9/21/15, Monday

This week the kids have a Fall break, so Rita and Randy came to visit and we decided to head to Memphis for what I’m calling our Blues Tour.  Over the past 6 or 8 months, Adam has started learning to play guitar and Randy, with retirement looming in just 5 short months, has renewed an interest in music and vintage stereo equipment.  Both of them were itching to go to Memphis to immerse themselves in the rich history of American blues music.

So, like many a musician, we packed 7 people and the dog into our car and hit the road.

*all photos without borders were shot by Rita/Randy.  Photos with borders were shot by Adam*

On the road!

At a rest stop in Alabama to let Max go potty in a cotton field.  Isabella picked some cotton and is pulling it apart to see the seeds.

Alabama: this guy is still sore about the outcome of the Civil War (aka, the War of Northern Aggression.)

We arrived in Memphis to our rented apartment, which is so fantastic I’m posting a bunch of photos of the interior.  If you are considering a trip to Memphis, this apartment is well worth the money.  It’s 2 blocks from Sun Studios and can host up to 12 guests at a time (3300 square feet of space.)  The place is enormous and very private, with a building-wide private roof-top deck, and is also pet friendly.  We can’t recommend this place highly enough.

One of two master bedrooms.

4 bunk beds in the hall.

One small part of the roof-top deck with bar. (Adam and Rita relaxing.)

Full kitchen. 

Pool table and TV area.

Hallway to three of the bedrooms.

Study/secondary bedroom.

Another secondary bedroom.

Isabella talking to a friend on the phone out on the open part of the roof top deck.

Adam, Rita, and Max enjoying the fantastic fall weather.

All three kids plugged in and watching TV.  It was a long day in the car.  Max got car sick and agitated, so we were all even more relieved than usual to reach our destination after a car trip day.

Rita, Randy and me at the dining room table getting the computers connected to the wifi.

Adam:  Prior to leaving Atlanta, I discovered that Leon Russell was performing Monday night. I bought tickets for the 4 adults and we spent a wonderful evening at Lafayette’s Music Room eating and drinking and listening to music.

Randy was especially excited to see Leon Russell in concert.  He’s attended Leon Russell concerts twice in the past; the first time in 1971 (Oklahoma City) and the second in 2010 (Seattle, Washington).

The stage is ready.

The opening act, Doug and Alyssa Graham.  They have known each other since she was 7 years old and he was 9.  They started dating when they became teenagers and have been together ever since.  She referred to him as “the love of my life.”  They travel the world writing and performing their music.  After this show, they were headed off to London (the one in England) to receive some kind of award.  Their style is more country than blues.

Randy taking some photos of the opening act, “The Grahams.”

Adam:  Leon Russell at the piano. 74 years old, walks with a cane, going senile, and can still play like a Sumbitch. 

Randy getting up close to the steel guitar player.

Leon Russell came out on stage and stood for a moment for people to take pictures, then he sat down at the piano. His hands hit the keys the moment his butt hit the chair and he launched straight into a fast-paced song.  It felt a little like turning on a radio in the middle of a song.  He didn’t waste a single moment of time on stage.  Between numbers he would tell little stories about his life.

Randy standing in line to buy the albums. 

Rita and I looking at the T-shirts and other merchandise.

Rita talking to a fellow fan. That guy said he goes to live shows all the time and this Leon Russell concert was one of the best he’s seen in several years.  (Rita is holding the LP album Randy bought.)

Leon Russell’s coach after the performance. Randy was in line waiting to get the album he purchased signed by Leon.

9/22/15, Tuesday

We started our day with a trip to the grocery store for supplies and Starbucks for morning fuel.

Our house is 2 blocks away from Sun Studio, so we were all able to walk over to the studio just as they opened and get in on the first tour of the day.

The waiting room for the Sun Studios tour is an actual diner/cafe.  They still serve drinks.  This was the place musicians in the days of yore would hang out while waiting for their turns in the studio.

The first part of the tour takes you upstairs into an area that used to be a boarding house/hotel and is now a museum.  They have reconstructed Sam Phillips’ DJ desk and equipment from WHBQ Memphis in the early 50s and have on display many items and technical equipment used in the early days of recording and broadcasting music.

One of the first one-reel recording devices.  This was an incredibly expensive, state-of-the-art piece of equipment at the time, which was paid for by using cheaper equipment to record special events for people: weddings, graduations, birthdays, etc.

