Highway 61

by William McKeen

A father-and-son road trip through some of the most musically fertile and diverse landscapes in America. Long-distance father William McKeen watched his son grow up during summers, holidays, and long weekends. Now, with Graham in college, the two take a summer road trip down Highway 61, the legendary road of the blues, from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico. In cheap motels and smoky bars, with obscure bluesmen and barnstorming guitar heroes, they discover how the highway links rich and poor, black and white. In Minnesota and Iowa, William shows his son where he spent boyhood summers with his father, who died a decade before Graham was born. In St. Louis, there's another nostalgic return to a former haunt, a slice of rock-and-roll heaven called Blueberry Hill. In Memphis, they find the genuine, uncommercialized side of the city's legendary music world, and deep in the heart of the Mississippi Delta they stand over the grave of legendary bluesman Charley Patton, listen to the murmur of wind over the cotton fields, and offer silent benediction. As they venture together through magnificent country, walking the hometown streets of Bob Dylan and Mark Twain, standing at Robert Johnson's haunted crossroads, journeying from the Delta Blues Museum to Doe's Eat Place to the Alachafaya Café of New Orleans, father and son come to realize that they have a permanent connection that can never be broken by age or distance.

"Rock authority, scholar, and newly minted good ol' boy when he feels like it, William McKeen doesn't even know how to be uninteresting, least of all on Highway 61." ―Tom Wolfe "I read the book with joy and admiration for a writer at the top of his game. The book bursts with inspiration and cunningly chronicles the nuances of father/son relations in the broader context of a rock 'n' roll illusion. McKeen achieves a stunning narrative velocity and scope. A brilliant writer!" ―Nick Fowler, author of A Thing (or Two) About Curtis and Camilla "All the senses are touched in this sassy but poignant road book. William McKeen's stick-to-the-ribs words will make readers hunger for greasy burgers, thirst for icy beer, and listen to a constant serenade of music and poetry from the shoulders of the highway. En route they eavesdrop on a father and son memorizing each other during their free-fall journey without any reservations." ―Michael Wallis, author of Route 66: The Mother Road "From the Iron Range of Minnesota, where they search for the spirit of Bob Dylan, to the Mississippi Delta haunted by the ghost of Robert Johnson, William McKeen and his son take the reader down Highway 61 on a trip as rich as the musical roots they explore en route." ―Curtis Wilkie, author of Dixie

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2003

About the author

Author of Mile Marker Zero, Outlaw Journalist, Highway 61, Rock and Roll is Here to Stay and several other books, William McKeen teaches at Boston University and chairs its department of journalism. He lives on the rocky coast of Cohasset, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[John Winkelman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept is great and the writing excellent, but as a resident of a Hwy 61 city and a fan of places in both directions, it didn’t live up to my expectations.

[Jmgnole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story about the history of American rock and roll but more so it's a great story about a father and a son.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Journalism/English (I forgot) professor William McKeen turns excursionist in a road trip he takes with his college-aged son. It centers around their mutual love for music, more specifically blues, and Bob Dylan's poetic wax. The idea was to start in Thunder Bay, Ontario and end in New Orleans traversing the entire length of Highway 61, made famous in song by Dylan himself. Along the way they pass through Hibbing, Minnesota, boyhood home of Bob Dylan, several Mississippi River towns and a barrage of old-school Southern burgs, commenting on the continuing existence of racial disparity in income, music taste, and habitat. The story is made more charming via father-son bonding and the assumption that they get to know each other a little better along the way. McKeen doesn't see his son as often as he likes ever since his divorce from the mother. At times it seems as if he tries to be too "hipster" with his stories and his lingo and name-dropping, but the truth is, he loves his son, and I can only imagine there's nothing better than passing a passion down to one's own children. In thirty years or so, I hope to have created memories akin to this one with my own son.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

1 point for a road trip
1 for visiting musicians homes (Bob Dylan was born here)
1 point for visiting a graveyard (3 for Robert Johnson)
1 point for a Ashley Judd crush
1 point for talking about Blueberry Hill restaurant in St Louis

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warm, Touching,Funny. Great Read

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great father and son road trip story--

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history lesson on rock 'n roll & the blues in mid-America.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great bonding story.

[Bob Rush]

A great road trip.