The Blues Highway

Route description

Memphis is the start of the Blues Highway, with Beale Street, Sun Studio and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. US-61 heads south out of the city into the Mississippi Delta, a flat, fertile plain of cotton fields and small towns. Mississippi Blues Trail markers along the road tell the stories of musicians and places.

Clarksdale, at the crossroads of US-61 and US-49, has the Delta Blues Museum and juke joints with live music, especially on weekends. South of Clarksdale, detours lead to the GRAMMY Museum Mississippi in Cleveland and the B.B. King Museum in Indianola. The road continues through Leland and small Delta towns on its way south.

At the southern end of the Delta, Vicksburg sits on bluffs above the Mississippi. The Vicksburg National Military Park has a 16-mile tour road around the siege lines of 1863 and the recovered gunboat USS Cairo. I-20 then leads east to Jackson, the state capital, where the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is well worth a visit.

The Delta is flat and the roads are straight, but services can be far apart. Summer is hot and humid, so spring and fall are the most comfortable seasons. Check music schedules in advance, as live music in the Delta is mostly on weekends and during festivals.