This was the machine that actually made the records.  The guide said it was basically an old-timey CD burner.

Sam Phillips hauled these things around in the back of his car to record events on location.

After touring the museum upstairs in the old hotel quarters, you go downstairs to the actual recording studio.  You enter through the front office.  This is where Marion Keisker, Sam’s secretary, worked when Elvis Presley came to the studio to record his very first song.  It cost $4 to make a recording and it took Elvis 5 months to save up that much — and he had to borrow the last $1.50 from his boss at the Crown Electric Company where he was a truck driver.  The window (looks like a mirror with white molding) looks into the recording studio.

TV and record player in the front office.

Equipment for use in Sun Studio. Like just about every piece of hallowed ground around the world, the actual pace is much smaller, basic and unimpressive than you imagine in your mind. The folks who have recorded here is a who’s who of early Rock and Roll. The studio is still open for recording in the evenings.

The “X” on the floor is the very spot Elvis stood when he recorded his first songs.  He was only with Sun Studio for a short while before Sam Phillips sold him to RCA for $35,000.  That was enough money to keep a struggling Sun Studios afloat and launched the careers of many other artists.

Acoustic tiles on the ceiling, installed and painted by Marion.

The next few photos show some of the equipment currently being used every night when the tourists are kicked out and the artists take over.  They shove everything against the walls in the morning so visitors can fit into the room for tours.

Kids posing with the Shure 55 microphone and stand that Elvis used for his Sun Records performances “That’s All Right,” “Hound Dog,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” etc.  It no longer works so they let people touch it.

The iconic photo ran in the Memphis newspaper with the headline “Million Dollar Quartet.” Elvis was on contract with RCA at the time and it was illegal for him to actually record anything at Sun with these guys, but Sam Phillips snuck-recorded some of the session anyway. They play snippets of it during the Sun Studio tour … it’s just those four guys BSing with each other and playing around on the piano.  Isabella whispered to me, “Wow, they weren’t even very good.  That was pretty bad, actually.  We sound better in the impromptu sessions in my chorus class.”

Adam: This is my favorite shot of the trip [below]. The photo above Isabella’s head was taken in the exact location where it was hung — Elvis at the Piano (where Isabella is plinking away) with Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash looking on. Holden and Josie providing the beat. (I got this shot after the tour guide had taken off momentarily….)

Close-up shot of the microphone.

Someone we didn’t recognize (but with good taste) pulled up just as we were leaving.

On to lunch on Beale Street at BB King’s Blues club. It’s pretty expensive, but the food was good.  We’re planning to go back for some of the live music at dinnertime some evening before we leave.  This club has the bar separate from the restaurant part, so under 21 kids are allowed.  (Many of the music clubs are 21+ only.)

Hand-painted table tops.

Walking around Beale in the afternoon. Pretty quiet at that time of day – things don’t start getting interesting until nighttime.

Display in A. Schwab’s Dry Goods Store.

Starbucks break for cold drinks and phone checks. 
Adam:  After lunch we took the factory tour of Gibson Guitars – which turned out to be a disappointment. The factory was interesting (to me, anyway) but the tour guide was poor and couldn’t be understood over the noise.

These photos were all taken in the lobby.  Photos are not allowed on the factory floor and this rule was strictly enforced.

In the lobby waiting for the tour to begin.

9/23/15 Wednesday

This morning is dedicated to Graceland and all things Elvis. This is our 2nd time here (we went in 2008) but it’s the first time for Rita and Randy.

Elvis has two private planes available for viewing.  The biggest and most impressive is the Lisa Marie.

Walk through the private jet.  The interior is upholstered in emerald green velvet.  Each section (or “room”) has one of those state-of-the-art TVs, which was a huge luxury at the time. 

Dining and conference room. 

Josie marveling at how crappy Elvis’s TVs were compared to the modern flat-screen installed to show tourists clips of Elvis in concert. 

The TCB logo painted on the tail was Elvis’s signature.  It stood for “Taking Care of Business” and the lightning bolt represented “with lightning speed.”

Below:  Entrance to Graceland.  We really enjoyed the tour we took in 2008 and were disappointed in the experience this time.  They used to give tours with actual guides, but now they hand out iPads and headphones to everyone.  You go through on your own.

