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Riverdance and Aer Lingus tour

19th February 202517th March 2025 funtime65

Only in Ireland could they popularise a dance that looks like jumping up and down on hot coals with your hands tied behind your back but they have… and 30 years on we’re marking it with a Riverdance and Aer Lingus tour in double jig time.

Eurovision hadn’t seen anything like it, and they’d seen everything, when Irish-American hoofers Michael Flatley and Jean Butler took to The Point (now 3Olympia Theatre) stage in Dublin, sung by Anuna.

To fill in the seven-minute interval.

Now jigging with your hands behind your back might daunt some, particularly with 300 million people watching worldwide.

But not our Diaspora Dancers whose jigging spawned a worldwide phenomenon.

Which will be even bigger and better this year with a 30th anniversary tour which Ireland’s national air carrier is naturally getting on board to promote.

Atlantic crossing

Aer Lingus will support Riverdance as they perform across North America, the UK, and Ireland throughout 2025.

Riverdance will perform in 45 locations across the USA and Canada from January to June 2025.

And will, of course, include key Aer Lingus gateways.

Such as Michael’s sweet home Chicago and Jean’s city that never sleeps, New York.

And our favourites Boston, Toronto and Washington DC.

And homeward bound

Riverdance returns to its spiritual home of Ireland for a 14-week run at the Gaiety Theatre this summer.

And will also perform 30 dates across the UK later in 2025.

Including London’s Hammersmith Apollo, Manchester Opera House, and Liverpool’s Empire Theatre.

Before wrapping up their anniversary year in Belfast.

Introducing Indianapolis and Nashville

Of course the music never stops nor does Aer Lingus and they have two new destinations for 2025, Indianapolis and Nashville.

All of which brings the number of transatlantic routes operated by the airline from Dublin, Shannon and Manchester to 24.

And all with US preclearance in Dublin and Shannon airports.

Which means you can hotfoot it for the 30th anniversary Riverdance and Aer Lingus tour in double jig time.

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, 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, Music, UK

Hank Williams in Alabama

9th January 20239th January 2023 funtime65

As with so much in life where my great hero Billy Connolly goes I will follow which means to Hank Williams in Alabama.

Billy oft tells the story of how he first got into the banjo, his great musical love.

And the start point of his legendary entertainment career.

The Barras street market in Glasgow might seem an unlikely place to discover a Country legend.

But then many of the best people (Billy and Bandanaman) grew up in these streets.

And it was on one such stall that Billy’s dad bought Hank’s I’m So Lonely I Could Cry which prompted Billy to buy a banjo.

Hank’s for the memories

Billy, whose television travelogues are among the best anywhere, takes us to Hank’s gravestone in his Tracks Across America.

And texts his children and gets a photograph to tell him he’s there.

This year is a very special year for Hankophiles.

Hiram ‘Hank’ Williams was born on September 17 in Mount Olive, Alabama.

And Alabama naturally makes a big deal of their favourite son with a Hank Williams Trail.

It kicks off with a visit to his childhood home preserved as a museum in Georgiana, where he learned to play guitar from Black street musician Rufus “Tee-Tot” Payne. T

Then drive an hour north to Montgomery, where Hank moved in his teens, and pick up lunch as he did at Chris’s Hot Dogs.

Alabamaversary

Visit Montgomery’s Hank Williams Museum to see his stage costumes, guitars, and the 1952 blue Cadillac in which he died, aged just 29.

You can pay your respects at his grave, like Billy did in homage to Hank Williams in Alabama.

In nearby Oakwood Cemetery, marked by a marble cowboy hat.

Of course, in a state where music is in the very air, there is always an anniversary.

Muscle memory

And April 23, 2023 marks the 60^th anniversary of Rick Hall’s FAME studios in Muscle Shoals.

The studios have attracted artists from Alabamian Wilson Pickett, who recorded “Mustang Sally”, Aretha Franklin and Etta James to Alicia Keys.

A new behind-the-scenes tour takes visitors into Hall’s personal office and showcases his collection of instruments.

Of course this being the Deep South then music is all around you so why not make an odyssey of it in neighbouring states.

And take in Tennessee and the best that Nashville, Memphis and Dollywood have to offer.

And Mississippi and its Blues trail and its Grammy Museum.