South Tennessee

On today's trip I crossed the south of Tennessee from Nashville to Memphis - the deep south starts - everywhere cotton fields around, farmland everywhere. It was also a trip from the heart of Country Music to one of the centers of R&B, Soul and Pop.

Not too many sights to see on the way - but one of the towns on the way is worth mentioning: Brownsville. The lovely historic center with a lot of old houses gives a nice impression how the town must have had looked 100 years ago. Everything looks like a wealthy region. On the other hand you can see also the preserved old clapboard house of 'Sleepy' John Estes - a guitarist and one of the Blues pioneers. He was - as most of the old blues musicians - NOT wealthy and he died 1977 blind and living in poverty (see picture of the inside).

Between Ripley  and Brownsville on highway No. 19 lies another small village which is not really known to the public but a very famous female Pop/R&B singer was born there and lived several years there before she left to St. Louis. Any idea who it is?? She wrote a hit song of her birth place (somewhere in the 70's published together with her husband) "A church house Gin house / School house out hous / on highway No. 19 / the people keep their city clean". Guess who it is! I will unravel this quiz in the next days with a photo ... :-) If you like: give me your guess!?!

Finally I landed in Memphis, TN - despite I was very tired I entered for 3 hours the famous Beale Street where the Blues has his home. Similar to Nashville one club borders on the next, everywhere live music ... but the picture compared to Nash is different: no traffic, there is atmosphere in the air, thousands of people black and white people mixed and everyone feels relaxed and listens and dances to the music. Here am I at home!! (forget Nashville).

Again I joined BB Kings Club for a drink. A blind singer entertains in a brilliant way - not comparable to Nash!! After 3 clubs I feel too tired for more .. the next days will be very busy with sightseeing so I give up early - but tomorrow is another day and I will join again!