{"id":130373,"date":"2023-07-08T08:40:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-08T13:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=130373"},"modified":"2023-07-07T17:54:24","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T22:54:24","slug":"new-exhibit-at-grammy-museum-mississippi-highway-61-traveling-americas-music-highway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/new-exhibit-at-grammy-museum-mississippi-highway-61-traveling-americas-music-highway\/","title":{"rendered":"New Exhibit at GRAMMY Museum Mississippi – Highway 61: Traveling America’s Music Highway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GRAMMY Museum\u00ae\u00a0Mississippi\u00a0<\/strong>has announced it will debut a new, major exhibit on\u00a0Friday, August 11,\u00a0<\/strong>titled\u00a0Highway 61: Traveling America\u2019s Music Highway<\/em><\/strong>. Presented\u00a0by\u00a0Eutaw Construction<\/strong>, in collaboration with Commissioner Willie Simmons<\/strong>,\u00a0the\u00a0first-of-its-kind\u00a0exhibit will\u00a0take\u00a0visitors\u00a0on a journey down what could be considered to be music\u2019s most important and famous road\u2014Highway 61<\/strong>\u2014while exploring the music sites\u00a0and celebrating the artists that played a major role in shaping American music history. The exhibit will be on display through 2024. Supporting sponsors include\u00a0APAC Mississippi <\/strong>and South Delta Planning and Development.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibit\u00a0will feature iconic artifacts from\u00a0artists like Muddy Waters<\/strong>,\u00a0Ann Peebles<\/strong>,\u00a0Dr.\u00a0John<\/strong>,\u00a0Bobby Rush<\/strong>, and Conway Twitty<\/strong>, among others, along with\u00a0artist interviews, interactive experiences, and even a Juke Joint.\u00a0The exhibit will also include a section dedicated to the celebration\u00a0of the Recording Academy Memphis Chapter\u2019s 50th\u00a0anniversary, highlighting key moments from the Chapter\u2019s\u00a0history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPassing through Tunica and Clarksdale through Cleveland, Vicksburg, and Natchez, Highway 61 carries incredible stories that have shaped much of music history, especially the blues,\u201d said Emily Havens<\/strong>, Executive Director of GRAMMY Museum Mississippi. \u201cWe can\u2019t wait to share these stories with our visitors through this first-of-its-kind exhibit. We\u2019d like to thank our sponsors for making this exhibit possible, Commissioner Willie Simmons for his support, and the Museum Curatorial team for helping bring it to life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile Highway 61 stretches from Louisiana to Minnesota, Mississippi\u2019s part of Highway 61 is arguably the most\u00a0iconic,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Jon Hornyak<\/strong>,\u00a0Sr.\u00a0Executive Director\u00a0of the Recording Academy\u2019s Memphis\u00a0Chapter. \u201cIts\u00a0passage through Mississippi\u2019s\u00a0Delta\u00a0region is what\u00a0gives Highway\u00a061\u00a0its widely known\u00a0moniker, the Blues Highway. I am thrilled that GRAMMY Museum Mississippi is bringing the story of America\u2019s most important\u00a0highway to life through this exhibit,\u00a0and I\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0wait\u00a0for\u00a0visitors near and far to experience it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to have our very own GRAMMY Museum Mississippi,\u00a0in collaboration with our sponsors from the transportation infrastructure industry, to recognize Highway 61\u2014the Blues and Heritage Highway\u2014by featuring some of the many contributions Highway 61 had in making Mississippi the Birthplace of America\u2019s music,\u201d said\u00a0Willie Simmons, Mississippi Central Transportation Commissioner. \u201cCountless Mississippians have traversed Highway 61\u2014from legendary musicians to the African Americans who left the segregated South during World War II in hopes of finding better opportunity in other parts of the country. Thank you to the Mississippi Museum for sharing this important story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u00a0are\u00a0thrilled to\u00a0have\u00a0the\u00a0opportunity\u00a0to\u00a0support\u00a0GRAMMY\u00a0Museum\u00a0Mississippi\u00a0in\u00a0bringing\u00a0this unparalleled\u00a0exhibit to\u00a0life,\u201d\u00a0said Tom Elmore<\/strong>, Chairman of the Board,\u00a0Eutaw Construction.