It was a long, intense trip - six weeks and 9,000 km exploring the roots of American music across the Southeast states. By the end, it had been like following a serpentine music trail and we began to appreciate how the various musical genres were intertwined and cross-influenced. Craig’s fingers got a workout on his guitar, as he jammed and played with the talented musicians from old-time to Zydeco to the Delta blues. We had the time of our lives.

SOUL AND R & B

Soul and R&B are the fusion of gospel, blues, country and rock and are alive and well in the Southern U.S.

Best musical stops: Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Sun Studio, Muscle Shoals, Alabama Music Hall of Fame, Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum, Graceland, Beale Street

Backstory: Stax was a Memphis institution, the home recording venue of Booker T. & The M.G.s (Green Onions, Time Is Tight) who laid the bed tracks for hundreds of artists and just as many hits during the 1960s and 70s. This is another three or four hours worth of museum if you do it properly.

Sun Studio, also in Memphis, goes a little faster because the venue is so much more compact compared to Stax, but every bit worth the visit. Sun was responsible for putting a couple of artists on the map that supercharged the migration of black blues to white mass appeal: Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, as well as launching the careers of Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins. An X on the floor marks the spot where Elvis first recorded That’s All Right and it’s said that when he visited, Bob Dylan dropped to floor and kissed the spot.

Muscle Shoals produced another hothouse rhythm section (the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, a.k.a. “The Swampers”) that drew A-list artists – The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Paul Simon, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Bob Seger, Paul Anka – like iron filings to a magnet, making it one of the most sought after recording locations in the world for a few magic years. The story – set in this modest corner of northwest Alabama straddling the Tennessee River – is told at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, FAME Studios and in the fantastic documentary Muscle Shoals.

The Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum in Nashville, a peek behind the scenes at the individuals who played the tracks, arranged the charts, set up the mics and engineered the sound of the songs that roll around in your memory. Some instrumental ensembles – The Swampers, The A Team, The Memphis Boys, The Funk Brothers and The Wrecking Crew – have played on more hits than all the Beatles songs ever recorded – while Booker T. & The M.G.s and Toto – went on to become chart-topping bands themselves. You are in for some very pleasant surprises.

Graceland - Elvis’s Memphis home and his final resting place - has become a shrine to the faithful. It was a tad on the glitzy and commercial side for our tastes, but there’s no swaying the legions of his fans who happily line up to walk through the mansion, see walls lined with his gold records and the jumpsuits from his Las Vegas era. The walking tour ends at a quiet meditation garden where Elvis and his parents are buried. Everything, wouldn’t you know it, exits through a gift shop.

Classic artists and tunes:
When A Man Loves A Woman, Percy Sledge
(Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay, Otis Redding
Soul Man, Sam & Dave
I Never Loved A Man, Aretha Franklin

It was a long, intense trip - six weeks and 9,000 km exploring the roots of American music across the Southeast. By the end, it had been like following one long, serpentine music trail and we began to appreciate how the various musical genres were intertwined and cross-influenced. Craig’s fingers got a workout on his guitar, as he jammed and played with the talented musicians from old-time to Zydeco to the Delta blues. We had the time of our lives.

MISSISSIPPI BLUES TRAIL

All across the state are markers for the Mississippi Blues Trail, telling the story of powerhouses like Elmore James, John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, Howlin’ Wolf and Sam Cooke who defined the blues, giving it legs for its journey into the mainstream.

Best musical stops: Clarksdale, B.B. King Museum, Po’ Monkeys, Elvis Birthplace Museum, Delta Blues Museum, Highway 61 Blues Museum, Cat Head Blues & Folk Art, Red’s Lounge, The Blues Archive at The University of Mississippi (Oxford)

Backstory: America’s great gift to human civilization (blues and its little brother, jazz) was born from its greatest shame: slavery. The importation of blacks from Africa and their brutal treatment – coupled to their exposure to European and South American traditions – birthed the field hollers and work songs.

