The complete guide to: travels with soul

SO REMIND ME, WHAT EXACTLY IS SOUL MUSIC?

The meeting-point of sanctified gospel and secular rhythm & blues, as pioneered by the likes of Ray Charles, James Brown and Sam Cooke in the mid-Fifties, when the term "soul" was coined to describe gospel-influenced jazz. By the early Sixties, soul had become the dominant form of black music in the US, and remained so until the rise of rap in the early Eighties. The history of soul is necessarily also a history of black America, with the development of the music running in parallel with the struggle for civil rights. Although every city with a black population developed its own regional style, the southern states are where soul music attained its purest, most emotional, form.

RIGHT, WHERE DO I FIND IT?

A good place to start is the virtual home of Ace Records from Harlesden in north-west London, world leaders for soul re-issues and holders of the British rights to Stax and many other labels. The Ace website (www.acerecords.co.uk) and monthly e-mailed newsletter contain essential information on labels, artists, sub-genres (eg deep soul, country soul), as well as announcing occasional events such as Soul Weekenders, which usually take place at holiday camps in places such as Cleethorpes. You can get further information on these from www.soul-a-go-go.demon.co.uk/events and info@manifestouk.com.

YOU MEAN I HAVE TO GO TO CLEETHORPES?

Well, there's always Wigan, spiritual home of the Northern Soul movement, in whose famous Casino nightclub – unfortunately no longer with us – sweaty, amphetamine-assisted dancers devised eccentric moves to singles so obscure that even their makers couldn't remember recording them. The Casino may have gone, but the north and the Midlands are still soul strongholds. As this is a bank holiday weekend, there are lots of events tonight and tomorrow. Check info@manifestouk.com for details.

BUT WHERE DO I GO IN THE US?

Almost anywhere you like, really. Every city had a part in the story, and a record label, from New York (Atlantic), Chicago (Chess), and Detroit (Motown), to Los Angeles (Solar), New Orleans (Minit), and Memphis (Stax and Hi). The problem is that apart from Philadelphia, where there's a lively club scene for the contemporary brand of R&B known as Nu Classic Soul and a display on Philly Soul at the African-American Museum (001 215 574 0380; www.aampmuseum.org; Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm, closed Mon; adults $6/£4, children under 16, students, disabled and seniors, $4/£2.75), there may not be much left to see. In the Eighties, rap left the citadels of soul in ruins. If you want to find real soul music, you'll have to search for it.

LIKE, I HEARD IT ON THE GRAPEVINE?

Or on the internet, starting with www.soul-patrol.com, which e-mails out a monthly newsletter and schedule of events. Realistically, you can either go to casino resorts and see stars on the slide doing cabaret, or choose a soul city and check out the local papers, record stores and black radio shows for news of gigs in the lounges, bars and clubs. Remember, we may be talking the African-American equivalent of the Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club. More mainstream attractions include, in Chicago, the swanky Cotton Club (1710 S. Michigan Ave, 001 312 341 9787); in St Louis, BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups (700 S. Broadway, 001 314 436 5222), where Oliver Sain plays; in Detroit, funky Bo-Mac's (281 Gratiot Ave, 001 313 961 5152), and the Sunday Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, Los Angeles (8430 Sunset Strip, 001 323 848 5100). In New York, you need to check the Village Voice newspaper or its website, www.villagevoice.com.

Even where there is a dedicated attraction, as with the Motown Historical Museum (001 313 875 2264, www.motownmuseum.org; Tue-Sat 10am-5pm, adults $8/£5.30, children $5/3.30) at Berry Gordy Jr's old house at 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit – which includes the original Motown Studio, control room and lobby, plus lots of pictures of the stars – the experience may not live up to expectations. For true Motown aficionados, however, it's the humble, domestic, scale of this museum that makes it so special. Tech-heads will also get a kick from seeing the original 3-track recorder and disc-mastering lathe.

IS THIS WHERE SOUL STARTED?

Not according to Isaac Hayes, who says: "Memphis music is grittier than Motown, closer to where blues began. It's down-home soul music, born out of blues and gospel."

And Memphis may well be the best place to find soul in the whole of the US right now, as the opening of the Stax Museum this week has created a mini-renaissance, with veteran acts dusting down their tuxes and cummerbunds and coming out to play. It's also a big, black-majority city with a significant number of attractions both musical and non-musical. Unlike most other US cities, you can easily get to hear real live soul music being played, too. As Memphis is also important to the birth of the blues, rock'n'roll, rockabilly and country music – plus the home of all things Elvis – you can even do the lot in one fell swoop.

And it doesn't take long before the ineffable spirit of soul starts to materialise. Tuning a radio dial to AM1070 connects you straight to the source: station WDIA has been serving up a diet of all-black music (soul Mon-Fri, blues on Saturdays and gospel on Sundays) since 1948, with BB King and Rufus Thomas as former DJs. Listening to the morning phone-in is like hearing one of those spurned-lover raps by Shirley Brown or Millie Jackson. ("You mean you let your man get a cellphone? Girl, you better be checking the numbers on those bills when they come through the door!").

