TRAVEL the deep south It all started with an olympics

There have been 45 presidents of the US since King George was sent trial is a packing. The US, though, has had WC Handy, but three Kings, who have left a lasting legacy. Next year is the 50th anni- versary of Dr Martin Luther King’s good korea assassination and last week we followed in his footsteps from it was BB King Memphis where he made his Mountaintop speech and was assassinated to the Mississippi Civil move, kim! Rights Museum in Jackson and the opening of a new chapter in the Civil who introduced all Rights story. This week we look at BB King, Blues and Beale Street, before finishing the series in Graceland and SKI Elvis Presley, The King. of us (U2 included) to REPORT Catherine o k e u p t h i s magical Beale Street Murphy morning! Well, this SKI WRITER is the home of the OF THE YEAR Blues, Memphis, IN just over a month, Team Ire- Te n n e s s e e , s o land will travel to Pyeongchang Wthere was really only one thing in South Korea to compete in the The real Beale: Beale 2018 Winter Olympics. for it, I headed down to Beale. Street, Bono singing Which is, of course, the first Amongst the athletes who’ve with BB King, and below, already qualified and dream of place every visitor comes when The our Jim and colleague bringing medals home to Ireland they first arrive here. Even this Steph with BB’s and are Sochi snowboarding veteran early in the morning, 9am, the Prince’s replica guitars Seamus O’Connor from San Blues is blaring out from the Diego, Austria-based Alpine skier bars and clubs even though Patrick McMillan, freestylers they won’t open until early Every Bluesman has his woman Going up in the world: North leaving because ‘he done them Brendan Newby from Utah and Korea’s ski king Kim Jong-Un evening. story of the wrong’ though there’s always the John Brown from New Hamp- We were in BB King’s Blues Club the assumption in the songs that shire, slalom and giant slalom and there could be quite a jour- night before, dancing to the early hours he’ll talk his way back. racer Tess Arbez from France and ney ahead for our athletes. to the house band, working off the Bar- All Bluesmen are the same, the cross-country skier Thomas One thing that’s certain is that becue chicken, rice and catfish and same but then different. Westgard from Norway. going back for seconds, rolling down And then on top of all that, Kim Yong-Un will be watching the river to Ike and Tina Turner’s there’s Robert Johnson, the By January 24th, another three closely, perhaps jealously, as the Proud Mary. Baddest Man in Blues, who leg- athletes – Dublin-based Cormac Games unfold. Riley King first came here from his end has it made a deal with the Comerford, Essex native Kieran In 2017, British snowboarding native Mississippi in his late teens but Devil at a crossroads, near to Norris and Emma Ryan from champion Jamie Barrow made really started making his mark when where we stop off at Dockery Massachusetts – will know if a controversial trip to North the sole black radio station in town, Plantation after which he they have done enough to qual- Korea, visiting the capital WDIA, championed him in his early 20s returned to town with a new- ify after a tough few months of Pyongyang before heading to and christened him Beale Street Blues found guitar style which set him racing. Boy, abbreviated to Blues Boy and apart from his peers. the ski resort of Masikryong on then BB (he was just B to his friends). Whatever the truth, and who Our 2018 team members hail Mount Taewha. BB has been intertwined with Beale Blues wouldn’t want to believe this from a diverse range of places Constructed in just ten months Street ever since. story, we do know that Robert around the globe and are eligi- during 2013, the luxury ski resort His club is at the foot of the pedestri- was a bit of an oul Devil for the ble to compete for Ireland was designed to rival Pyeong- anised stretch where revellers mill women. through Irish parents or chang and as a vanity project for every night, spilling out of the clubs travel facts grandparents. Jong-Un, who reportedly spent taking the party outside. They follow in the footsteps WC Handy, the Father of the Blues, time at school in Switzerland. looks down the road at us all from out- HOW TO GET THERE e seemed to have of former Irish Olympians Kirsty While basketball champion Denis side the pedestrianised cordon further Jim flew with United Airlines, Dublin to one in every port or and Tamsen McGarry, Pauli Rodman once famously said that down Beale Street... his boyhood shack Newark, New Jersey and then onto Mem- town, more often Schwarzacher-Joyce and Clifton he has skied with Kim Jong-Un, has been recreated in exact detail phis, returning Jackson, Mississippi to than not somebody Wrottesley who narrowly missed the DPRK leader was photo- nearby. Helse’s, which ultimately was his Houston, Texas, then onto Newark and out on a bobsleigh bronze medal own undoing when he was poi- graphed riding a chair lift with- then onto Dublin. soned at the age of only 27, the at Salt Lake City in 2002. out skis during a visit to the wife of a jealous husband lacing Like many, I’m intrigued by slopes. t was Band leader Handy, trav- WHERE TO STAY his whiskey with Strychnine. what awaits the Irish team in Skiing is labelled an elitist sport elling around