The Music Lover's Guide to North America: Museums, Historical Sites, and Other Points of Interest

by Josephine Matyas, Craig Jones

The first-ever guidebook to North American music museums and other sites, from the iconic to the obscure.
Wherever you are, you don't have to go far in North America to find world-class music museums and historical sites. Whether in major cities like Nashville, Detroit, and New Orleans or less familiar locales like Hibbing, Minnesota (the childhood home of Bob Dylan) or Nazareth, Pennsylvania (home of the Martin Guitar Company), the riches of its musical heritage are available to everyone from newbie tourists to veteran road-trippers.
The Music Lover's Guide to North America is the first guidebook of its kind, focused on the best music museums and other points of interest between the Atlantic and the Pacific, in both Canada and the United States. In addition to practical information, it provides fascinating background on history, culture, geography, and politics, covering everything from major destinations like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to festivals, signature instrument shops, driving and walking tours, and much more.

Genres: Travel, History, Music, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

Published October 16, 2025

Reviews

[Bargain Sleuth Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Bloomsbury Academic and Netgalley for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I love all kinds of music, so I thought this book would be a slam dunk. Sadly, it wasn't. Focusing mainly on country music, with some jazz and blues represented, there seemed to be an effort to include as many obscure people and places as possible. I mean, I've studied music history since high school in the late 1980s, and some of these musicians I'd never heard of.

This book seems like it's for academics who travel during the summers.

[Chrissy · Rating 3 out of 5]

​An exhaustive and well-researched directory for any music nerd. I didn't "finish" this in the traditional sense because it's designed to be used as a reference rather than read as a story. It’s perfect for dipping in and out of based on where you're traveling. Keeping this on my shelf for my next cross-country road trip!

[Lisa Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've visited some of the places in this guide but what I liked was how there were a bunch of places and people I didn't know about yet. This isn't comprehensive but it's interesting and gave me ideas on new things to see. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Music and travel are two of my favorite things in the world, so this book should be a home-run for me, right? Sigh. There were almost no photographs at all, which was extremely disappointing. The sections focused almost entirely on the blues, jazz, and country music - which, while they're all great, are such a small piece of American music history and present. The information was really fascinating and made me want to visit many of these places, however - I just wish there was more variety covered.