On the Road 2024-2025

AMERICAN TUNE takes you from Kentucky to California, however not in a straight line of any kind. The distance travelled will probably add up three times longer than any reasonable tour guide would suggest, but the stories happened where they happened, and Kris Kristofferson has already defined the itinerary; From The Kentucky Coal Mine To The California Sun. I expect a lot of zigzagging.

 

AMERICAN TUNE sends us from Kentucky through Appalachia to the East Coast, back towards the Midwest and north towards Lake Superior. From there we follow the Mississippi south; Highway 61 Revisited - past the crossroads where Robert Johnson sold his soul, and all the way down to New Orleans. A visit to Janis Joplin's hometown of Austin, Texas is mandatory, before passing Oppenheimers Los Alamos on our way to the docks of California. I am guessing we will travel 10,000 kilometers before reaching Otis Redding.

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This year's leg of the journey is half as long, starting in Harlan, Kentucky, and going through Civil War Virginia and across the symbolic border between the North and the South; Mason/Dixon line, before we drive in the direction of Youngstown and Telegraph Road. Then further north towards deadly cold Lake Superior where we search for the wreck of the legendary freighter Edmund Fitzgerald and also towards the small mining town of Calumet, Michigan which saw The Italian Hall disaster nearly destroy the city 111 years ago. The first leg ends in Iowa at Buddy Holly's death site, The Day The Music Died.

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You can find the estimated itinerary for the first leg here.