And they're off for the 143rd Kentucky Derby

 How many Uber drivers does it take to work Kentucky Derby weekend?  I don't know, but it is somewhere close to a shitload.  Over three days we take 9 or 10 Uber trips and only one driver is local.  The rest have come in from all over, with one guy driving three hours from some place in Ohio.  You'd have to really need the dollars.  Uber pays them a guaranteed $900 if they make 45 fares over the weekend.  That isn't even over and above what they make, it's rounded up.  And still we walked for a hour after we left the races before we could get a ride! 

 

 

And we're off! Oaks and Derby tickets

The Kentucky Derby, like the Melbourne Cup, is "the race that stops a nation".  Here in Louisville - pronounced Looville in case you weren't listening - every first Saturday in May for the past 143 years, 150,000 or so people have flocked to Churchill Downs racetrack. 

It's not always so much for the racing, as while this is a day of ceremony, elegance and tradition, it comes with a southern fried helping of decadence and depravity.  

 

Mint Juleps! Mint Juleps!

 

 

The official drink is a Mint Julep, which is pretty much all Bourbon and more Bourbon with a sprig of mint. The dress code is, well, dress to excess. 

 

 

For women, that's the biggest hat you can find, and at the glamorous end they pay between $500 and $5,000 for these confections - a simple fascinator (or fornicator as I've heard them called) just doesn't cut it.

Where did you get that hat?

For men it appears to mean dressing like a complete dork.

 

Aces high

 

 

On Oaks day (day before Derby day) fashion took a back seat to warmth and dryness as it rained all day and the temperature hit a high of 47C - that's about 8C!   My pre trip research led me to

A pile of confiscated umbrellas

pack a silk dress and sandals for the usual range of 75-80F (23-27C).  As luck would have it, a later part of this trip will see me in the Italian Alps so I had merino at hand!  And how fortuitous I'd bought cowboy boots in Nashville (I had to! We were going line dancing).  

Rain boots, riding boots or any kind of boots and raincoats were required.

Along with a long list of other things (guns, knives, nappy/diaper bags unless accompanied by a child) umbrellas are forbidden.

 

Rain coats required

 

I've never seen track conditions officially described as "sloppy" but sloppy is a very accurate term for the meeting.

It rained non stop for Oaks day, but by Derby day the rain abated to showers and the temperature rocketed to a positively tropical 62F/16C.  I was down to three layers and boots!  

 

The Run for the Roses, as the Derby is known, doesn't take place til about 6:30pm and there are 11 races in the lead up. 

It's all a matter of pacing yourself through the day.  It's fair to say not everyone knows how to pace themselves. 

Did we make money? I walked away a little bit better off. Did we have a good time?  Sure did, despite the weather.  Would we go again? Well, we probably wouldn't fly thousands of miles for it but it was well worth the once in a lifetime experience.

On theme with roses              

Fly my pretties

I don't know what to say

The grass is always greener

And now for the boys....

 

 

This is my wife's hat, really

Don't wear your money dude!

Harlequin is in the house

Matchy matchy

Music and beer

 

Following the Blues Highway

 

Clarksdale (home of the Blues) free concert on the street; Blues museum; Rock and Blues museum; Red's Juke Joint jam night

 

Memphis Sun Studios; Graceland; Stax Studios; 

 

 

The Man in Black

Nashville Ryman Theatre; the Grand Ole Opry; Emmylou Harris concert at the Ryman; Johnny Cash Museum; Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

 

Emmylou Harris at the 125 year old Ryman theatre

 

If all the  hours we've spent following the Highway 61 Blues Trail through to the home of Country music were laid end to end, they would add up to the number of different Southern craft brewed IPAs we've drunk.  I would add that those hours have been exceptionally well spent and the IPAs very well drunk.  Though Amanda insists I note some IPAs are only wheat beer masquerading as IPA. 

 

Without exception the museums are interesting, informative and absorbing. 

 

 

 

Stage at the Grand Ole Opry

 

 

 

 

 

Sun Studios

At Sun Studio we had an enthusiastic Zac walking us through the history of the label and sharing rare musical gems, such as the first recorded rock and roll song - Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats with Ike Turner on vocals - released in 1951.  Sun has other premises but the original studio is still functional, recording everyone from Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis on through to U2, Def Leppard, Bennie Raitt and Ringo Starr. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stax

Satellite records was established in 1959 and in 1961 became Stax, owned and run by the white brother and sister team of Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton. It's situated in what was, and still is, a largely black area of Memphis. Jim and Estelle saw no colour and welcomed all comers. 

The label's house band was Booker T and the MGs (two white artists and two black) and Stax recorded what is essentially the history of rockabilly and country through rhythm and blues.  I mention race and colour as snippets of video show artists talking about there being no black and white at Stax, even though there was still a divide in the commumity.  Remember this before the any civil rights legislation.  After the assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis on April 4th 1968, things changed, and many attribute the subsequent closure of Stax in 1974 to this event. 

Aside from the huge range of music memorabilia (and history lessons!) the display includes Isaac Hayes' gold plated 1972 Cadillac, complete with fur lined interior, fridge and tv.  Who da man? Can you dig it? 

Isaac Hayes gold plated Cadillac

 

 

 

The future of blues guitar

For all the excellence of the museums, we are unanimous in voting the night at Red's Juke Joint in  Clarksdale the best night ever.  We had arrived in Clarksdale at the tail end of the annual Juke Joint festival (http://www.jukejointfestival.com/) which attracts Blues fans from all over the world.  Accommodation for 2019 is already booking out, though to be fair Clarksdale is tiny (pop 16,000) and there's not a lot of options.  So the Sunday night sees Red's host the Juke Joint Jam, where musicians in town come in, put their names down and jam the night away.  

 

Red's is run down and has a down at heel charm; there's so much cigarette smoke and beer in the fabric of the walls it's like that's all that's holding it together.  Punters ($7 at the door) are jammed in, beer is $5 and the only choice, you grab a bit of space where you can, settle in and buckle up for the best music you've heard since Jim Hendrix and Eric Clapton hit the scene.  Standing there in his striped t-shirt, cap on, too young to drink, a 16 year old still with braces on his teeth blows the room apart. This is what we came for. 

 

 

Red's jam session