And life in Mississippi – the life from which the blues emerged – was particularly harsh for the slaves who sang in the fields or in prison to distract themselves from the brutality and boredom of their existence, and consoled each other on the Sabbath Day. It’s this fusion of reflection on the real world with longing for the next, that Mississippi bequeathed to the world – and which became the basis for gospel, rock ’n’ roll, soul, Motown and much of 20^th-century popular music as it migrated to Memphis, Kansas City, Chicago and eventually the rest of the planet.

If you love the blues, you really need to go to the well, to the source: to the Crossroads at Highways 49 and 61 at Clarksdale in the Mississippi Delta, where myth says Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil for guitar mastery. Every April, Clarksdale hosts the Juke Joint Festival, half music festival, half small town fair and all about the Delta. The last survivors of the original blues tradition – before it travelled north to assume its Chicago style – play on the sidewalks and in the small juke joints. But hurry: there are not many of the original bluesmen left as the relentless passage of time carries them off the stage of history.

You really can’t fathom the blues without coming to grips with the human suffering associated with this region. Large swaths of the Delta were made possible by enormous serpentine levees to hold back the water of the Mississippi, virtually all constructed in the harshest conditions by generations of African-American slaves. Greenville, Mississippi, was the epicentre of the catastrophic 1927 levee breach that devastated the economy and people of the Delta, forcing the out-migration of thousands of sharecroppers to the north in search of high ground and jobs. The town’s 1927 Flood Museum tells – through a combination of artifacts, photographs and video – of the flood’s impact on life and death during the four months Greenville, and much of the Mississippi Delta, was underwater.

As blues museums go, the best we saw was the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola. Because he’s still alive – and still gigging – the museum is overflowing with artifacts from B.B.’s long history on the road, in the studio and as America’s emissary of the blues. For added effect, the Center is built onto a former cotton gin where young Riley B. King ran a tractor before breaking into the blues. It’s a grand story that needs several hours to absorb.

Back in Clarksdale, the excellent Delta Blues Museum is only steps from two authentic blues joints: Ground Zero Blues Club (co-owned by actor Morgan Freeman) and Red’s Lounge. Both are gritty but authentic: as true to the blues as blues is to the life of the Delta. Billy Gibbons – leader of ZZ Top – has taken a role in perpetuating the legacy of Muddy Waters, a Delta bluesman who made his career in Chicago, contributing a guitar fashioned out of a board from Waters’ childhood home, which is reconstructed inside the museum.

The authentic roots of the blues are everywhere across the Delta: at places like Dockery Farms where it’s said that B.B. King claims “it all started,” at the remains of original juke joints like Po’ Monkeys still standing in a cotton field outside Merigold, and in the Mississippi town of Tupelo, home of Elvis Presley who was heavily influenced by the Delta blues that surrounded him as a child. Tupelo is filled with Elvis highlights: the shotgun shack he was born in, the family church where he learned his love of gospel music, the hardware store where he bought his first guitar, the burger joint where he hung out after school and the excellent Elvis Presley Birthplace museum (in our opinion, even better and more authentic than glitzy Graceland in Memphis). Elvis’s mammoth contribution to music was how he sanitized African-American music for white people, blurring the lines between the roots music of blues, country, bluegrass, rockabilly and gospel (and in the process, birthing rock ‘n’ roll).

At The University of Mississippi in Oxford, The Blues Archive project took off when B.B. King contributed his 8,000 volume record collection. Call ahead to ask archivist Greg Johnson to pull something of interest from the impressive stacks - they’ve got material that has never been posted on YouTube or on the web, rare concert footage, interview tapes, original Robert Johnson 78s and sound recordings in formats from wax cylinders to DVD.

Classic artists and tunes:
Hoochie Coochie Man, Muddy Waters
Dust My Broom, Elmore James
Crossroad Blues, Robert Johnson
The Thrill Is Gone, B.B. King

SOME TERMS TO HELP IT MAKE SENSE

Musicians share a vernacular specific to the profession and its idiosyncratic qualities, late nights, quirky stage experiences, etc.

