Atlanta and back to Boston
The drive from Nashville to Atlanta was largely painless, aside from the traffic we hit as we got nearer the city. Our AirBnb hosts, Derek and Leon, lived in a beautiful modern house in a nice quiet neighbourhood. We dumped our stuff and headed out to a burger restaurant before checking out some live music. We decided on “Blind Willie’s – Atlanta’s Finest Blues Club”. Not only did the place have a queue out the door, it also had one of the steepest cover charges – a whole $12!! – that we’d encountered at any venue. This was interesting given that we had sampled some fine live music in the likes of Philly, Savannah, New Orleans, Memphis and Nashville, and a lot of it for free, or rather for tips. Without sounding disparaging, I have to say I didn’t expect Atlanta to beat the musical offering we had so far enjoyed.
But the reason for all this hype soon became clear, as Robbie made the connection between the last name of the headline act - “Big Bill Morganfield” - and one of the biggest names in blues music. As it turned out, McKinley Morganfield, more famously known as Muddy Waters and “the father of modern Chicago blues”, was the actual father of tonight’s star act. After a brief wait, we were let in to the heaving venue, and planted ourselves in the only available space, of course inconveniently in the path of every waitress and bathroom-goer in the place. I must confess that Blues music isn’t my area of expertise, but luckily I have a brother for whom it is religion, so I will quote his description of this gig:
“Big Bill Morganfield and the Shadows played a gritty style of Chicago Blues (not unlike his father’s), which was characterised by Big Bill’s great slide guitar playing and his imposing voice which, having also seen his brother ‘Mud’ Morganfield play in London, would appear to run in the family. They played a set that consisted of Bill’s own songs as well as classic Blues numbers, including one or two from Muddy Waters’ repertoire. Whilst the band were less refined, or smooth than the likes of Eddie Cotton’s, they had a ‘rough n’ ready’ approach that recalled the classic Chicago feel, and really got the crowd going.”
Unfortunately, we didn’t stay as long as I’m sure Rob would have wanted to, mainly because we were getting tired of playing human tetris every time the waitress tried to get by with a plate of nachos. We also had to get up early for church the next morning.
During our travels, we had only had the chance to get one real taste of a church gospel choir. This was when we attended the service at the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York. So Paloma was determined to repeat the experience elsewhere before the end of our journey, and it just so happens that Atlanta is home to the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where both Martin Luther King Sr. and Martin Luther King Jr. were preachers. Although just as warm and welcoming as the Brooklyn Tabernacle, Ebenezer had a different feel to it. It felt more local, less touristy with more of a community feel, which is to be expected when you compare the size of it to the Brooklyn church, more of a concert venue. Because it was more intimate, I think we were able to get a better feel for the strong sense of togetherness in the congregation. What most impressed me, though, was the choir which was visiting from Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. They combined more ‘traditional’ church music with lively gospel and pulled off both beautifully. Their range was astounding, and they were definitely among the best choirs I have ever seen.
After the service, we made the most of the fact that the church is located on the Historic Martin Luther King Jr. Site, next to a visitor centre with a museum chronicling MLK’s work and the American Civil Rights Movement in general. As well as information exhibits full of quotes and pictures, the centre shows films about King’s trajectory. We watched a twenty minute video on his life and achievements, and I have to admit I was moved very close to tears. I had read about people getting emotional over it but I doubted it would happen to me, since I haven’t been exposed to that many stories about the civil rights movement in my life. All I can say is that the way the film was put together made you feel the weight of the struggle quite heavily and desperately. Since the tickets to tour King’s family home had already been snagged up by the time we got to the visitor centre, we also watched a 'virtual tour’ which was a lot more upbeat and gave an insight into the daily life of of the King family when 'ML’ was a child. Although we didn’t get to actually go inside, we saw the house from the outside and wandered around the Sweet Auburn neighbourhood.
Needless to say, the visit to this site was quite intense, and I think this was the main reason we picked a much lighter activity to end the afternoon. I had initially assumed it would be far too uncultured of us to visit the World of Coca-Cola (WOCC), but it was looking like an increasingly appealing choice after having our heart strings pulled on earlier in the day. The first thing you do when you get there is watch a ten minute video of people having good times and achieving things. Although very nicely put together, all you can think throughout the whole thing is what the hell does this have to do with Coca-Cola. But of course! At the end of the video, everybody’s efforts reach a climax – the surprise party for grandma is a raging success, that group of determined young friends makes it to the top of Kilimanjaro and the attractive girl says yes to her boyfriend’s romantic proposal in the hot air balloon – and all the stories culminate with scenes of celebration which all revolve around the clinking of everybody’s Coca-Cola bottles. I thought champagne was the drink of choice for most of these occasions, but I was wrong: it is coke. Apparently.
So this video laid it on pretty thick, and I don’t think Paloma, and especially Robbie, were very impressed. I held out some hope that Coca-Cola World might redeem itself, and luckily I was right. The 'museum’ has several different areas and attractions, some of which are the vault which holds the coveted secret formula of coke (this was an anti-climax), the bottle works which shows a fully functioning bottling line (this was cool), a 4D video about a mad scientist who tries to find the secret formula (cheesy but amusing), a theatre showing coke adverts from around the world (surprisingly entertaining) and galleries about Coca-Cola’s winning advertising and marketing over the years and its role in pop culture. But my favourite area was the Taste It section, which had soda machines allowing you to try different coke drinks from countries across the different continents. My favourite was some coconut and pineapple concoction from South Africa and an apple drink from Mexico. At the end, you’re given a souvenir glass bottle of Coca-Cola. Although it is kind of a story of the capitalist dream, WOCC actually turned out to be very entertaining, and although it is hugely commercial, it is also very interesting to see how such a successful business strategy and marketing campaign were built. It isn’t easy to think of many other products you can ask for and get so readily anywhere in the world.
After WOCC, we strolled around Atlanta for a while before dinner, and I found it to be surprisingly pretty at night. The Centennial Olympic park is a really peaceful open space from which you can admire the outline of the city, with its tall buildings and SkyView ferris wheel all lit up.
I must say that, while I expected Atlanta to be the first of a few places which would just be stop-offs as we made our way back up to Boston to conclude the trip, it actually turned out to be a really great experience, and I thought we packed just the right activities into our time there. I would also like to mention our hosts, Derek and Leon, again, because they were an example of why I loved using AirBnb throughout the trip. They were so kind and friendly, and told stories of their other guests. They had even compiled a photo book for a couple who stayed with them for the delivery of their baby, which was such a nice gesture. They really seemed to enjoy the company of their guests, and we had a great time staying with them.
