x

Oct

28

2014

Gateway to the Blues Museum Progress

 Gateway to the Blues Museum Progress

“Nothing ever becomes real til it is experienced.”

                                    John Keats, English Poet

Mississippi – the Birthplace of America’s Music!

The Blues, born among the hot, humid and dusty Mississippi Delta fields makes this marketing tagline about as true and original as any that you will ever hear or read.

Arguably Mississippi’s greatest export; blues music has been experienced across the airwaves on radios and televisions the world-over.  Today however, millions of people from around the globe are taking the 18th century poet John Keats’ words to heart and visiting Mississippi where this truest form of experiential music was born.

The Gateway to the Blues Museum, Mississippi’s newest blues experience will open this January alongside blues highway 61 in Tunica Resorts.  Just 20 miles from Memphis’s Beale Street and Elvis’ Graceland, it will serve as the perfect stop for tourists and music lovers searching for that authentic blues experience. 

The name “Gateway” was given to this project because the Visitor Center and Museum is truly the gateway to the larger blues and music product that can be found throughout the Mississippi Delta.  Whether traveling the Blues Trail, visiting one of the many blues attractions in Clarksdale or attending an event at the BB King Blues Museum in Indianola, the Gateway to the Blues Visitor Center and Museum will serve as the perfect first stop and educate all on why this original music art form originated and flourished from this unique landscape.

The 3,500 square foot museum will feature the following galleries:

  • What Is Blues Music
  • Why Here? (Mississippi Delta)
  • Evolution of Style and Form
  • Mississippi Bluesmen
  • Evolution of the Guitar
  • Blues Lyric Interactive

Highlights of the museum will include videos from local historian Willy Beardon and blues artists Preston Shannon and Eden Brent.  Visitors will end their journey with local bluesman Memphis Jones in the Blues Lyric Interactive where he will assist you in the production of your very own blues song.  Once recorded, the Gateway to the Blues Museum staff will email each visitor a copy of their song as a memento of their visit to Tunica and the Mississippi Delta. 

The Gateway to the Blues Visitor Center and Museum will become real with visitors from around the world being able to experience this one of a kind music attraction in 2015.  Follow us on twitter @TunicaBlues and check in with www.tunicatravel.com for the most up to date and accurate times for the official grand opening of Mississippi’s newest blues music experience.

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