Music tour category
Our blues tours follow the music from the cotton fields of Mississippi up Highway 61 to Memphis, and on to the electric clubs of Chicago.
The blues grew in the Mississippi Delta in the early 1900s, among Black sharecroppers on the cotton plantations. Charley Patton played at Dockery Farms; Robert Johnson, Son House and Muddy Waters played the juke joints and the Saturday streets of towns like Clarksdale.
When work dried up, millions moved north, and the music went with them. Memphis was the first stop, with Beale Street and later Sun Studio, where Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King made early records. Chicago was the end of the line. There Muddy Waters plugged in, and Chess Records recorded the sound that rock bands copied for the next sixty years.
Our blues tours cover that road in different lengths: a day trip into the Delta from Memphis, five days with two nights of Clarksdale juke joints, a long road from New Orleans to Chicago on the train in the song, and four nights in Chicago's clubs.
The Mississippi Blues Trail has more than 200 markers, and our guides know the story behind each. At night, we take you where the blues is still played for local crowds.
Real Clarksdale rooms, with the cover charge paid.
The Delta Blues Museum, the B.B. King Museum and Chess Records.
Stories on the road from a guide born in the Delta.
4 tours
New Orleans, Mississippi Delta, Memphis and Chicago
New Orleans, Clarksdale, Memphis, Chicago
The Great Migration route in nine days: from New Orleans jazz up through the Delta and Memphis, then overnight on the City of New Orleans train to the Chicago blues.
From $4,590 per person, double room
See the tourMississippi Delta and Memphis
Memphis, Clarksdale
Five days on Highway 61 from Memphis into the Delta, with two nights of juke joints in Clarksdale and the B.B. King Museum on the way back.
From $2,290 per person, double room
See the tourChicago
Chicago
Four nights of Chicago music: the Chess studio by day, Buddy Guy's club, the North Side blues bars and the Green Mill, where Capone's booth still faces the door.
From $1,990 per person, double room
See the tourMississippi Delta
Memphis
A day down Highway 61 to Clarksdale and Dockery Farms, with Blues Trail markers on the way, hot tamales for lunch and back in Memphis for dinner.
From $265 per person, lunch included
See the tourLand prices per person sharing a double room.
Top destinations
Questions
For the museums and the crossroads, yes. For the music you need a night in Clarksdale; the five-day tour has two.
There are three possible graves. We visit one on the Blues Trail tour when the schedule allows.
April, for the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, and October, when the cotton is in.
Email us
Write to a travel advisor with the tour, the date and whether you want us to book flights. We answer within one business day with seats and the exact price. Nothing is charged until you decide.
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[email protected]SubjectBlues Trail
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