Earlier this year, me and a couple of friends decided on a summer road-trip throughout the so-called Deep South, the most southern states of the USA. As we have a shared history of playing in bands and writing music together, my friends and I thought it would be cool to purchase some second-hand instruments and travel through some of the more musically well-known states. This short blog covers our three-week itinerary, with plenty of pictures to go along.

Brief history

The Deep South refers to the seven slave states that originally joined forces in what became known as the Confederate States of America. The historical dependence on slave labor (as well as the proximity to Cuba and Mexico) means that the region has both a large present-day ethnic minority of African-Americans and Hispanic Americans (and a more apparent cultural mix). Therefore, parts of this particular region are also informally called Black Belt (as well as Bible Belt). Simultaneously the region politically tends to be more conservative-leaning; with historic revisionism in regards to the region’s role in, and dependence on, trans-Atlantic slavery often neglected in favor of ‘State rights’ rhetoric.

Itinerary

We rented a relatively cheap car that would still be large enough to handle all five of us and our gear. Size-wise The car looked like a limousine, yet paled in comparison to the cars driving around us; among our first cultural shocks right there. As most of us are still students, we left straight after our finals end of June. The summertime in the South is described as being relentlessly tough, so we made sure to have proper air-conditioning and plenty of water available.

Florida

Miami

After a fairly pleasant eight-hour flight, we arrived at Miami International Airport in Florida. Despite arriving late in the evening, it still took us over a whopping three hours of queuing just to get through border control. It was a Kafkaesque experience for sure; having to queue to use check-in machines and manual check-ups serving the exact same task, yet those manual check-ups were so superficial that it felt entirely unnecessary and a waste of time. An antiqued relic of post-911 measures?

On our way out we passed about five fast-food chains within a minute of driving, as well as several drive-through gun shops and pharmacies, and big billboards advertising triple-bypasses. What a country.

Some other memorable locations to us as foreigners around here were a Waffle House and an enormous Walmart.

Everglades

We spent some time exploring the everglades, a natural region of tropical wetlands with a large variety of flora and fauna. After passing an alligator crossing the road, we decided to stay in our car for most of the time here.

Key West

The Key West is the most southern island of the Florida Keys as well as the most southern city in the USA. The area has strong Cuban influence and is generally known as a tropic nightlife paradise. We spent some time at one of the beaches but found the area too crowded to our liking. People were pleasant and talkative enough around here, although the constant witty banter and one-liners (what we had thus-far only experiences in US television shows) became tiring rather quickly.

Panama City Beach

After a long, intense drive, we halted in panama City Beach and spent the afternoon and evening in a natural park, playing a bit on our instruments and having some drinks. Only at this point did we fully realize cities in the USA often don’t have city centers similar to the German city-model popular in Europe. Thus we could never just park our car somewhere and spend the day just walking around or travel by public transport.

With the upcoming presidential elections most people we met were incredibly keen on talking politics. In this natural park, we met an elderly man who (after inviting us for a pick-nick with his family) tried to convince us that President Obama was a actually a radical leftist Muslim destroying the United States with his socialist plans and support for Muslim terrorists. The kind of politics you might end up taking for granted when relying on private-owned, heavily sponsored news channels such as Fox News too much. It was for that exact reason, actually, that he would support Trump in the upcoming elections (notwithstanding that isn’t actually running).

It was a mixed experience; while the family was open and kind (to all colors and races, as he was keen on highlighting by pointing out his daughter’s marriage to a Black man, both present at the pick-nick), it was clear that the lack of self-confidence in their Southern identity (these regions are often the butt of the joke) might have further marginalized and radicalized them politically.

Alabama

After a long drive through the scenic beauty of Alabama, we spent a short night in major port city Mobile. I particularly enjoyed the thick accents spoken here, reminding me heavily of the 1994 movie Forrest Gump, which takes place around this area.

Louisiana

Louisiana was one of the more interesting states we visited, with a strong Cajun and Creole influence present in both cuisine and culture. It is unfortunate that after eleven years, the scars caused by the notorious Hurricane Katrina are very much visible and unresolved. A blight on a nation that takes pride in its wealth and strong economy.

Lafayette

Lafayette is a pretty small town with a lively outgoing scene. After some detours we ended up in a local bar filled with burly, tattooed bikers watching several Americana performers. This was a really cool, unplanned experience and the whole thing really felt like a scene straight out of popular Southern Vampire series True Blood.

We befriended a young couple, both fresh college graduates and strong Bernie supports. It was a lovely and enriching experience, albeit that my worries on the marginalization of this region were further confirmed through the somewhat condescending tone used in regards to the US south as a whole.

New Orleans

New Orleans is popularly referred to as the birthplace of jazz music in the USA and thus couldn’t possibly be left out of our itinerary. We checked-in close to the famous French Quarter and spent our first night in bars around Bourbon Street.

As first impressions go, that one was actually a bit of a downer. Bourbon Street reminded me of a sleazy red-light district overrun by affluent, middle-age tourists, and the smell was unbearably nauseating, reminding us of a mixture of sewer and cannabis. In hindsight this should have made sense; historically parts of the French Quarter did serve as a red-light district, after all, and was popular for drinking, gambling and brothels. The next evenings, however, were spent in nearby streets instead and surely ended up more memorable; having been treated to impromptu jazz concerts and street hip-hop free-styling.

