Music highway: Nashville to New Orleans

Route description

Start in Nashville at the Ryman Auditorium, the former tabernacle known as the “Mother Church of Country Music”, where you can take a daytime tour or see an evening show. The honky-tonks of Lower Broadway are a few blocks away. Then take I-40 west for the drive of around three hours to Memphis.

In Memphis, Graceland lies south of downtown, with the Jungle Room, the gold records and the pink Cadillac. The National Civil Rights Museum, built into the former Lorraine Motel, is a moving walk through the history of the movement and deserves at least half a day. In the evening, Beale Street has live blues.

South of Memphis, you can follow US-61 through the flat cotton country of the Mississippi Delta, where the blues was born, or take the faster I-55 straight to Jackson, the state capital. From Jackson, I-55 continues south through pine forest into Louisiana and across the wetlands toward New Orleans.

In New Orleans, Café du Monde in the French Quarter serves beignets under a heap of powdered sugar and chicory café au lait, as it has since 1862. French Quarter streets are narrow and parking is scarce, so leave a motorhome at a campground outside the center and use the streetcar or a taxi. Spring and fall are the most comfortable seasons, as summer is hot and humid across the whole route.