Macon, Georgia
Macon, Georgia, is known as the home of the soul, but “we have a vast music heritage with all genres,” said Steven Fulbright, director of tourism for Visit Macon. “Soul lives in the past, present and future and in everything we do.”
Macon is where legends such as Little Richard and Otis Redding got their starts, where members of the Allman Brothers Band lived and recorded in the early ’70s and where current country superstar Jason Aldean was raised.
As a small-town, close-knit community, “we can curate an experience based on how in-depth they want to go,” Fulbright said. Groups can tour the historic Douglass Theatre or arrange for a concert there, and the CVB can even arrange for Redding’s daughter and grandson, who are very involved in the community and the Otis Redding Foundation, to meet the group.
Visitors can also dine at the Tic Toc Room, where Little Richard used to play, or grab a drink at Grant’s Lounge, a famous, historic bar and music venue where a lot of artists on Capricorn Records used to play to get noticed.
At the Tubman Museum, groups can see Redding artifacts and Little Richard’s piano. Rock Candy Tours offers step-on guides or private walking tours of Macon’s music history.
Groups can take guided tours of the Allman Brothers Band Museum at the Big House, where the band lived, played and practiced between 1970 and 1973.
Cleveland
Cleveland deejay Alan Freed coined the term “rock ’n’ roll” in the early 1950s and was a promoter of the Moondog Coronation Ball in 1952, a show widely credited as the first rock concert.
“Cleveland Rocks” culminates at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where the interactive “Power of Rock Experience” opened last summer with a 4D film that gives visitors a front-row seat at an induction ceremony.
“You have the lights around you, your seat vibrates with the music, and you feel like you’re there,” said Kristen Jantonio, communications specialist for Destination Cleveland.
Say It Loud! interactive story booths give visitors the opportunity to select a digital Hall of Fame inductee, such as Smokey Robinson or Alice Cooper, who then “interviews” guests about their favorite rock moments and memories.
The new Hall of Fame opened in April with the 2018 inductee exhibit featuring honorees Bon Jovi, The Cars, Dire Straits, The Moody Blues, Nina Simone and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
“Stay Tuned: Rock on TV,” which opened in May and runs through March 2019, explores how television, from “The Ed Sullivan Show” to “The Voice,” helped launch iconic rock stars.
But Cleveland’s music scene goes from “rock to Bach,” Jantonio said. The Cleveland Orchestra plays at Severance Hall or, during the summer, Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
