The Blues Highway 61

They call Highway 61 the “Blues Highway” and the “Great River Road” as it follows the Mississippi as it winds it way from Minnesota to New Orleans. One could argue that it is actually the “History of American Music” Highway.

Just think about it. Highway 61 begins near Duluth, Minnesota, the birthplace of Bob Dylan, whose folk music beginnings meander to the seminal “Highway 61 Revisited” and beyond). It skirts through St. Louis, Missouri, the home of Chuck Berry (heralded as the “Father of Rock ‘n Roll”). It slices through Memphis, the rock n roll birthplace of Sun Records (Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Sam Phillips and more) and also the soul of Stax Records (Albert King, Isaac Hayes, Rufus Thomas, Otis Redding, Booker T and the MGs, The Staple Singers, and on and on…).

Highway 61 hits the flat Mississippi Delta, know as the birthplace of the blues, for good reason. Hard times begat haunting music of Bessie Smith, Charlie Patton at the Dockery Farms cotton plantation, the birthplaces of Muddy Waters and B.B. King. Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the Crossroads, and may be buried in one of 3 marked graves near the route. Not far, Emmitt Till lost his life, and sparked the Civil Rights movement.

Ultimately the road ends in New Orleans, full of jazz and zydeco, a virtual jambalaya of sounds and flavors from cultures who were forcibly brought to this country. The trip is haunting, exhilarating, full of ghosts, tamales, BBQ and gumbo.