The Music Cities’ River
American Symphony by Denise Copeland
“It’s hard to imagine American music and literature without the river.” — Douglas Brinkley, historian
F or years, I tried to persuade my mother to take a cruise with me. Every invitation was met with the same list of objections: the ships were too large, the walking excessive, the crowds exhausting and the atmosphere far too similar to a giant oating mall with several food courts attached. At 86, my mother is a spunky, active Midwesterner who is perfectly capable of traveling. She simply has no desire to spend a vacation studying deck plans, waiting for elevators or hiking half a mile because someone seated us in the wrong dining room. I occasionally attempted to defend ocean cruising by explaining the restaurants, entertainment and clever ship design. My arguments were received with the polite detachment usually reserved for telemarketers. What she had always wanted was a riverboat cruise. A proper one, with towns along the riverbanks, a private balcony and a ship small enough that reaching breakfast would not require provisions. When I showed her the nine-day Music Cities itinerary aboard American Symphony, traveling from Memphis to Nashville with approximately 180 passengers, her resistance disappeared.
e ship had ve passenger decks rather than eighteen, no casino, no water slides and no shopping promenade selling watches beneath arti cial palm trees. is, she decided, was cruising. So we packed for Memphis and were met with barbecue smoke, neon signs and a blues guitar spilling through an open doorway on Beale Street. Beyond the music and trac, the Mississippi moved in broad brown folds, carrying barges beneath a sky that seemed far larger than it had any right to be. As a rst-time river cruiser, I had expected a pleasant passage with several good shore days. I had not expected the water itself to become the connective tissue of the trip, joining music, war, art, industry and small-town life into one unfolding American story. e nine-day Music Cities itinerary begins with a hotel night in Memphis before the ship sails toward Nashville by way of the Lower Mississippi, the Ohio and the Cumberland. My rst night at e Guest House at Graceland supplied an appropriately theatrical overture. Elvis portraits and polished surfaces set the mood, while the Graceland visit moved beyond rhinestone mythology into something more personal: family rooms, stage costumes,
26 Coastal Pearl Living - TREASURE
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