Americana music is celebrated across the country but its heart and soul is in the South.

The Americana in Mississippi Music Tour is coming to Vicksburg Thursday, March 24. At 7 p.m. at the Southern Cultural Heritage Center Auditorium, Rambling Steve Gardner and The Jericho Roadshow will make a stop on their 16-stop tour of Mississippi. Local band The Patrick Smith Acoustic Quartet will kick off the free Thursday night show.

“It’s going to be American roots and blues music,” Laura Beth Strickland, communications manager for the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, said. “It’s going to be music that you can get up and dance to.”

The tour was planned by Visit Mississippi in an effort to highlight the Americana Music Triangle—the world’s premiere music destination, she said.

“Mississippi is right there in the center of it all,” Strickland said.

The triangle connects Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans encompassing nearly the entire state of Mississippi. Five different road trip options within the triangle are highlighted on the website americanamusictriangle.com from Natchez to Tupelo to Muscle Shoals, Ala.

“Mississippi stands as the epicenter of the roots of American music. The musical legacy of the Mississippi Delta is unprecedented. We are proud to be a part of this celebration of the music and musicians of Mississippi,” Bill Seratt, executive director of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, said.

Multiple genres of music are featured on the triangle including blues, jazz, zydeco, bluegrass and county. Strickland said the Southern Cultural Heritage Center Auditorium offers is a historical venue with great acoustics.

“We just want the community to come out and listen to a great show and be apart of it,” Strickland said.

The tour started March 1 in Jackson. Other stops on the tour are Meridian, Laurel, Hattiesburg, Ocean Springs, Natchez, Greenville, Oxford, Greenwood, Cleveland, Clarksdale, Columbus, Indianola and West Point. The tour concludes April 28 in Tupelo.

“This is a great opportunity for visitors who are interested in music to come and experience it for themselves,” Daron Wilson, interim director of Visit Mississippi, said. “It shows the great relationship between our state tourism department and our individual Convention and Visitor Bureaus, and it’s the perfect chance to see some of the state’s high points. We are so appreciative of our tourism partners, the Mississippi Tourism Association and the proprietors of the venues featuring the tour. We’ve come together to showcase the best of the best when it comes to Americana music.”

For more information, visit visitmississippi.org/Americana or visitvicksburg.com.