Touring the spiritual home s of country, soul and jazz provides plenty of goose-pimple moments, writes Jim Carroll
THE REAL HISTORY lessons in American music begin in the Deep South. Sure, many cities in the United States shout loudly about their hometown scenes, from Detroit's Motown gold to Seattle's love-in with grunge, but the richest veins of American music are down south. Round these parts, music is in the blood.
Nashville
Country music has ruled the roost under Nashville's city skyline for many a decade. This has been the way since a wireless show, WSM Barn Dance, started broadcasting in 1925. George D Hay subsequently changed the name of his radio show to the Grand Ole Opry and country music wannabes from all over came to Music City hoping to get their big chance.
And they're still coming, and you'll hear songs about trains, trucks and trouble here at just about any hour of the day or night.
On a sunny afternoon in the District, the city's main drag, a singer-songwriter called Dwight is playing to a handful of people in one of the many honky-tonk saloons blaring out music. Some day, perhaps, Dwight may fill the city's famous Ryman Auditorium, but right now he's just looking for a break for him and his songs. The sparse turnout, though, indicates no one from the city's multitude of record labels, music publishers and management companies has bothered to come downtown from Music Row for his show.
What's fascinating about Nashville is how past, present and future blend together so seamlessly. Continue along Broadway and you'll find Hatch Show Print, a shop that has been printing iconic gig posters since Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline were looking for a start. Across the street is Ernest Tubb Record Store, the joint from where the Texas Troubadour used to broadcast midnight jamborees featuring a host of young hopefuls.
The Ryman Auditorium began life as a church, but it was country and bluegrass worshippers who really put it in the frame. The Grand Ole Opry extravaganza was a fixture here for 30 years until it moved to a new barn some 15km out of town in 1974. If you want a taste of the Opry, there are live performances in that venue several nights a week, where the acts get to perform on boards cut from the Ryman stage to ensure a connection between what happened then and what happens now.
Memphis
It's the past that dominates the musical script in Memphis. Like the ducks that saunter across the lobby in the city's Peabody Hotel every morning and afternoon, Memphis is all about tradition. This is the city of both Sun Records and Stax Records, where country and soul and gospel became rock'n'roll. There might be blues bands raising hell on Beale Street every night of the week (and some of them are not bad), but people come here for a different kind of show.
When you step into the main room in Sun Studio, it really is goose-pimples time. Sam Phillips set up shop here in 1950 and Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and countless others came on down to Union Avenue, doffed their caps to Phillips's assistant, Marion Keisker, and recorded their tracks.
The city was also home to the Stax soul label, Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton's imprint, which nurtured such soul blue bloods as Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, William Bell, Booker T & The MGs and Rufus Thomas. These days, the old Stax digs on East McLemore Avenue have been turned into an excellent museum where you can get thoroughly acquainted with the history of Stax and other famous soul labels. Don't forget to check out Isaac Hayes's gold-trim blue Cadillac while you're there.
Of course, like 600,000 other people every year, you won't leave Tennessee without visiting Graceland. A generation weaned on MTV Cribs might find Elvis Presley's fabled gaff a little on the small side, but the first rock'n'roll star certainly had all the necessary trappings, with private aircraft, a multitude of cars and motorbikes, as well as stables, a swimming pool and a racketball court laid out for all to ogle. The home he purchased for $100,000 in 1957 also has copious exhibitions (one features his Las Vegas jumpsuits, another is devoted to his years in the US army) and, naturally, gift shops located at every turn. The Colonel would be proud of such enterprise.
New Orleans
Drive further south - through miles and miles of wetlands, with love bugs sticking to your windscreen window in droves - and you'll come to New Orleans. Battered and bruised by 2005's Hurricane Katrina, the resilience of its inhabitants has been tested to the utmost these past few years.
But, despite everything thrown at them by nature and the US administration, the Crescent City has never lost its fever for music. Even if you arrive in town outside of the wicked excesses of Mardi Gras or the Jazz & Heritage Festival, you're likely to find some semblance of a party, a parade or a carnival.
There's always music blaring from the taverns on bawdy Bourbon Street, but these bars are usually frequented by frat boys, more interested in booze than rhythm, unsuccessfully attempting to relive the hedonism of old Storyville.
Thankfully, those seeking music don't have to frequent these inns. On the streets, you might catch a jazz funeral edging its way through the French Quarter on the way back from the cemetery, with second-line dancers keeping a woozy step. You can catch young hoppers such as The TBC Brass Band hustling for tips while playing wild funk and keeping a beady eye out for police cruisers.
Indoors, too, there's plenty of choice. A night at the Preservation Hall on St Peter Street watching veteran musicians blasting through the traditional songbooks for the umpteenth time will remind you that jazz came into the world via this city. Those seeking to pay their respects to that tradition should head to Rampart Street on the edge of the historic Treme district, where Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios once put Fats Domino, Little Richard and Lee Dorsey on wax.
You don't have to stick with the Vieux Carré for music, either. The acts you'll find whooping it up in the dive bars on boho Frenchmen Street in the Faubourg Marigny or uptown in Tipitina's, the spiritual home of funk and R'n'B, will always do the heart good, especially if it happens to be a hometown hero such as Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint or a Neville brother stepping into the limelight.