GIG: the job. The word has migrated into other professions associated with the arts but not just the arts. Gig also refers to the specific venue – in fact, “see you on the gig” usually means “see you on the bandstand” or “see you at the bar” or wherever the gig is going down or happening.

DOWNBEAT: the first beat of music of the first song of the night, also the name of a jazz magazine. This term is more often used in jazz than other forms. So when you’re talking to a ‘cat’ about his upcoming ‘gig’ – and you want to be there for the start of the show – you ask, “Hey daddy, what time is downbeat?”

BACKBEAT: the 2 and the 4 beat in a standard measure of popular music, where the snare drums falls in the rhythm track. When you find yourself clapping along to blues or jazz music, it’s the backbeat that you’re clapping along with – which is different from celtic or old time Irish music which is more likely to feature the 1 and the 3.

TRAINWRECK: a musical crash or mishap. Usually only egos are bruised and the more spectacular the trainwreck the more likely it is to enter the realm of lore going forward for the attending musicians to be forever memorialized in stories and jokes. For real music fans, trainwrecks are the equivalent of multi-car accidents in NASCAR minus the fire, death and car parts. For musicians, what matters most is not the scale of the trainwreck – epic or minor – but the finese of the recovery. Many small trainwrecks happen in the course of a given gig without the audience catching on. Only trained observers know how to decode the non-verbal language of a successfully overcome trainwreck.

HOTDOG: a musician who can’t hear enough of himself solo – also called “hotdogging.” Usually a term of derision as in “nice gig but an awful lot of hotdogging.” Being a hotdog is not cool, unless you’re a “monster.”

MONSTER: a player of outsized talent or skill, usually a compliment, as in “he’s a monster bassist.” Monsters can get away with a lot because they have been touched by the music gods. Every musician knows a monster that is beyond rehearsal or practice or discipline, who just has the gift.

STANDARD, or JAZZ STANDARD: a song from the big book of American jazz and pop associated with the glorious 20^th century of songs created for Broadway, Hollywood, Tin Pan Alley and the big bands of the post-war era. A song becomes a ‘standard’ when it has been recorded a sufficient number of times by a sufficient number of A-list artists – but there is no definition of how many recordings by which artists elevates a song to ‘standard’ status.

TRIO: a verse and chorus in which the rhythm section drops out of the song to make way for all the soloists soloing at once. Often used in traditional or old time Dixieland music. The effect causes the audience to begin clapping on the backbeat and smiling involuntarily.

This is bound to be highly subjective since it depends on the road, region, and mood you’re trying to evoke. Take these as suggestions and please offer other worthies.

So, in no particular order . . .

Running On Empty, JACKSON BROWNE
Route 66, NAT KING COLE
Reach Out (I’ll Be There), THE FOUR TOPS
Take It Easy, EAGLES (*check out the actual corner at the town of Winslow, AZ)
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND
Born To Run, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
I Walk The Line, JOHNNY CASH
Sugar Pie Honey Bunch, THE TEMPTATIONS
Cinnamon Girl, NEIL YOUNG
Graceland, PAUL SIMON
Sailin’ Cross The Devil’s Sea, THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND
Roll On Down The Highway, BACHMAN-TURNER OVERDRIVE
Blue Suede Shoes, CARL PERKINS
Good Golly Miss Molly, LITTLE RICHARD
(Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay, OTIS REDDING
Green Onions, BOOKER T. & THE M.G.s
Heatwave (Your Love Is Like A), MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS
Dancing In The Streets, MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS
Soul Man, SAM & DAVE
Highway 61 Revisited, BOB DYLAN
Callin’ Baton Rouge, GARTH BROOKS
The Bug, MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER
Let It Roll, LITTLE FEAT
The Way, FASTBALL
Born To Be Wild, STEPPENWOLF
On The Road Again, WILLIE NELSON
Going Up The Country, CANNED HEAT

It was a long, intense trip - six weeks and 9,000 km exploring the roots of American music across the Southeast states. By the end, it had been like following a serpentine music trail and we began to appreciate how the various musical genres were intertwined and cross-influenced. Craig’s fingers got a workout on his guitar, as he jammed and played with the talented musicians from old-time to Zydeco to the Delta blues. We had the time of our lives.

