US road trip...Albert Lea and Clear Lake

After leaving Minneapolis we headed south to see what traces we could find of several fifties Rock and roll artists with local connections. First stop was Albert Lea in south Minnesota where Eddie Cochran was born. There's a very nice exhibit featuring him at the local museum that includes several of his gold records, photos and press cuttings related to the car crash in England that killed him. There's also a street named after him in the town. While there we met a guy called Mike who proudly showed us his hot rod which he named 'Nervous Breakdown' after one of Eddie's songs.

From there we went to the crash site just north of Clear Lake in Iowa where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper lost their lives. Close to the site there are a large pair of Buddy style glasses and a few minutes away by a muddy field there is a rather unimpressive memorial to the three men and the pilot who was also killed.

The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, where they played their final concert, still stands. It's an impressive place holding over 2000 people and has a display of photos of artists who have played there, guitars and lots of info about the three stars. We were there to see a show by Ray Wylie Hubbard, a singer songwriter, now aged 77, who has a unique style and is as much a story teller as a singer. Backed only by his son on second guitar the audience lapped up his songs about red necks and the human existence. Songs such as 'Snake Farm' and 'A Desperate Man' went down a storm and this was a fantastic show in what is truly an iconic and historic venue. Support act Mary Cutrufello, very much in the mould of Tracey Chapman, was less to my taste.