U.S. Highway 61, akin to its lateral equivalent, Route 66, is another great American road. Tracking vertically from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico – eight states – the road recognized and honoured along its diverse stretches as the “Trout Road”, the “Great River Road”, “Lindberg Avenue” and the “Blues Highway”, runs about 1,700 miles (2,736km) down the backbone of a nation. U.S. Highway 61, one of the original highways within the U.S. Highway System, built in 1926 has also earned the distinguished title as the North-South Main Street of America.

While U.S. Highway 61 may not conjure up imageries of classic Americana kitschness; flaming skull bandanas; Rock & Roll music; Harley Davidson Motorcycles and convertible Cadillac’s as Route 66 does, it is still a highly renowned road and much celebrated for its deep and rich musical ancestry, delineating key and influential musicians like Robert Johnson, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan and many more too numerous to mention here. The old highway has a huge literary connection with Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald and the pop culture icon, Charles M. Schultz. Some of history’s greatest tipping points, Vicksburg and the Lorraine Motel, are traversed by U.S. Highway 61.