JAZZ

Two decades ago, the United States Congress designated jazz “a rare and valuable national American treasure.” Indeed, there is no other spot on the continent steeped in the origins and early history of jazz. It’s on every street corner and along every boulevard. In New Orleans, the landscape of jazz isn’t just abstract. It’s real.

Best musical stops: Frenchmen Street jazz clubs, Congo Square, Preservation Hall, New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, almost any street or square in the French Quarter for the street performers

Backstory:
Jazz is one of those terms that everyone knows when they hear it but no one can adequately define. It’s a fusion of different influences, notably black slave field songs, African-American gospel, rhythms from the Caribbean and harmonies and melodies from European classical music.

Chronologically jazz is the little brother of the blues as they both sprang from the same cultural, ethnic and geographical womb. The earliest origins of jazz are contested but most historians cite New Orleans as its birthplace. From there it gets really complicated and — for a while — politically interesting as it made inroads into white culture and upset established conventions because of its proclivity for improvisation: i.e., for going beyond the notes authorized by the composer and printed on the sheet music, and its close association with former slaves and their descendants. Even the label — ‘jazz’ — is contentious because of its early association with the bordellos of Storyville in New Orleans.

Today jazz is properly regarded as America’s greatest gift to the world of culture, and jazz artists are among the most revered of all musicians. Names like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, Charles Mingus and Miles Davis bestride the musical landscape like titans, as indeed they are.

Although jazz took root in many American cities — Kansas City, New York and Chicago to name a few — and acquired its own distinctive qualities in those places, you really need to visit the corner of South Rampart and Perdido Streets in New Orleans where a young Louis Armstrong fired a pistol into the air on New Years’ Eve and got himself incarcerated in the Coloured Waif’s Home where they gave him a cornet (probably Civil War vintage) to occupy his time.

The world of music is a better place for that first cornet at young Armstrong’s lips. Of course he grew up in a veritable stew of music and culture and life in all its forms. And there were lots of great musicians to mentor the young Armstrong on his climb to the top. One of the reasons we revere “Pops” is because he left behind a huge archive of recordings and because he so obviously enjoyed the presentation of his craft — just listen to how often he laughs in his many live recordings — to say nothing of the millions of players who were drawn to the honeypot of jazz by exposure to his musical legacy.

Must-See Jazz Locations in NOLA (*New Orleans, Louisiana)

Any street in the French Quarter is likely to feature a jazz band — usually young but deeply committed devotees of their craft out on the street cutting their chops for coins. You’ll see some wonderful players, singers and dancers in the most unlikely places.

The Court of Two Sisters boasts the French Quarter’s largest courtyard, amply shaded by a 120-year-old wisteria. The brunch buffet is the perfect way to combine tasting all the NOLA classic dishes (from turtle soup and shrimp étouffée to bread pudding and bananas foster) while the notes of a live jazz trio percolates across the courtyard.

Preservation Hall is the iconic setting for traditional New Orleans jazz. The 45-minute show is held nightly at what is probably the oldest largely intact jazz venue in the city. It’s hot and cramped, but the music is as authentic as it gets, played by some of the city’s finest jazz artists. Sit as close as possible for the full jazz experience.

Enjoy the city’s excellent, spontaneous street musicians (and leave a tip in their fiddle cases). You’ll find them on most street corners, but head for Royal Street and Jackson Square where they play in front of St. Louis Cathedral.

