South’s driving rhythm

In the land where great sounds began, Winston Aldworth charts a musical roadtrip

The language that gave us Shakespeare, also gives country music lyrics. “You tore through my life,” sings Rodney Crowell, “like a tornado looking for a trailer park.” The Bard couldn’t have put it better. Music be the food of love, indeed.

The lyrics of country music — and it’s younger, brasher cousin rock ’n’ roll — may have a rough-hewn edge, but there’s grand artistry at play. And the American South is where the art was born. It thrives there today.

The music of the South spread along the highways, railway lines and rivers of America. Jazz from New Orleans, rock ’n’ roll from Memphis. Pretty much everything out of Nashville. And when television and radio took off, the music took to the airwaves.

You don’t need to go far to encounter great music in the South. Austin, in Texas, has seen it all. At the Continental Club, on South Congress — one of the coolest little neighbourhoods in the world, by the way — manager Diane shows us around the small live music venue which used to be owned by Bob Crane, the star of Hogan’s Heroes and, as noted by ABC News “a sex addict before the term was invented”. us It’s a tight little venue, comparable to, say, the dear departed Kings Arms. The blackened walls make it feel even tighter when we watch a local rock ’n’ roll act there that night. South Congress (SoCo) was a good neighbourhood in the 1950s, but things went sharply downhill, so much so that in the 60s, the Continental’s happy hour went from 6am-9am. Today, it’s cutting edge cool. There are fabulous restaurants and boutique shopping — including the remarkable Allens Boots — along the street. Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant is a regular at the Continental and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons often pops in to play.

They’re no strangers to big names at the Austin City Limits studio. Soul diva Aretha Franklin’s rider insists that there’s no air conditioning in the dressing room. For glum mod-goth Marilyn Manson, the dressing room has to be painted black with the temperature a steady 13.8C.

When Chrissie Hynd plays, it’s vegan meals all round for the staff. Our tour guide Jac Molloy recalls John Mellencamp turning up. “His crew warned us: ‘Don’t look at Mr Mellencamp.’

“Those stories you hear about artists being demanding … well, they’re kind of true.” Memphis,

it’s Beale St. Punters wander from one venue to the next. I left my group watching