Program

• DAY 1:

  SO THIS IS JUST LAY-OUT NO – PATIENCE DURING JANUARY 2026 – IT WILL BE READY AND UP AND RUNNING THIS MONTH

  INFO@KEEPALIVETOURS.COM

  Your American and your Dutch&English speaking tour leaders and organisers Ashley Gray and Samuele Pitzalis, tour operator Keep Alive Tours, welcome you at New Orleans Airport. There we start this day at 3 pm with a transfer to the famous French Quarter in New Orleans, for a check in in the hotel.

  Then on our way along diverse live music bars in famous New Orleans streets we see two impressive statues of legendary fighters for freedom & equal rights for their people. (They didn’t win.) Dinner in a restaurant with live music.

  The next day we see first the ‘New Orleans way’ until now of how to fight the sea, somewhat different from how The Netherlands keep their country from being flooded. After that we head towards a city with impressive civil rights museum: Jackson. Halfway we stop at an all southern little BBQ-restaurant with excellent vegetables too. You also see how native American super important sacred grounds nowadays tend to be hidden. You will recognise the name from a Disney movie.
  In Jackson we visit the impressive museum and have dinner, and stay at a hotel.

  The next day we take a road to the Blues Capital of the world. After booking you will have received a documentary to watch, and when today we take this road – clarly a flood land, still full of memories to plantation days not even gone by – you will feel the connection to those days. Locals whistle with admiration when we say that we took this road, really deep into Mississippi. It could all very well have happened her, On our way to our next hotel stop we stop at sites on the Blues Highway, on every stop thee is explanation and music; the boards tell a rich array of stories. We might even visit one of the smaal Blues Museums. At sunset we are exactly in the right spot: one of the best preserved Indian mounds in the USA, full of allignments to certain star constellations. After our Soul has received proper guidance – it knows now what to do, according to native Americans – we arrive in the impressive Blues capital, where we stay in a hotel, with impressive Blues related places and stories all around us. Music and art cafe, local entrepreneurs, a Blues piano player, impressive details as reminders to segregation times… And there is always music somewhere, every night, in this little town, where we also have our dinner.

  The next morning we have breakfast in a typical local venue, meeting people and hearing new stories that – also thanks to our local guide – are ready to be picked up from the streets. We also visit one of the crossroads where Robert Johnsen may indeed have sold his soul to the Devil.

  Transfer to Soul Capital of the Wold, where we visit the first of two famous recording studios, the second one we visit tomorrow morning, both times with guided tour and all – we learn so much and hear such beautiful music right there, ‘where it all happened’. Full of these details we are indeed capable to appreciate and truly enjoy one of the most impressive music museums of the world. and we are having Soul Food today, simple local food, but in a surprising way an impressive experience indeed!

  The next morning we visit the somewhat commercial house of Elvis Presley, a must-visit anyway, and we look at the Soul Roots of Elvis. Then on to the village of Tina Turner, and admire her personal story and development, from the local music of this area to international super star, after her decision to come up for her own personal ‘civil rights’. She freed herself and how! You will know because before arriving you will have seen an impressive documentary about her. It all makes our visit to ‘ her’ highly praised museum extra precious. We eat and sleep in her town.

  At the end of the morning wel will arrive in Country capital of the world, with the fabulous museum where we will have lunch first and then nurture ourselve with worldknown and less known tunes and details, presented in an impressive way.

  The next morning we drive to a village where we are warnt upon entering: you will hear the soundtrack of your life time. Muscle Shoals is the village where even the Rolling Stones came to record some of their best music, and so many more artist that we all know. Guided tour, musical memories, very nice shop indeed, by know – after all these days – you may have bought so many special Christmas gifts indeed! As part of your homework you will have seen the beautiful documentary on this remarkeably rich music environment.
  We might visit another impressive Indian mound here, not coincidentally placed here. Walking on the old railroad bridge at sunset is spectacular. Such rich days, based on our own personal experience and memories, we have been taking you to the best places that we have visited personally; this is not a tour designed behind a computer with Google Maps! Local experience and enthousiasm tell an extra rich story.
  We eat and sleep in the ‘Italian’ town nearby famous for its live music everywhere and… it’s ultrarich Hall of Fame.

  The next morning wel will have visited this Hall of Fame, where you will recosgnise so much more now after all these rich musical days! We lunch there and then it is on to the little village where ML King started his march for equal rights. We will have the best possible guide talking about those days and the true versions of what really happened. So much inside information you will gather thee days!

  We dine in an environment that could qualify for the Honey Bunny scene in Pulp Fiction and sleap nearby. American road movies are full of these places. rest assured that throughout these rich days you will remember many famous movie scenes too. And we’re all lovers of music and films and civil rights history, so no need to be shy.

  The next morning we head back to New Orleans as a sort of homecoming, enjoying the music and art scene again. During our trasfer we stopped at a monument to pay homage to the makers of two legendary songs: one about Alabama and one about the right to be free. You will receive a special tour reminder indeed here, and so off we go to New Orleans! Last night and music here, and the following day we all fly back to where we came from or to wherever your next adventure takes you.

   

-STEL JE VRAAG-