Just east of the French Market, the two-block area of Frenchmen Street is where the locals have migrated to hear the strains of authentic jazz. Clubs like Snug Harbor, Blue Nile and The Spotted Cat Music Club host big names like Ellis Marsalis and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins.

Louis Armstrong Park, also the location of Congo Square, is where jazz fans go to gaze at the statute of “Pops” a.k.a. “Satch” a.k.a. “Satchmo” a.k.a. “Dippermouth” a.k.a. “Satchelmouth.” It’s also a great place to catch a “second line” jazz band and follow them around for a couple of tunes. Dance if you dare — or dance if you don’t dare!

New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park is located at the Old U.S. Mint building at the east end of the French Quarter. Climb the steps to the second floor for a display of period photographs and video on jazz in NOLA, with special attention paid to Preservation Hall. You can fawn over Louis Armstrong’s first cornet (considered the “Holy Grail” of jazz history) and Fats Domino’s white grand piano.

Music spills out of various venues along Bourbon Street, but with a lot of debauchery mixed in too. The locals reminisce about the good ol’ days on Bourbon Street – when clubs and restaurants were filled with authentic jazz and ladies and their escorts dressed to the nines for an evening out. We found that 15 minutes in this milieu was quite enough for us. Frenchmen Street is just as hip without the depravity.

Classic artists and tunes:
Jazz Me Blues, Original Dixieland Jazz Band
Take The ‘A’ Train, Duke Ellington
On The Sunny Side Of The Street, Louis Armstrong
Right Place Wrong Time, Dr. John
Beale Street Blues, W.C. Handy

Coming soon!

Music is a large magnet on our travels. We’re always in search of museums, authentic venues, musical cities and music trails that show off the very best music of a destination.

We began our RV travels in search of the roots music of the Southeast U.S. - six weeks and 9,000 km (5,600 mi) - where we met some of the nicest, most down-to-earth people you could imagine. For Craig it was jamming time - from old-time to Zydeco to the Delta blues. For Jo it was like cramming a fascinating college course in the roots of American music into six weeks. For Rigby, it was just cool. She’s completely at home on the bandstand.

The map below traces the route we took hopping across the Southeast into the heartland of American roots music. Poke around in the music trails section. We’ve covered a little history and invited you into some of our favourite musical experiences.

Our stories and articles appear in Canadian magazines and online.

Spring and fall, we load the van - with everything from guitars to laptops - toss in a thick bundle of maps, several notebooks and roll down the road. We meet great people, gather wonderful story material and then write, write, write. Browse the links to some of our pieces in print:

BIG TRIP #1: ROOTS OF AMERICAN MUSIC: 9,000 km through the Southeast U.S.

• Road Tunes: A Six-Week Odyssey Following the Scenic Music Trails of the Southeast U.S., CAA Magazine. Road Tunes
• A Moment in Time, CAA website. A Moment in Time
• Great Music Trails of the American Southeast: The Journey Begins, Zoomer
• Travelling the Crooked Road Music Trail, Zoomer
• Walking, Strumming and Singing in the Footsteps of History, Zoomer
• New Orleans: Sensory Overload, Zoomer
• Great Music Trails: Bayou Cajun Country, Zoomer
• Great Music Trails: Louisiana’s Prairie, Zoomer
• Feeling the Blues in the Mississippi Delta, Zoomer
• Tennessee: Two Cities, Two Histories, Zoomer
• Kentucky: Where North and South Overlap, Zoomer
• Virginia’s Crooked Road is a journey through America’s musical roots, Canadian Traveller. Crooked Road
• Sunshine Bound, CAA website
• The Soundtrack to America, Canadian Traveller
• Soul Survivors, Doctor’s Review

