In many ways, the state of Tennessee was the highlight of our entire 1997 road trip: between the food, the music, and the history of the place, we were constantly surprised and fascinated by what we discovered. We enjoyed the state so much we visited twice, first stopping in Lynchburg, Nashville, and Shiloh, and returning, after a detour south to New Orleans, to hit Memphis on the way west again.

Our first stop in Tennessee was the Jack Daniels distillery tour, the un-corporate antidote to the World of Coca-Cola, where we peeked in the fermenting barrels and sniffed the mash before having a milkshake made with JD Rum Raisin ice cream. In Nashville, I discovered that there existed a kind of country music that I really liked – live, raucous, loud, and independent – the same day we wandered in a daze through the merchandising mecca that was the Garth Store (though it would close just two months later, apparently). I also rediscovered meat in Nashville, eating 3/4 of a pound of Texas smoked sausage at Jack’s Bar-B-Que after six years of vegetarianism. On a road trip, I figured you can’t miss out on regional road food.

The second time around, we visited Memphis’ dueling shrines of music history, Graceland and Sun Studio. Both were interesting – Graceland for its sheer audacity and excess, and Sun Studio for its authenticity, so un-polished and real that you couldn’t help but feel humbled to be there. The history in that room (as seen in the photo above) was palpable, from Elvis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash to U2, Paul Simon, and, apparently, Def Leppard, and we were really glad to be able to see it first-hand. That day was also the first time I learned about Jeff Buckley; his body had been found in the Wolf River there in Nashville just a week before. Seems like a long time ago, now.

The map is getting crowded.