Memphis (2) and Clarksdale

After Sun, we used Lyft to take us over to Stax Studios - another place I'd always wanted to visit, having been brought up in their halcyon days in the mid 60's when Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Booker T and the MG's, Eddie Floyd etc were all the rage in Europe - to the artistes' huge surprise when they took a chance and toured here.

It's a huge operation, with tons of memorabilia, but somehow it lacked the sheer magic of Sun Studios. One of the original artistes there - and at Sun - was Rufus Thomas, who used to specialise in funny dance songs, with animals as the main theme. Here he demonstrates how to do the Funky Chicken, with Jo pulling the shapes:

I think she did pretty well, didn't she?

It was back to Beale St again for some lunch, more music and a stroll round the historic area. We came across two very famous stores - Lansky's, the tailor that used to dress Elvis, and the historic A. Schwab's, a store that has changed little in the last century. We could have spent hours in there - there were lots of little speciality sections, one of them being the "Hoodoo" (voodoo) area where we came across some Mojo Hands, as sung about in so many of the old blues songs, notably Hoochie Coochie Man, covered by umpteen blues artistes, including Muddy Waters. There was a brief explanation of it there:

We even found some Davy Crockett (King of the Wild Frontier) hats. No doubt this is another name that means nothing nowadays, but to those of us brought up on late 50's/early 60's TV, he is a fond memory - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txcRQedoEyY:

Rather fetching, don't you think?

We had to use their soda fountain bar - we thought about sasparilla, but coke floats went down well:

Time now for a short cruise on a paddle steamer on the Mississippi:

Then it was more beer, music and food. I especially enjoyed listening to Blind Mississsippi Morris, who we saw in two different bars.

On Sunday, we took the short drive south on Highway 61 to Clarksdale, where the famous crossroads is, where Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil. It's a small town and it was a quiet Sunday when many shops etc are closed, but it seemed to us like a bit of a ghost town, with deprivation everywhere. Some of the local worthies are trying to keep the heritage and history of the birth of the blues there alive, but it didn't strike us as a very vibrant scene.

We had brunch at Abe's - excellent pulled pork rolls - and took the obligatory photos at the crossroads:

The only place of interest open was the Rock and Blues Museum, so we spent an hour or more there before heading back up to Memphis to pack for our early start on the nightmare journey - thank you United Airlines - over to Oregon on Monday.

It had been a really interesting road trip, covering well over 1,200 miles and 5 states - here's our map:

United had altered our original plans for 2 flights over to Medford, Oregon to 3 flights, going through Chicago and Denver, so this was the route:

Anyway, we made it in the end. Lucy was there to meet us at the airport. We were both shattered - not just from the journey, but also what seems like a recurrence of the respiratory problem I had when we were in Savannah, only this time it seems more flu-y. We had a bad night last night - especially Jo - and are now under medication from Dr. Lucy. Hope it goes away soon.

Nashville to Memphis

Our first target on Thursday morning was to visit the Grand Ole Opry at its "new" site (been there for more than 40 years now). We had booked tickets online for the 10.45 am show and we just made it after trailing around the area for about 20 minutes:

We went for a short walk after we did the Grand Ole Opry tour - we had been recommended to look at the adjacent hotel, which was abolutely fabulous with its own indoor gardens and even boat rides along the internal waterway. The nearest thing we'd ever seen to it was the Venetian in Las Vegas - but this even surpassed that. Here's just a brief glimpse:

We then went back to our hotel to dump our car and use Lyft's excellent service again to take us on the short ride downtown. First stop was a tour of the Ryman Auditorium, home to the Grand Ole Opry until the mid 70's. The place is steeped in history and although the Opry don't use it every week nowadays, there are lots of gigs there - all the top rock and country stars have appeared there, desperate to experience its history and wonderful acoustics. The "Mother Church" as it is affectionately known:

It was then a question of hitting the bars and listening to some music.

Our brief Nashville trip was now over and we headed off the following morning (Friday) for Memphis, crossing another time zone in to USA Central Time on the way. We had one brief stop on the road - at a Civil War site at Parker's Crossroads:

Our hotel in Memphis - Springhill Suites (not Springfield as I said in an earlier post) - had an excellent location. We had a view of the Mississippi and one of the bridges from our room and we were able to walk along the riverbank to lively Beale Street:

We arrived at Elvis' statue:

Followed by BB King's bench right outside his store:

Then WC Handy, the "Father of the Blues":

We had dinner, listened to some music, then off to bed.

The plan the following morning was to walk round to Sun Studios. According to the rough map on their web site, it was only just round the corner from our hotel:

The "2-3 minutes from Beale St" that they refer to above was obviously in a fast car, not walking. I had compounded the felony by misreading the address as 106 Union Avenue, when it was, in fact, 706 Union Avenue. We got there eventually - 15 hot and sweaty minutes later.

The tour was great - it really did feel magic being in the room where rock 'n' roll history was made. They still keep the original microphone that Elvis - and many others - used back in the 50's and I tried to throw an Elvis shape:

Failed. Maybe I'd do better on Jerry Lee Lewis' piano:

Perhaps Jo could do better on the vintage drums, recently used by U2:

Now time for the outside photo:

That's enough for now - I'll finish off our Memphis trip in the next post.