The Mississippi River has been transporting goods, people and ideas for centuries, longer than the United States has been around in fact. One of the great cultural contributions of the River is it’s influence on music. One of our Mississippi River Network partners, the Mississippi Valley Traveler, has created quite a list of over 900 of the top River songs!
As we learn more about the River’s role in our musical history we will continue to add on to this page. If you have thoughts about what should be added, contact us and let us know!
Here are a few resources to get you started:
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Elvis
Visit the Mississippi Blues Trail for a wealth of information about the history of this uniquely American art form which traveled and developed along the River.
- As the crossroads from north to south, east to west Memphis is an important place in the history of blues and rock n’ roll. Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, in Memphis welcomes over 600,000 people every year.
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Muddy Waters
Louisiana is the birthplace of jazz, largely due to the River’s ability to mesh ideas, musical styles and musicians.
- The Importance of Muddy Waters and Change is Gonna Come are a couple 1 Mississippi blogs that have started to dive into the vast influence the river has had on music.