The Blues Pilgrimage

" American Dream Safari takes visitors hunting for wild life of Delta culture. "

By Ross Gohlke

From the very beginnings of American history, exploration and the open road have been this country's legacy. And while homesteading is a thing of the past, traveling through unfamiliar territory is not. Here in our own backyard, the Mississippi Delta is a unique culture most of us have never truly explored.

Knowing who Robert Johnson was, or even going to a Mississippi blues festival, does not comprise cultural knowledge. Sitting in a small, smoky juke joint in Clarksdale listening to the blues with a mostly black audience, however, does. If you're interested in that kind of knowledge, you should know about Tad Pierson and American Dream Safari: The Tour Company that Explores the Legend and Myth of Memphis.

Pierson, a well-educated, 44 year-old veteran of the road who is as comfortable talking to a mechanic under the hood as he is rubbing shoulders with Hollywood's finest, calls it the Blues Pilgrimage. Put simply, it's a host of tour packages of Memphis and Delta as seen from the back seat of a fully restored 1955 Cadillac. But for Pierson - American Dream Safari's unassuming but stylish founder, owner and tour guide extraordinaire - it's a whole lot more.

Six years ago while traveling on the Indonesian island of Java, Pierson met a French couple in a bamboo hut at the base of a volcano. They asked him if it was possible to rent a vintage car for a road trip through the American West. Back home in Kansas, Pierson had a 1950 Buick he had inherited from his grandfather, and he just itching for a spin down Route 66. He offered to act as driver and tour guide for the couple, who took up his offer the following year.

After several years of expeditions down Route 66 Pierson decided it was time to branch out. "I had already established Route 66 and was onto the theme of legend and myth and needed to offer a second route. I looked around the country and saw that Memphis had the same mythic proportions as the desert Southwest - certain icons that were purely American," Pierson recalls of his decision to explore a region he admittedly knew little about at the time. "It was new territory. I always look to move into new territory, personally speaking. When I looked at my other possibilities, this route had it."

Though he made the decision and began his research of the Delta three years ago, it wasn't until last year that he actually started offering the expedition as one of his packages.

Exactly what American Dream Safari's Blues Pilgrimage offers is, Pierson believes, not just another vacation, and certainly not something you can get from a major tour operator. In addition to several three-hour routes through Memphis and day trips into Mississippi, American Dream Safari's bread and butter are the three- to five-day Delta expeditions - concluding in New Orleans or back in Memphis, depending on the customer - in which all expenses ("except booze and airfare"), itineraries, accommodations and travel arrangements are handled for a set price comparable to the per diem expense of a stint in a National Park and cheaper than package European vacations, about $300 a day per person. The Blues Pilgrimage also offers a "Moderate" package with fewer amenities (about $200 a day per person), and a "Nothing But The Blues" package which boasts "No Concierge, No Maitre d', and no DUI from the local sheriff" (about $100 a day per person).

The Greatest Hits Tour of Memphis takes you to Sun Studio and Graceland, but also targets some of the more obscure landmarks visitors wouldn't otherwise know about, such as the Western Steakhouse and Lounge (dine in Elvis' favorite booth), the Tennessee Brewery Co. (built in 1890) and the Pontotoc Hotel ("in legend and myth it was a bordello, and that's allegedly where Elvis lost his virginity"), which is now a private residence.

The Memphis Soul Today Tour visits the site where Stax Records used to stand, along with Willie Mitchell's Royal Recording - where the legendary producer of Al Green still makes records - and the Lorraine Motel, now the National Civil Rights Museum, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

"[The Memphis tours have] lots of neon signs and back streets," Pierson adds.

But what makes American Dream Safari's tours of the city different from hopping on a tour bus or renting a car?

"First thing you have to understand about American Dream Safari," Pierson explains, "is that it's not a glass-enclosed tour where you're sitting inside observing what's outside. You are part of the experience. When you pull up to Graceland in a '55 Cadillac you get a sense of what Elvis must have felt. You can drive by Graceland in a rent-a-car and get a thrill, but you can't drive by Graceland in a rent-a-car and get a sense of what Elvis felt. We can put you inside the experience."

For some people it almost sounds too good to be true, which ironically means Pierson sometimes has to work harder for the sell. Because he currently works without the assistance or a affiliation of a larger tour outfit, books all tours himself and has only been doing the tour for a short time in Memphis, he's still making a name for American Dream Safari. But it's a situation which Pierson has chosen and accepted. In fact, he identifies himself more with the struggling entrepreneur trying to make an honest buck in a small town than the corporate giants who move into the small town and run the little guys out of business.

"America itself is an endangered species, threatened by the Wal-Mart mentality," Pierson muses on the road. Leading tours into the heart of the blues culture is Pierson's contribution to preserving and respecting an important American way of life.

If eco-tourism offers travelers of conscience the opportunity to spend time and money for the cause of saving the rainforests and for the privilege of a unique experience, American Dream Safari offers its customers anthro-tourism, the chance to experience a radically different culture firsthand; and more importantly, to leave a place better than they found it by spending their money with the locals.

"My customers are saving the neighborhood drugstore, saving the roadside diner, helping the blues artist," Pierson says.

Pierson's part of the equation is making that possible. He's logged many hours on the back roads of Mississippi getting to know the territory and the people--"doing research," as he calls it.

"Not just anyone can pull over at Wild Bill's (a Memphis juke joint) and say, 'Hey, let's go in.' It's intimidating and has the element of danger. That's one thing American Dream Safari does. It goes on up ahead and clears the way for the customer. People inside greet us with recognition. This gives the customer the freedom to feel relaxed and part of the scene, to take in the experience on its own value - not just as an observer."

Davia Nelson, a West Coaster in town as assistant casting director for The Rainmaker, the latest John Grisham-novel-turned-motion-picture currently being filmed in Memphis, recently booked Pierson and his Caddy for an important assignment - to show music producer Don Was a taste of Delta blues and culture. Along with local writer Robert Gordon (author of It Came From Memphis), Pierson showed Nelson and Was exactly what they were looking for.

Nelson happily reports, "Don was crazy for it. The experience was even better than I imagined. Tad had info and perspectives that so few people have. He takes delight in the Delta culture and loves sharing it but let's you discover it for yourself.

"I was impressed that he could do both. Plus, how can you beat sitting in the back seat of a '55 Caddy? It's like a living room on wheels. And there's way more interaction with the people you meet because of the car. They come out and want to know about it. It's an icebreaker. It's so darn cool I can't stand it."

That's the kind of response Pierson hopes to elicit from all his customers. And if he didn't think he could deliver the goods, or that the goods weren't here to deliver, he'd be in another part of the country where he could.