Detour #201: The King of Road Trips, Mississippi-Tennessee, USA
Photo Emrecan Arik / Unsplash
It’s 70 years since Elvis first walked into a recording studio and Time for the King of all road trips. thankyouverymuch.
In 1953 an 18-year-old named Elvis Aaron Presley walked into The Memphis Recording Service and paid four dollars to make a demo recording. He left with an acetate copy of My Happiness which is widely believed to have been a gift for his mother. Unfortunately, Gladys didn’t have a record player and the disc wound up at his pal Ed Leek’s place where it would remain until it was sold for $300,000 at auction in 2015.
But let’s rewind a little. Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8th, 1935 in a house that his father Vernon built with the help of his grandfather Jessie and uncle Vester. Sadly Vernon was unable to pay off the $180 he had borrowed to build it and the house was repossessed. The Presleys would move several times during their Mississippi days, but the house remained in place, becoming a shrine for fans after the city bought the land, and the start point for this tribute drive.
Photo Shutterstock
It's a full 100 miles to 706 Union Avenue, which by the time Elvis returned, was known as Sun Studio. The 178 and 78 two-lane blacktops carry you north-west on a route that’s almost as straight as the crow flies, at least until you reach the edges of Holly Springs National Forest, where it’s a little more wiggly – though never quite as much as Elvis’ famous pelvis.
It’s the road Elvis would have travelled many a time as he drove his truck for Crown Electric, while he was also studying to be an electrician. When he did go back to the studio it was Elvis who would electrify the air. Sun Studio owner Sam Philips immediately recognised the boy’s talent and teamed him up with Scotty Moore and Bill Black to record That’s All Right. With Blue Moon of Kentucky on the flipside it became Elvis’s first single.
Photo Shutterstock
A year later Philips sold his contract to RCA and his first RCA single Heartbreak Hotel went double platinum. His Sun days were over, but – apart from a brief spell in the army, and his Las Vegas residency – Elvis never really left Memphis
In 1957 he bought the Graceland mansion – just a short drive from the studio up Elvis Presley Boulevard. The Graceland compound comes complete with its own Heartbreak Hotel, parked private jets and merchandising opportunities galore. In the queue to join the queue for the mansion tour everyone drinks Elvis Pepsi. One might expect to be able to buy Elvis Pretzels or maybe King Prawns, but instead it’s hamburgers and fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Pass the Elvis Pepto-Bismol.
To view the house and grounds you’ll need to book on a tour (as around half a million people do every year) so while you wait for your slot you must stop by the King’s car collection. Elvis bought and sold more cars than most traders and the museum is just a small taste of what wheeled him around. There are a few Harleys and Hondas, a white Roller, an MG, a couple of Stutz Blackhawks and even a Ferrari 308GT4.
“The first car I ever bought was the most beautiful I’ve ever seen,” he said. “It was second hand but I parked it outside my hotel the day I got it and stayed up all night just looking at it. The next day it caught fire and burned up in the road.”
Graceland itself is an incredible time capsule and the tour reaches a poignant end at Elvis’ grave. Now to raise a glass to the departed King. And not another Elvis Pepsi, but a proper drink - a Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey, fresh from the distillery.
It’s about 250 miles cross-country to Lynchburg, home of Mr Jack. Avoid the interstate and instead follow Tennessee 64, through small towns like Bolivar, named after the South American revolutionary, passing farmland and forest. It’s an easy scenic drive, but not an especially speedy one, giving you plenty of time to tune in to Elvis Radio (channel 75 on Sirius XM).
Photo Michale Lewis Glover
Break the journey in Waynesboro and you can line your stomach at Emeralds in the town square. Try the catfish if you want to eat like a local.
They say that 100 miles is a long way in Europe and that 100 years is a long time in the USA. In which case Lynchburg is positively ancient. In 1866 Jack Daniels was granted a licence to distil his Whiskey. JD is not Bourbon, it is Tennessee Whiskey. That’s because it’s filtered through charcoal and it comes out ‘changed’, making it much smoother than your Kentucky variety.
There is, however, one small problem. Moore County has been dry since Prohibition so although it’s legal to make whiskey here, you can’t buy it or drink it!