New Orleans, as most of Louisiana, is often depicted as having a strong Voodoo culture amongst its creole population (descendants of French or Spanish colonial settlers, often with African or Native American ancestry as well). One of the famous practitioners, Marie Laveau, is buried in New Orleans; her grave becoming a famous tourist attraction. Frankly, the idea of a voodoo culture felt extremely commodified and exploitative; and someone we met of Creole descent did in fact argue that due to gentrification, very little of actual Creole voodoo culture remains.

New Orleans has plenty of swamps and bayous and a boat-tour through them was quite lovely.

Texas

Texas, the second largest state in the USA and bordered by Mexico, has a long and politically colorful history culminating in the narrative of being strong-willed and independent. After days spent driving on gray, asphalt roads, the rough, desert-like setting was quite a change. We thoroughly enjoyed our in this state and extended our stay by almost a week.

Houston

On our way to the state capital, we passed through Texas’ largest city and home of NASA’s Mission Control Center. A visit was definitely compulsory.

Around this exact time several violent protests broke out following the shooting of an unarmed black man by a police man in Houston, followed later by the shooting of several police officers. Even in our home country we often hear reports of police brutality and racial conflicts in the USA, but actually experiencing the tense atmosphere and intense sadness following these events is an entirely other thing.

Austin

Having heard that Austin is within Texas known for being a more liberal and alternative city with a large college student population, we decided on spending the fourth of July and following weekend there.

Something bizarre: the majority of the bars around there had Jenga games on their terraces. On a particular night, me and two others were on a roll and built a rather large tower, to the point some bystanders started filming and taking pictures. Several time that evening we were approached as “Oh dude you’re the Jenga boys, right?” - Which was frankly not the reputation we were hoping for, if anything.

We befriended a local guy of Mexican descent and had a few more drinks at our place afterwards. Again the topic shifted towards politics; with his strong libertarian mindset ultimately opting to vote for Trump in hopes that it would increase state independence. Wonder how that will play out.

One of our best meals was spent at a family-style barbecue restaurant nearby Texas, The Salt Lick BBQ, which we had already heard about before our trip after it went viral on the internet for their specific style of cooking. Another good memory food-wise was a Korean BBQ in the center of Austin. Not exactly very American, but I finally understand the hype.

Big Bend National Park

Despite apparently being relatively unknown, Big Bend National Park turned out to be the most breathtaking place we’ve visited in the US. Lying directly on the border of Mexico, the area has a distinct desert-like environment with appropriate flora and fauna. We often passed snakes, lizards and scorpions, as well various spiders and insects I’d rather avoid altogether.

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, the capital of Tennessee is well known as the center of the country music industry in the USA and saw the birth of famous musicians such as Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Roy Orbison (and in more recent memory Miley Cyrus).

We spent some time on Broadway Street, popular for bar hopping (or “honky-tonking”) along various country-music venues. It’s a pretty touristic place (and we actually passed the notorious far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders).

Some locals drove us to 5-point, the local outgoing district with a vibrant nightlife. Two guys we acquainted at one bar again ended up preaching the necessity of gun-rights and in particular the right to open or concealed carrying. For sure another heavy culture shock right there, given that we have very strict gun laws in Belgium, but they took us for a few rounds at a nearby shooting range the next day, which was an interesting, unplanned experience.

Music

When traveling, I make it a habit of finding new music by listening to local radio stations or asking recommendations to people I meet in hostels or bars - It’s my own personal souvenir and sticks better in my mind than regular touristic souvenirs.

This trip’s pick is the Nashville-born Hank Williams III, a multi-instrumentalist and grandson of famous honky-tonk / country musician Hank Williams. He successfully blends his country and honky-tonk roots with punk-rock and metal, and we’ve often played his albums on our trip.

Conclusion

A first surprise was the enormous influence of American pop-culture and soft-power on our daily lives: upon arrival I felt this sense of nostalgia despite having never visited the place before. Yet even more surprising was the spatial planning in these states: we’ve had occasions of staying at a certain hotel with a particular lay-out and a range of fixed fast-food chains nearby; getting up at 7AM and driving over 14 hours across concrete roads, only to arrive at the exact same hotel with the exact same fast-food chains nearby again. Genuinely felt like parts were constructed through the usage of copy-paste in a large Sims game.

Public transport, especially interstate-wise, is incredibly lacking. The young couple we talked to told us the car-industry successful lobbied against Obama’s plan to introduce a European-style train-network. Furthermore, the outrageous amount of advertisements and national flags as signifiers of national identity visible everywhere we went would have been outright bizarre if we were not yet aware of rather nationalistic tendencies in US history and education.

Nevertheless it was an enjoyable trip, although not without a variety of culture shocks. We achieved our goals of playing music on the road, and most of our evenings were spent socializing with locals or listening to local bands perform. People were generally incredibly warm and interested and often invited us over for dinner or drinks.

Speaking of which, I probably gained over ten pounds eating hamburgers, BBQ and various kinds of fried food. Wonder how I’d look if I had a longer stay.

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