Day 7: The sights and the sounds of Memphis

August 23, 2007
By Jamie

Today begins with a nice casual pace. Nothing too rigid of course, but we definitely have some things we want to get accomplished. We get out of the hotel around 11:00 and head to Sun Studio, the birthplace of rock and roll. It was a really interesting tour. The building itself if quite small, but you get to stand in the studio where it all happened. Elvis, Johnny Cash, Howlin’ Wolf, etc. The list is long. As can be the case, the tour guide made the tour. Her passion for the music she was talking about and playing for us was evident. (We would find out later that night that she plays bass and was a musician in the background of the movie Walk the Line.)

A great start to the day. Time for more BBQ. This time we head back into downtown to the Rendezvous. As we head into the restaurant, the greeter informs us “We’re not officially open yet. We don’t open until 4:30. All we have right now are ribs, baked beans and bread.” That sounded pretty open to us, so we ordered up some ribs. Good stuff, but overall I’d say the place was a little overpriced. I hate to be dissin’ Memphis, but the clear BBQ leader thus far remains Gate’s back in KC. Still, it’s all been delicious.

Off to the next stop with newly filled bellies. A lot of things are grouped within walkable areas, so that helps. It is pretty darn warm down here. It’s hit a hunn’rt degrees for like ten straight days. But it hasn’t been oppressive and it hasn’t really slowed us down. However, between the high temperatures, the expanding belly and the meat sweats, I’m contemplating a complete wardrobe shift to muumuus.

Also downtown it the Lorraine Motel, which is now the site of the Civil Rights Museum. The Lorraine Motel is where MLK was shot. The museum is in two parts. The first half is about the civil rights movement as a whole. It’s a big museum with tons of information. It got to be a lot of reading, but it was interesting. The second half of the museum is more specific to the assassination itself. You get to see the actual room James Earl Ray shot from as well as artifacts and info. As with the first half there was probably more details than can be digested in one visit, but definitely worth the trip.

After the Lorraine we went down to Stax Museum of American Soul Music. Stax was a killer soul label in the 60’s and 70’s. Otis Redding, Al Green, Isaac Hayes and all that good stuff. Like the Sun tour, it was cool to hear about what a magical and creative time it must have been. Great place. It was also interesting to hear about it all within the context of what else was happening at the time in society. The artists at Stax were one, big funky family working together to make great music. Blacks and whites alike. Color didn’t seem to matter within those walls, but outside segregation and inequality were the norm. When MLK was shot, animosity grew between the races within Stax and eventually contributed to the studio closing down in 1975.

Side note: if you’re ever in Memphis, turn the dial to 89.9 WEVL. Awesome station. Stream it.

Our day is passing by nicely. We don’t have time (or the energy) for the tour, but we do a drive-by of Graceland. After our Elvis experience, we go to a couple really cool record shops (Goner Records and Shangri-La). Did the blind faith recommendation of the shop guys and picked up some local flavor. We also got the same recommendation from both on music to check out that evening.

At this point we’re rather fatigued. We stop near the record shop for a tasty soul food meal of catfish and then head back to the hotel for a break. At one point, we had pretty much decided a nice early night in would do us some good. Then around 11:00 we thought better and went back to the Buccaneer to see the Tearjerkers. Local band. Garage rock stuff with some indie/rockabilly/surf mixed in here and there. Really fun show.

After some rocking and/or rolling we figure we’d better venture on to one last place. We walk up Madison Ave to the P&H Café. Big place. As with most of the bars we’ve checked out there was almost no one there. We have a good time chatting it up with Jim Ed (whom we had also met the night before doing karaoke, and who also happens to be another tour guide at the Gibson factory), Shannon (former Marine who's now a cop) and Matt (damn fine bartender). As I’d mentioned before, bar time in Memphis is 3:00. (The exception being Alex’s.) Needless to say we were surprised to notice the clock says 4:30. Our self-imposed curfew has failed. I guess time flies when you’re having fun.

Three for three in Memphis.