• Jim Carroll was a guest of the Travel Department (01-6371600, www.thetraveldepartment.ie), which specialises in escorted long-haul holidays, as well as city breaks, European holidays, cruise holidays and holidays with rail journeys. The next Music Capitals of the South departure is on November 8th (€1,399 plus tax). In 2009, the departure on February 16th takes in the New Orleans Mardi Gras (€1,499 plus tax). There is also a departure on March 7th (€1,449 plus tax).
Where to stay, eat and go in the south
Where to stay
Nashville
• The posh lodgings here are the five-star, historic Hermitage Hotel (231 Sixth Avenue North, 00-1-615-2443121, www.thehermitagehotel.com) and the scene-stealing Union Station (1001 Broadway, 00-1-615-7261001, www.union stationhotelnashville.com).
• Those on a budget are well catered for with the Doubletree (315 Fourth Avenue North, 00-1-615-2448200 www.nashvilledoubletree.com) and a downtown Comfort Inn (1501 Demonbreun Street, 00-1-615-2559977, www.comfortinn nashville.com).
Memphis
• Those looking for traditional Memphis can lodge at the glitzy Peabody Hotel (149 Union Avenue, 00-1-901-5294000, www.peabodymemphis.com).
• Other downtown choices include the Comfort Inn Downtown (100 North Front Street, 00-1-901-5260583, www.comfortinn.com), Sleep Inn (40 North Front Street, 00-1-901-5229700, www.sleepinn.com) or Hampton Inn (175 Peabody Place, 00-1-901-2604000, http://hamptoninn.hilton.com).
New Orleans
• Experience old-fashioned southern charm at Le Pavillon (833 Poydras Street, 00-1-504-5813111, www.lepavillon.com).
• Take in the city's literary past at Hotel Monteleone (214 Rue Royale, 00-1-504-5233341, www.hotelmonteleone.com).
• Those who want to be in the thick of the French Quarter action can take their pick from the Place D'Armes (625 St Ann Street, 00-1-504-5244531, www.placedarmes.com) or St Peter House Hotel (1005 St Peter, 00-1-504-5249232, www.stpeterhouse.com).
Where to eat
Nashville
• The lengthy queues outside the Pancake Pantry, (1796 21st Avenue South, 00-1-615-3839333), testify to the bona fides of this old breakfast and lunch joint. Fill yourself with pancakes, French toast, omelettes or gourmet sandwiches.
• At the Bluebird Cafe (4101 Hillsboro Road, 00-1-615-3831461, www.bluebirdcafe.com), a Music City mainstay, you can chow down on ribs, catfish or burgers while watching a hot young guitar-slinger or, if you're lucky, a top name road-testing new material.
Memphis
• Go down South Main Street (passing the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King jnr was shot in 1968) to get to the Arcade (540 South Main Street, 00-1-901-5265757, www.arcaderestaurant.com), an old diner that has featured in Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train and other flicks.
• McEwen's (122 Monroe Avenue, 00-1-901-5277085, www.mcewensonmonroe.com), is a popular, funky, downtown bistro applying modern touches to old-school southern food in a buzzing setting.
New Orleans
• A trip to the Crescent City is not complete without coffee and beignets at the Café du Monde, 800 Decatur Street, 00-1-504-5254544, www.cafedumonde.com). It's open 24/7, so no excuses.
• For the best in Creole cuisine, a visit to the old-school Tujague's (823 Decatur Street, 00-1-504-5258676, www.tujaguesrestaurant.com) is a must.
• Those in the mood for lip-smacking barbecue can join the locals at Elizabeth's (601 Gallier Street, 00-1-504-9449271, www.elizabeths-restaurant.com).
Where to go
Nashville
• The District is the name given to the couple of city blocks around Second Avenue and Broadway, which are full of music bars and venues where you're bound to find new country talent.
• For musical tours and sightseeing, add the Ryman Auditorium (00-1-615-8893060, www.ryman.com);
• The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (00-1-615-4162001, www.countrymusichalloffame.com); and
• The Grand Ole Opry, (00-1-615-8716779) www.opry.com) to your list.
Memphis
• Your night will inevitably either begin or end in the bars and clubs on Beale Street. Bar-hopping from club to club is the way to go here.
• Sun Studio. 00-1-901-5210664, www.sunstudio.com.
• The Stax Museum. 00-1-901-9462535, www.soulsvilleusa.com. Memphis Rock'n'Soul Museum. 00-1-901-2052533, www.memphisrocknsoul.org.
• Graceland. 00-1-901-3323322, www.elvis.com/graceland.
New Orleans
• Jazz history buffs will want to check out the Preservation Hall (726 St Peter Street, 001-504-5222841, www.preservationhall.com). Live music fans of every stripe should pay a pilgrimage to the legendary Tipitina's (501 Napoleon Avenue, 00-1-504-8958477, www.tipitinas.com).
• For a look at the damage Hurricane Katrina caused to this great city, it's well worth taking a tour, such as those offered by Tours By Isabelle (00-1-504-3913544, www.toursbyisabelle.com).