WDIA also announces upcoming shows, where you might find out to your surprise that not only are Stax artists The Temprees still going, they're appearing at a local Hawaiian restaurant next Saturday night. Another good source of information is the local freesheet, The Memphis Flyer (www.memphisflyer.com).

On Sunday mornings you can go to Al Green's church, the Full Gospel Tabernacle (787 Hale Road, Whitehaven; 001 901 278 0034, service starts at 11am, and may last a couple of hours), although it's hard to tell if the Rev Green is going to be there. A rootsier alternative is the Bell Grove Baptist Church, an hour's drive away near Clarksdale, Mississippi (001 662 624 2920), where Muddy Waters' cousin, Willie Morganfield, is the pastor. Service is at 11am.

WHERE'S THE BEST PLACE TO HEAR LIVE MUSIC OUTSIDE A CHURCH?

Certainly the easiest is Beale Street in Memphis, which has been a wild, wide-open, place ever since the days of "Boss" Crump, the politician who employed WC Handy to write "Memphis Blues". Like Bourbon Street in New Orleans, it's a tailor-made tourist trap, but you would have to be very churlish not to enjoy its sleazy charm. Apart from the bars and restaurants, most of which feature live music every night, you can buy voodoo accoutrements at Schwab's Dry Goods Store (163 Beale, 001 901 523 9782), or consult a psychic. If it's a Tuesday, you can go to the fights at the Old Daisy Theatre.

While good-time blues is more prevalent than soul, there are exceptions. Drawn by the sound of an authentic soul voice amid all the sub-BB Kingisms, I paid $3/£2 to enter the Rum Boogie Cafe (182 Beale St, 001 901 528 0150), where residents James Govan and the Boogie Blues Band were running through their set. Though he looks a little battered, Mr Govan has a great, rasping voice, and the six-piece band features a genuine B3 Hammond organ and a full horn section. I listened enraptured until two tourists came and stood in front of me.

CAN I GO WALKING IN MEMPHIS?

Beale Street and the rest of downtown is easy to walk around and feels safe at night. There's also a newly refurbished trolley-car system which covers the central areas, but if you want to get about more generally, and also visit the mainly black parts of South Memphis where the Stax Museum (001 901 946 2535, www.soulsvilleusa.com) and Soulsville are, you'll need a rental car.

A Riverside Walk takes you along the impressive Mississippi shoreline past the site of Jeff Buckley's watery grave, to the river-fronted houses and lofts bordering the old downtown industrial districts. The walk is well-signposted and you can get a map from the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau (47 Union Avenue, 001 901 543 5300), which is on the route. Nearby, beside the old Central Station, a galleries district has grown up, with retro-furniture shops, restaurants (including Memphis's oldest, The Arcade, a neat Fifties diner once patronised by Elvis and Rufus Thomas), and a jazz club. The area is also home to two essential locations for the soul tourist: the National Civil Rights Museum and the Memphis Rock'n'Soul Museum.

The National Civil Rights Museum (001 901 521 9699; www.civilrightsmuseum.org; Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm, closed Tue, adults $10/£6.60, seniors and students $8/£5.30, child 4-17 $6.50/£4.30) is housed behind the reconstructed façade of the old Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated on 4 April 1968. Inside, the story of the struggle for emancipation and civil rights is detailed, relentless and deeply moving. Be prepared to cry.

The Memphis Museum of Rock'n'Soul (001 901 543 0800, www.memphisrocknsoul.org; 10am-6pm daily, adults $8.50, seniors $7.50, youth $5), is a delight, with an exhibit on WDIA and lots of funky old artefacts such as the original Sun Records console. For parents, the real lifesaver is the Children's Museum of Memphis, in the leafy and pleasant midtown area (www.cmom.com; 001 901 458 2678, Tues-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm, closed Mon; adults $7, children and seniors $6, babies free), in whose marvellously imaginative play areas my one year-old and his long-suffering mother chilled out while I searched greedily through the racks of Shangri-La Records (001 901 274 1916), Audiomania (001 901 278 1166), and Boss Ugly Bob's Tapes and Records (001 901 774 6400). These stores are used to seeing collectors from Europe and Japan so there are no outrageous bargains, but the range of what's on offer is staggering. At Audiomania – a consoling cavern of a place, just down the road from Shangri-La at Madison Avenue in midtown – good-condition soul albums cost $6-9, or up to $20 for rare stuff. Ugly Bob's is in Soulsville, at 726 E. McLemore Ave. I had to buy another suitcase to take my purchases home.

WHERE'S THE BEST PLACE FOR SOUL-SPOTTING?

