Weekend in Memphis

Neva & I made plans to meet Tony & Charlie just south of Memphis to pick up Audrey for a visit. We decided to take advantage of the opportunity to get a closer look at what Memphis had to offer!



We started off the week-end with a temple session. (Most people we talked to didn't even know there was a temple in Memphis!) 

Then it was off to the famous Beal Street to take in "Africa in April", which was basically a corvette  show with lots of soul food, vendors selling African products and street musicians playing the blues!

For the benefit of those of you not into the Blues (and as such don't know about "The Beal") it is the birth place of the Blues. This is a statue of W.C. Handy, the blues granddaddy of them all.

 After Beal St. we went to Union Ave. to tour the Sun Records studio. This is the desk where Elvis bugged the secretary for a year before she talked the owner into giving him a chance.

 The highlight for me was getting to sing into the same mike that Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins used in their orginal recordings at the studio.

This old studio is hallowed ground for musicians and has attracted many other artists like Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. These drums were used by U2 in recording their Rattle & Hum album.