the house.

When she explains that they would hear Elvis before they saw him come down the stairs.

On account of his clinking jewellery.

Butterfly collector: Elvis on stage

Elvis the icon, the superstar, of those jumpsuits and cars and planes, and guitars, pianos and platinum discs we already know.

But only in visiting Graceland and Memphis will you get an insight into Elvis’s home life and downtime.

Elvis’s Memphis

I’ll have what Elvis is having: Memphis diner

In the diner where he would come to eat his banana and peanut butter sandwiches.

And where he would leave his golf buggy outside.

There is still staff there who will say they met him and that they would exchange good wishes to each others’ families.

You can visit to landmarks in Elvis’s life… Sun Studio where he cut That’s Alright Mamma, and Lansky Bros on Beale Street.

And they proudly proclaim they are Clothier to the King.

All of which you’ll see in its glory in the jumpsuit warehouse I’m happy to be stuck in.

Elvis’s legacy

Elvis Presley continues to bring colour to our lives 45 years after he died, aged only 42.

And you get stuck in a trap in Elvis’s wardrobe.

I’ll take that, particularly if his music is on a reel, and I’m in great Graceland in magical Memphis.

America, Countries, Music

Remembering Hooker and the Blues Brothers

21st June 202120th June 2021 funtime65

Boom Boom Boom Boom, today’s Rainy Days is Remembering John Lee Hooker and The Blues Brothers.

And giving Hooker, 20 years dead today, headline status in our list of Bluesmen (and women).

By Hooker by crook

John Lee Hooker, Boom Boom: And John Lee sets the scene with a live Chicago street riff outside Nate’s Deli in The Blues Brothers, 40 years old this week.

Memorably Jake and Elwood prepare to enlist Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy despite the objections of Aretha Franklin.

And here’s where to channel your inner John Lee by recording Boom Boom at the Grammy Museum in his native Mississippi.

Mississippi Crossroads

Robert Johnson, Crossroads: And the most enduring legend in Blues surrounds Robert Johnson.

The bould Robert is said to have sold his soul to the devils at a crossroads in exchange for musical success.

A bit of an oul divil himself Johnson is said to have been poisoned by his lover’s husband.

This and so much more you can l van earn at the Dockery Plantation where he worked and played.

Lady Sings The Blues

Warrior: With Medgar Evers’ widow Myrlie in Mississippi

Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit: And we’re grateful here too to Diana Ross for playing Billie in the movie, and introducing her to a modern audience.

Strange Fruit is a haunting inditement on Deep South racism with the lynching of blacks compared to fruit on trees.

All of which you can explore at the Two Mississippi Museums, the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, in Jackson,

Mama knows best

Big Mama Thornton, Hound Dog: Now Deep South women are, of course, a force of nature.

And Willie Mae who gave the world (and Elvis) Hound Dog is all Mama.

And if you’re in the mood (course you are) then rock your best Elvis at Sun Studio in his home town, Memphis, Tennessee.

BB meets Bono

BB King and U2, When Love Comes To Town And when anyone comes to Memphis town they come to BB King’s Blues Club, Beale Street.

BB was thus named by a DJ. I’ll leave you to come up with an epithet for the bould Bono (oh, there’s one).

BB, of course, is much storied and he called all his guitars Lucille after a woman two dudes were fighting over.

In a burning building he’d been playing a concert in and he’d gone back into to save his guitar.

So of course we’re happy to be remembering Hooker and the Blues Brothers.

And all the Bluesmen and women.