Highway 61 has played a significant part in America’s cultural and economic history.  Black Americans from the Mississippi Delta followed highway 61 north from New Orleans and Baton Rouge in Louisiana and Biloxi and Jackson in Mississippi,  to Memphis, on to St. Louis, on to Chicago, and on to Detroit.  This migration was from the fields of the delta to the manufacturing jobs in the north. 

The migration included whites, Cajuns, creoles and they all brought their music and foods and traditions with them.  With radio blanketing the whole country, and recorded music becoming available to the masses, the entire country was introduced to aspects of the country they previously had been ignorant of. 

The migration was not from the delta all the way north.  Many stopped in Memphis, St. Louis, and Chicago.  The delta music thus settled in each of these waypoints and evolved with a signature sound in each.  Legends of the Blues rose from each location.