“You know that 61 Highway…the longest road I know” -- Mississippi Fred McDowell

Whether it’s by train, car, pony, or foot, travel is a popular theme in blues. Travel offers escape from hardship, it can bring your baby back to you (or take them away), and it is integral to that rambling spirit embodied by bluesmen from Blind Blake to Robert Johnson.

The latter half of the 20th century saw a huge rise in blues tourism that continues today. Fans from around the world flock to the Mississippi Delta and Hill Country in search of “authentic” blues experiences. Though the Delta Blues Museum was founded in 1979 and the Blues Archive in 1984, there were no guides geared towards blues fans travelling to Mississippi until a chapter in Christine Bird’s The Jazz and Blues Lover’s Guide to the U.S. (1991). That same year Living Blues co-founder Jim O’Neal created the Delta Blues Map Kit, helping fans navigate the back roads and local clubs of the Delta. Since then, a number of blues travel guides have been published, helping eventually inspire the Mississippi Blues Trail (msbluestrail.org) in 2003.

Featured in this display:

Recordings

LP. Hard Travelin' / Cisco Houston (Folkways, 1954)

LP. Key to the Highway; Lyin' Woman / Joe Williams with Count Basie and his Orchestra (Roulette, between 1957-1962)

LP. Ramblin' on My Mind: Train and Travel Blues (Milestone, [1967])

LP. Travelin' / John Lee Hooker (Joy; Distributed by President Records, 1968)

LP. Have Blues, Will Travel / Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang (Simmons, 1977)

LP. Travelin' / Sunnyland Slim (Black & Blue Records, 198-?)

78-rpm. Pony Blues; Banty Rooster Blues / Charley Patton (Paramount, [1929])

78-rpm. Travellin' Blues; I'm Lonesome Too / Jimmie Rodgers (Victor, 1931)

45-rpm. Tired of Travelin' / Pee Wee Crayton (Modern, 1949?)

CD insert. Travelin' Mood / Gary Primich (Flying Fish Records, 1994)

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• Black Horse Blues / Blind Lemon Jefferson
• Freight Train Blues / Trixie Smith
• Hard Road Blues / Blind Blake
• Traveling Daddy Blues / Charles (Dad) Nelson
• Outbound Train Blues / Viola Bartlette

Books

Chasing the Blues: A Traveler's Guide to American Music / Josephine Matyas and Craig Jones (Backbeat Books, 2021)

Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues / Steve Cheseborough (University Press of Mississippi, 2001)

Delta Blues Map Kit / Text by Jim O'Neal, numbered edition (Rooster Blues Records, 1998)

The Jazz and Blues Lover's Guide to the U.S.: with More Than 900 Hot Clubs, Cool Joints, Landmarks and Legends, From Boogie-Woogie to Bop and Beyond / Christiane Bird (Addison Wesley Pub., 1994)

The Blues Route / Hugh Merrill (W. Morrow, 1990)

The Blues Highway: New Orleans to Chicago / Richard Knight, co-researched with Emma Longhurst (Trailblazer Publications, 2003)

Spotify Playlist. Travelin' a Blues Road, based on the recordings in this display.