Introducing our music inspired holidays

For anyone with a passion for jazz, blues, country or rock ‘n’ roll, the USA’s Deep South really is the dream destination, the land where all of these now internationally popular music styles emerged during the last century. Choose from two wonderful tours through Southern musical history, Southern Sights and Sounds , which will also introduce you to the wider attractions of the exciting cities and evocative scenery of the Deep South. On Southern Sights and Sounds you’ll spend time in those legendary centres of music-making, Nashville, home of the Grand Ole Opry and Memphis, birthplace of ‘Father of the Blues’ W C Handy. You’ll also be able to visit Graceland, Elvis Presley’s grand mansion, as well as his rather more modest childhood home in Tupelo. In New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, you’ll enjoy a cruise on a Mississippi paddle-steamer, with a live band on board, and have a free day to explore the atmospheric French Quarter. You’ll learn more about the local culture and history, too, visiting a whiskey distillery in Tennessee, riding a train in Chattanooga, and stopping at Lafayette, a centre of Cajun culture. On Southern Musical Medley, you’ll have a chance to see the historic FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama – ‘the hit-recording capital of the world’ – and Belle Meade, ‘the Queen of the Tennessee Plantations,’ recalling the ambience of Gone With The Wind.