The Ultimate American Music Bucket List guides fans through music history

Bill Clevlen’s latest book, The Ultimate American Music Bucket List, offers a geographic guide to statues, gravesites, recording studios, childhood homes, and music-themed museums across the U.S. This week, Clevlen spoke with Life. Style. Live. about the project.

“I’ve been traveling since 2013 as a full-time travel journalist,” Clevlen said excitedly. “And, during a lot of my visits, I see these really cool music sites, whether that’s a statue of Dolly Partin in East Tennessee or standing in the famed studios down in Muscle Shoals, Alabama where Aretha Franklin recorded her first song. There are all these really cool spots about American music and places that are preserving American music and all these great stories.”

There can be no discussion of American popular music without mentioning Elvis.

“Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee,” Clevlen said with a smile. “The place where Elvis Presley first recorded, that’s a must-see. You talk about a goosebump moment when you’re standing in Sun Studio and they play for you Elvis’s very first recording and you realize you’re standing in the very spot and nothing in the room has changed. The ceiling tiles, you look up and you think they’re going to fall down on your head because nothing’s been updated or changed in all these years.”

You can purchase a copy of The Ultimate American Music Bucket List on the book’s website.