I hated this method.  My headphones didn’t work properly, Isabella’s iPad was stuck on the introduction (she spent the entire tour listening to the introduction over and over in different languages on a loop) and the iPads were bulky to carry around.  All the old people on the tour (and there were MANY) had a hard time figuring out the technology, which meant they were constantly staring at the tablets in their hands and discussing with each other how to make them work rather than looking at the house and grounds.  I think it was frustrating for the majority of people.

Even when the iPads and headphones were working properly, there was no way to rewind if you missed something or fast-forward though the parts you weren’t interested in, and it made it impossible to talk to other people about what you were seeing.  They rush you through the house, then spend way too much time in the trophy room.

It was also expensive.  The price for this was roughy $45 per person.  I considered this tour a massive fail on the part of Graceland.  It was much better the old way. 

The living room. 

Kitchen. 

Jungle room.

Mirrored stairway down to the basement

Elvis had these three televisions installed when he found out LBJ watched all three news networks at the same time (NBC, CBS, ABC) and thought that sounded really cool.  

This room is covered completely in fabric.  Lisa Marie said that when she was a little girl, she loved hanging out in this room because it’s where all the rowdiness happened.

Out in Graceland’s back yard. 

The back of the house.

Old storage room near the stables that Elvis used for a short time as a firing range. 

The trophy room.  

Here I am in the trophy room, waiting for what felt like an eternity for the iPad narrator (John Stamos) to finish talking about Elvis’s TV appearances and awards.  There is no way to fast-forward though that information (which is easily looked up online later if one is interested) to spend more time looking at the house and grounds.  

The swimming pool area.

The racquetball court building.  Elvis sat at this piano and played two songs with his buddies before he went back up to the main house to rest and died.  

One of Elvis’s cars.  They have a bunch of them on display in a separate area.

After the Graceland tour, we headed off to lunch at Central BBQ – voted Memphis’ best place for ribs.

This afternoon Adam, Rita and I went to tour Stax Records.  After the disappointing Graceland tour, this one redeemed the day.  It was interesting and well-done.

Adam:  This place was famous for discovering and developing many of the big soul music names from the 50s to the 70s – Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Albert King, Booker T and the M.G.’s, and Isaac Hayes.

The studio and record label are now defunct, but the area serves as a museum dedicated to Soul music, as well as a music academy and charter high school focusing on music development.

Studio 1A, where most of the music was recorded. Various famous instruments (signed by the artists) displayed throughout the room.  The studio was a converted defunct movie theater, so the floor slopes.

Isaac Hayes’ gold plated Superfly 1972 Cadillac.

9/24/15, Thursday

We started the morning with a trip to the Memphis Zoo. After lunch, we all took a paddle-wheel boat tour up and down the Mississippi. We finished with dinner and live music on Beale Street.

The Memphis Zoo is a really good one.  We showed up right when they open at 9:00 a.m.  The animals were all out and active due to the cool, nice weather.

The lions were intently staring at a zoo-keeper’s truck parked next to the enclosure.  The truck had a bunch of tubs packed with fish, which I believe were destined for the penguin exhibit, but the lions were very, very interested in it.  

The female panda was just chillin’.

The ostriches and antelopes were agitated because zoo keepers were inside the enclosure cleaning up yard debris.  This ostrich kept chasing the antelope.  The antelope was so much more agile she didn’t seem too worried about getting caught. 

Feeding time for the white rhinos.

Mist fans for the kids.

Josie enjoying the seal exhibit.

Curious bald eagle.

The polar bear was doing his morning swimming exercises.

These bears were up and active, too.

They got into a fight.

After the zoo, we had lunch at the Memphis Hard Rock Cafe, and then took a river boat tour.  The tour was absolutely excellent.

For our final night, we went back to BB King’s Blues Club to have dinner and listen to some live music.  Holden was feeling sick so he stayed back at the apartment. The girls thoroughly enjoyed the live music experience.

After dinner we went for a walk down Beale Street.  It was busy and hopping even though it was only about 7:30 p.m. on a Thursday evening.

This group was playing outside near the end of the street, and were our favorite act of the evening.  That guy standing on the speaker was a very skilled guitar player.

Isabella bought a painting done by one of those street artists who use spray paint.

Then we headed back to the apartment to check on Holden.  We ended up going to bed fairly early because we had to get up early to hit the road for home.

Goodbye, Memphis!