the Mississippi Car hire, three nights Memphis –Pea- Our own hero BB also loved Pyeonchang when the games at the best of times but the notion Delta over the turn of the 20th body, one night Cleveland, Mississippi – and was much loved by women. begin on February 9. of a luxury resort where a ski century, who curated the sounds Hampton Inn, two nights Natchez – The He even named his guitars after In his New Year address, IOC lesson costs the equivalent of an Iwhich would become the Blues and Burns B&B, two nights Jackson – Westin. women, or one woman, Lucille, President Thomas Bach remarked average month’s wage is criti- developed it and brought it to the Costs may vary. Lead in cost per person a damsel in distress. Legend has mainstream in Memphis, his standard it that two fellas were fighting that ‘there has never been such cised as an immoral folly. Memphis Blues which was originally £1665 (€1865). over her at one of his gigs when a political background to a host Masikryong’s slopes are often called Crump’s Blues, was written for a fire broke out interrupting city for a summer or winter empty, out of reach of all but the the mayoral candidate. the concert forcing everyone to Olympic Games’, referring to the richest North Koreans and curi- Handy, his trumpet in hand, stands evacuate the building. BB realis- high political tension between ous international visitors. across the road from the Robert ing that his favourite guitar North and South Korea. UN sanctions mean that ‘luxury’ Church Park, named for the Lansky’s which boasts that it is straight these roads are... much of Oh, I wish I was single because Bluesman, they were a different was still inside rushed into the Nuclear war rhetoric between equipment like snow mobiles South’s first black millionaire who the clothier to the King. Elvis, like it is the vertical Highway 61, the my lady is driving me mad. species. burning building to retrieve it Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump cannot be bought. Instead locals And suddenly I’m back... it’s No woman nowadays would and thereafter named his guitars along with Handy did most to three kings BB, was from Mississippi which is Blues Highway... or my command has everyone on edge and unsur- – adults and children – have been turn Beale Street into a cultural where we’ll go next to see where of technology. the music. allow it. after her. and commercial hub for black the Blues all started. But that’s just me, and thank- In truth, you could never mis- Not that they seemed to then I get to caress Lucille later in prisingly, by late 2017 ticket sales photographed clearing icy roads Memphians. by jim murty The Blues Trail is a 200-marker fully our 20-strong party has laid- take Modern-Day man with either. our trip at the Westin Hotel in for the Games were still report- leading to the resort with pick Today it is a tourist hub but it is route through time and Missis- back and knowledgeable South- Jackson where as a promotion, edly low. axes and other basic tools. also a living, breathing, musical They all came here to worship recommend Rum Boogie Bar sippi, chronicling all the great erner Clint driving us and replica guitars of the greats are The Games themselves are IOC president Thomas Bach has experience and as is explained to and sing Gospel. where our own Wolfgang got up to Blues singers, B.B., Muddy Waters, educating us in the Blues, crank- left in selective rooms. recovering from controversy said the Olympic Games must us, it provides work for gigging Gospel was BB’s first influence play harmonica and earned a ten- Charley Patton, Son House, Sonny ing up the sounds on the CD next week: we all will be Women held a special affection with the Russian team suspended always go beyond political divi- local musicians. And it has the Boy Williamson, John Lee Hooker deck. for BB, he married three times as a result of the Sochi 2014 dop- when he watched his own pastor ner from the band, his first-ever and sired 11 children at least, sion and act as a symbol of hope seal of approval with the Blues et al, and retelling their stories. If Short of sleep... it’s all these late ing scandal and a decision made and peace. Let’s hope all parties experts in our party. play guitar in church back in paid commission. you are an independent traveller Bluesy nights, I drift off into a received in graceland... maybe even 15. At the heart of Memphis life Mississippi. There’s an Irish bar too, obvi- you should make use of the Blues dream as we pass the open flat When love came to town BB that only clean individual Russian are listening and let’s wish Team then, as now, is the Church, and Jerry Lee Lewis’s club is down ously, Silky O’Sullivan, with duel- Trail app. brown fields that at one time sure didn’t turn it down. athletes will be allowed to Ireland a successful and safe Win- the historic First Baptist Church Beale Street, one of many jump- ling pianos, a Blues museum, I can never trust either my sense teemed with black slaves and the elvis presley story And that’s worth singing compete. ter Olympics in South Korea. has special resonance. ing joints, including the highly- numerous soul diners, and also of direction regardless of how later sharecroppers. about. Add those ingredients together Good luck Team Ireland!

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