BIG TRIP #2: TUNES, RUINS & STARS: 13,000 km across the American Southwest

• A Canadian’s Guide to Arizona, Canadian Traveller.
• Flavours of the Southwest, Taste. Flavours of the Southwest
• A Grand Finale | Flagstaff, Arizona, CAA website. A Grand Finale | Flagstaff Arizona
• Where Ancient Cultures Thrive, Doctor’s Review
• The King Lives On, CAA website
• The Mississippi Delta: Drawn by the Blues, Zoomer
• Elvis Was Here.PDF, Zoomer
• Discovering Southern New Mexico, Zoomer
• Off the Beaten Path: Southeast Arizona, Zoomer
• True West: True Tucson, Zoomer
• Eight Things You Didn’t Know About Phoenix, Zoomer
• Often Overlooked - Arizona’s Four Corners, Zoomer
• All About Albuquerque, Zoomer
• The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, Zoomer
• Colorado Cliff Dwellings of Mesa Verde, Zoomer
• Exploring America’s Southwest, West of the City
• Food, Glorious US Food, Canadian Traveller
• Arizona - A Warm Welcome, A Canadian’s Guide to Arizona
• Arizona - Hot in the City, A Canadian’s Guide to Arizona
• Arizona - Pick Your Own Desert, A Canadian’s Guide to Arizona
• Arizona - Living in the Lap of Luxury, A Canadian’s Guide to Arizona

BIG TRIP #3: HUGGING THE ATLANTIC COASTLINE; MUSIC INLAND: 7,064 km

• North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Zoomer
• Sunshine Bound, CAA website
• Outer Banks: Sky, Sea & Sand, Zoomer
• Pirates of the Carolinas, Doctor’s Review
• South Carolina’s Coastline Cities, Zoomer
• Beaufort and the Beautiful Sea Islands, Zoomer
• Strolling in Savannah, Zoomer
• The Soundtrack to America, Canadian Traveller
• Cumberland Island National Seashore, Zoomer
• Soul Survivors, Doctor’s Review
• Georgia on my mind: Athens, Macon & Augusta, Zoomer
• North Carolina’s Appalachia: Steeped in Music, Zoomer
• Our last loop: Virginia’s Crooked Road, Zoomer
• Eat Your Way to Florida, CAA

MISCELLANEOUS

• Dairy queens, Doctor’s Review
• Vermont Cheese Trail, Taste
• Rediscover Freedom In an RV, 2015 Travel Guide to Canada
• Cozy Up To Canada’s Natural Side, 2015 Travel Guide to Canada
• Rediscover Freedom in an RV, Dreamscapes

We travel. We write. We publish.

Travels With Rigby is for web surfers who are looking for practical information on frugal RV travel, travelling with your dog (our pooch is Rigby), finding irresistible eats and sussing out music destinations. We’ve clocked the miles and visited the sights and these are the best from our travels: the who/what/when/where/why highlights for those that love music, food and the camping life.

You’ll find tips and info on:

• Music trails and destinations.
• Best ways to travel with your dog.
• Foods we found irresistible.
• Practical ways to travel by small RV.
• Campsites and parks we’ve loved.
• Planning realistically for gas costs, cell phone coverage, etc.

About us . . .

Travel writers. Foodies. Music lovers. Can’t go anywhere without our dog. Josephine Matyas works full-time as a freelance writer, specializing in travel and food. Craig Jones has got street cred: lots of miles on the road crisscrossing Canada as a professional musician, followed by just as many years tapping away at a computer keyboard.

It’s been an experiment: Taking her expertise (travel writing) and his experience (on the bandstand, teacher and writer), stirring it together and seeing what happens. Add a camper van (a 20-foot Leisure Travel Class B, for those who need the specs), an easy going Border Collie (Eleanor Rigby), a file full of maps and a GPS nicknamed “Hal” that sometimes toys with us (we prefer the maps).

Several times a year we pack up High Cotton (the Class B RV), take the dog for her trim, top up the gas tank and hit the road for a month or two at a time. We post links to articles we’ve published (see Words) and blog short bits and pieces while we are away from Home Base (Ontario, Canada).

LISTEN TO JO’S CBC RADIO INTERVIEW ON TRAVEL IN CANADA!