\u00a0\u201cWe believe in the importance of sharing history, especially music history, with\u00a0the community and the younger generations. What the Mississippi\u00a0Museum does year-round to fulfill\u00a0this mission\u00a0is inspiring, and we are incredibly\u00a0honored\u00a0to\u00a0be\u00a0supporting\u00a0this\u00a0exhibit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highway\u00a061\u00a0stretches through Mississippi\u00a0from\u00a0Memphis<\/strong> in\u00a0the North down to the\u00a0Louisiana\u00a0line\u00a0in the South.\u00a0The highway\u2019s\u00a0full\u00a0length\u00a0goes\u00a0from Wyoming,\u00a0Minnesota,\u00a0to New Orleans<\/strong>, but Mississippi\u2019s stretch has arguably contributed the most\u00a0to American music history.\u00a0While its famously known as the Blues Highway<\/strong>,\u00a0Highway 61 also saw countless African American migrants escaping the Jim Crow system and changing agricultural patterns in\u00a0the Mississippi Delta and Deep South, known\u00a0as the Great Migration.\u00a0When World War\u00a0II\u00a0created shortages in labor,\u00a0Highway 61 served as the primary road for thousands of African Americans who were fleeing the harshly segregated South\u00a0in search of better lives in\u00a0cities like Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, and Philadelphia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highway 61 has also played a pivotal role in Mississippi blues history. It is said that Robert Johnson<\/strong> sold his\u00a0soul\u00a0to the devil\u00a0at the intersection of\u00a0Highways\u00a061\u00a0and\u00a049 in Clarksdale,\u00a0Mississippi. Additionally,\u00a0in 1941 a sharecropper named\u00a0McKinley\u00a0Morganfield<\/strong>\u00a0sat\u00a0down for\u00a0a recorded interview with John Work<\/strong> and Alan\u00a0Lomax<\/strong> in\u00a0Clarksdale. After he heard his voice and guitar played back for him for the first time, Morganfield\u00a0left\u00a0the Delta and\u00a0traveled the Illinois\u00a0Central\u00a0Gulf\u00a0rail\u00a0line,\u00a0which paralleled\u00a0Highway 61,\u00a0to Chicago where he changed his name to Muddy Waters and forever changed music history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highway 61: Traveling America\u2019s Music Highway<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>is a never-been-done-before exhibit\u00a0that\u00a0will tell the important history of Highway 61 and its impact on American music. Other participating sponsors include Coopwood Communications<\/strong>, Eley McPherson Engineering<\/strong>, Ergon, Inc.<\/strong>, Key Constructors<\/strong>, Maddox Foundation<\/strong>, Memphis Tourism<\/strong>, Michael\u00a0Baker International<\/strong>,\u00a0Mississippi\u00a0Humanities\u00a0Council<\/strong>,\u00a0Neel Schaffer\u00a0Engineering<\/strong>,\u00a0and Visit\u00a0Mississippi<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibit\u00a0will be on display at\u00a0GRAMMY Museum\u00a0Mississippi in Cleveland through 2024. For more information about GRAMMY Museum Mississippi, visit\u00a0www.grammymuseumms.org.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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GRAMMY Museum\u00ae\u00a0Mississippi\u00a0has announced it will debut a new, major exhibit on\u00a0Friday, August 11,\u00a0titled\u00a0Highway 61: Traveling America\u2019s Music Highway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":130378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3220],"tags":[26004,8580,3893,26003,5],"class_list":["post-130373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-delta-2","tag-eutaw-construction","tag-grammy-museum-mississippi","tag-highway-61","tag-highway-61traveling-americas-music-highway","tag-mississippi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Americas-Music-HWY-GRAMMY.jpg?fit=1920%2C1073&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}