highway 61

In 2012 author Derek Bright returned to the United States with photographer Richard Brown, to explore the route taken by contemporary blues pilgrims down Highway 61 to the Southern States.

Their objective was to convey the essence of the blues traveller’s experience vis-à-vis the landscape and the music but also place the journey within the context of a broader history of African American struggle.  Rather than offering a tightly defined narrative of the blues, the account draws on the work of numerous blues historians and challenges blues tourists to explore a wider history within which the blues was produced. Highway 61 offers a broader story that is interwoven with the histories of bluesmen and women to be found in the towns and cities on the journey south.