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The Music Connection
The Natchez Trace has another interesting characteristic. It more or less runs between Nashville, TN, and New Orleans, LA, and in many places it goes through some of the most famous places known for connections to American musical heritage.
For that reason, the general swath of land (not the Trace itself, but the paths that it and U.S. Hwy. 61 follows) has become known as the Music Highway, or more specifically, the Blues Highway.
Over the years, New Orleans became a mecca for Jazz fans, and since the Trace actually starts in New Orleans (before hopping aboard the ship to Madisonville) its passes along the way near some of the more legendary music landmarks in America: Tunica, Mississippi, "The Birthplace of the Blues;" Tupelo, Mississippi, the birthplace of Elvis Presley, and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where a lengthly parade of well-known performers recorded their first hits and many others.
The fact that for many years Nashville area traveling merchants, on their way to New Orleans, passed through some of the most outstanding music birthplaces cannot be a coincidence. They may have travelled down to New Orleans on the Mississippi River, carrying their goods on rafts, but once they got to the Crescent City and sold their rafts and their wares, they had plenty of money to enjoy the music and finer amusements of the city. Once they started heading north back to their homes, across the lake to Madisonville and up "The Old Nashville Road" they no doubt shared that love of music and spread it to others along the way. It was a long journey by foot and horseback. Entertaining themselves with music in the evenings was probably one way to pass the time.
The Tennessee and Kentucky folks headed back up to their homes via the Natchez Trace, and the Illinois and Indiana folks went home via U.S. Hwy. 61 which took them through Memphis, another musical hot spot. That route eventually ends in Chicago, which has chalked up quite a few musical achievements of its own over the years. The history of the "Blues Highway" has been written up in several books, filled with interesting photographs of some of the biggest names in American music. You can even take special tours, some on buses and some on the train, which will take you of a magical tour of blues as well as other well-known American musical genres.