Soulsville, which is both a real locale and a rather ambitious new scheme. The old black neighbourhood south of downtown and adjacent to the Stax complex on McLemore and College (an area where many musicians lived and which became known as Soulsville as a riposte to Motown's use of the slogan "Hitsville USA" to denote Detroit), has been designated as a soul heritage site. In these residential blocks you will find Aretha Franklin's birthplace, her father's church, the one-time homes of Wilson Pickett, Maurice White, and many others, and Willie Mitchell's still-functioning Royal Recording studio. The only problem is that there's no easy way to locate the sites (although you can pick up a map from the Stax Museum or download it from the website, www.soulsvilleusa.com), no tour buses and no plaques to mark the spot; just rather down-at-heel streets with unemployed men sitting out on porches and staring at passers-by.

Populated almost entirely by Baptist churches, used tyre depots, and the kind of black hairdressing parlours whose primitive store-front signs get Shoreditch graphic designers so excited, it's a tough neighbourhood. Half the households live below the poverty line, and more than 70 per cent are headed by single mothers. That pulling Soulsville up is the ultimate aim of the Stax project reinforces what a heroic enterprise the whole thing is. And there are signs. Already, a famous soul food restaurant, The Four Way, has re-opened on its original site of 999 Mississippi Boulevard (001 901 775 2351). At lunchtime the place is packed out with locals, but visitors are made very welcome.

ANY GOOD TRIPS FROM MEMPHIS?

You can easily make forays to destinations such as Clarksdale in the delta, the home of the blues, where soulmen Sam Cooke and Ike Turner were born. While there, check out the famous Delta Blues Museum (001 662 627 6820) or if it's a weekend, go to hear live music at Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero Blues Club (001 662 621 9009). Real devotees can also make a pilgrimage to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, whose two legendary recording studios – where Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and Bobby Womack made some of their greatest recordings – are still going. You can take a virtual tour at www.mssound.com.

The rhythm and blues centre of New Orleans is two days drive away. Cosimo Matassa's famous recording studio on Rampart Street is now a laundrette, but you can find live R&B, soul and jazz down the road at The Funky Butt (001 504 558 0872, www.funkybutt.com) and the two branches of Tipitinas (001 504 566 7095 for French Quarter; 001 504 891 8477 for Uptown, www.tipitinas.com).

The same travelling distance takes you to Otis Redding's hometown of Macon, Georgia, which has many Otis associations, including a shoe shop owned by his daughter, Karla. It's also the site of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame (001 478 750 8555; www.gamusichall.com; 9am-5pm Mon-Sat, 1-5pm, Sun, adults $8, seniors and students $6, ages 4-16, $3.50), whose museum includes reconstructions of a rhythm and blues revue, a gospel church, and an old-time record store.

GETTING THERE

There are no direct flights to Memphis but Trailfinders (020-7937 5400; www.trailfinders.co.uk) is offering return fares during May and June from £439 per adult from London Gatwick to Memphis via Atlanta on Delta Airlines. Through discount agents you can also find low fares on US Airways from Gatwick and Manchester via Charlotte or Philadelphia for around £475. American Airlines, Continental Airlines and United may have deals for travel via New York, Washington or Chicago, again through discount agents.

In May, Virgin Holidays (0870 220 2788; www.viriginholidays.co.uk) is offering a two-week fly-drive holiday from £999 per person, based on two sharing. The price includes return flights to Memphis from London Gatwick via Cincinatti and accommodation on a B&B basis at the Heartbreak Hotel.

You could even take the soul train: Amtrak's City of New Orleans stops twice daily at Memphis, connecting the city with Chicago and New Orleans. As with all aspects of Memphis, the Convention and Visitors Bureau (001 901 543 5300, www.memphistravel.com) can provide information on travel and accommodation.

Tours and accommodation packages are arranged by Unique Travel (001 901 526 7777; www.uniquememphis.com).

Stax Records Museum Open

Studio that launched Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes

This week the Stax Museum of American Soul Music opened its doors. Built on the original site of the Capitol Theater cinema at 926 East McLemore Avenue, Memphis, the 17,000 sq ft museum re-creates the Stax Records studio complex founded by Jim Stewart (a bank-teller and country fiddler) and his sister Estelle Axton (a teacher) in 1960. Though Stewart and Axton (Stax, geddit?) were white, the label quickly came to specialise in black music, releasing 800 singles and 300 albums between 1960 and 1975.

Recession and bad business decisions led to bankruptcy, and the old building was torn down in 1989. Ten years later, the newly formed Soulsville Inc bought the vacant lot and began the new $20m project, which includes not only the museum but also the Stax Music Academy and Performing Arts Centre.

The Stax Museum does soul fans proud, with a small but cannily chosen collection of artefacts. Who could resist Albert King's frilly shirt and guitars, Isaac Hayes' glorious, pimpmobile-styled Cadillac, and a display of every Stax album and single ever made?

001 901 946 2535, www.soulsvilleusa.com, Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm, adults $9, seniors $8, children, $6