Food from the South before the Backbeat of Memphis

Memphis has such an amazing musical history. To twist a quote from Con from the Castle “There is Music everywhere Mr Kerrigan”. For Hank and Bobbie-Joe to get to everything, to hear the stories was always going to be hard. But we had a go.

Now Beale Street is the heart of musical Memphis. Hank and Bobbie-Joe both agreed that Beale Street was a much grittier place than Nashville’s Broadway. In common, both street have amazing musicians and artists. There are so many bands, musicians and artistsplaying every night that you could spend a lifetime in each of the streets and still not see everything.

Beale Street was where Elvis hung out as a boy, picking up tips and tricks from the Blues guitarists and singers. It was this street that BB King came to as a  19 year old, convinced he was the best blues guitarist. After a time, BB realised he wasnt quite there yet and headed home to Louisiana, determined to come back and show the Beale Street musicians he could cut it. The best way to prove you belong on Beale Street years after you have made it is to get a bricks and mortar bar and name it after yourself – thats exactly what BB King did. And Jerry Lee Lewis watched the honky tonk piano playing as a boy in Memphis, which is where he got his unique style.

In enjoying the Mississippi last night Hank and Bobbie-Joe decided to book a Memphis tour with Backbeat Tours. But before Hank and Bobbie-Joe started out on the three hour tour, the Blues City Cafe on fabulous Beale Street next door was beckoning for an early lunch.

The Blues City Cafe website is great, make sure you check it out – they have a jukebox pop-up playing some of the best blues you’ve never heard.

Music aside, after being shown to a window booth by the friendly waitress, Hank and Bobby-Joe checked out the menu to see what would take their fancy. They ordered their food and took in the atmosphere. Not lost on either Bobby-Joe or Hank was the big sign behind the counter above the grill: “Get some south in your mouth”. Enough said!

The food arrived and Hank and Bobbie-Joe were in heaven. The chili that arrived at the table was the best he had tasted so far in the second honeymoon travels. In the spirit of trying menu items never before tasted (or heard of) Hank tried the seafood gumbo - and it was an amazingly thick soup with big, chunky, tender pieces of fish, oysters, crab meat and rice. It was one of the most amazing Southern dishes Hank had tasted. Bobby-Joe didn’t order the tamales, but became a big fan of them and really enjoyed sharing them with Hank.

After an amazing meal, Hank and Bobby-Joe headed outside and checked into the tour office awaited the tour bus. It wasnt hard to spot when it pulled up in Beale Street out the front of the Blues City Cafe.

What is different about Backbeat Tours compared to the others? They both visit the sights of Memphis and tell the musical stories, but only Backbeat employs a working musician as the tour guide, complete with guitar playing songs from the rich Memphis musical heritage. Our guide was Brandon, who was a tall fellow who had unfortunately put his back out the night before playing a gig. Of course Hank had a quick chat to him and showed him some stretches to help ease his back pain and away we went! The bus got going and Brandon started belting out a few numbers from Elvis, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis. Percussion instruments were handed out and the whole bus was suddenly a band, with Brandon on guitar lead.

Church Park was the first sight where the first black millionaire from the South, Robert Church bought a large slab of land to use as a park among African-Americans. Also, we saw the Beale St. Baptist Church, the first brick constructed multistory church in the US built by African-Americans for African-Americans

Next stop was Sun Records and we had a tour of this famous studio. Originally, before it was Sun Records, Sam Phillips’ business was “Memphis Recording Service – anything, anywhere, anytime“. However, after recording a number of artists and seeing the artists go to the record labels, Sam Phillips decided he needed to keep some of those artistic gems for himself. Hence, Sun Records was born.

Searching for a new sound, Sam Phillips heard Elvis in one of his auditions at Sun playing around with “Thats Alright Mama”. That was the birth of rock n’ roll, right there in the Sun Records studio.

A musical history revealed some very interesting influences; Howlin Wolf, Rocket 88 and Bear Cat by Rufus Thomas that somehow Sam Phillips had morphed into Hound Dog, with morphed being a euphemism for copyright infringement. Sam Phillips ended up having to pay a massive $1580 settlement with Lion Records.

The Prisonaires  were a group that came together when a couple of gents doing 99 years apiece for murder came together in the Tennessee State Penitentiary with a couple of other long termers. They sang harmonies together and sang songs like Just Walkin in the Rain. So appreciated were they that the Governor of Tennessee used to let the gents out on day release so they could perform at his mansion. It was these guys that the film “O Brother Where Art Thou?” featuring Georg Clooney and the Soggy Bottom Boys (Man of Constant Sorrow)was loosely based on.

In 1986, an Elvis tribute album titled “Class of 55″ with Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. A fellow by the name of WC Handy penned a song called “Mr Crump Blues“, a protest song about the largest political figure in Memphis at the time – Edward Crump.

A Slim Whitman concert at Levitt Shell in Overton Park is where Elvis knocked the socks off the rednecks at the “Hillbilly Hoedown” singing Thats Alright Mama and for encore Blue Moon of Kentucky. It was Elvis’s first public appearance and the rednecks weren’t all that happy that their girlfriends were teary eyed and screaming for a slick haired, hip swivelling, pretty boy in a pink suit. He had to hightail it out of there after encore after encore. Elvis also sang his a and b sides on his single for the Louisiana Hayride, a rival to the Grand Ole Opry.

The Million Dollar Quartet on December 4 1956 (Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis) jammed in the Sun Records, performing a broad range of gospel songs. According to Johnny Cash, no-one wanted to follow Jerry Lee Lewis, but you have to read Cash’s biography to find out why.

We then drove past Stax Sudios, the home of soul,and rival to Motown in Detroit. If Nashville is the home of C&W and Memphis of Blues Stax was the home of soul. Artists such as Booker T. & the MGs, Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and Al Green all recorded there. Stax records was located in an old movie theatre. During the transition from theatre to recording studio, they kept the cinema bass speakers and the raked seating flooring which gave recordings from Stax a unique sound.

Driving past Brandon was and providing his personal insights on Memphis history and sites (Sun Studio, National Civil Rights Museum, Stax Museum, WC Handy House, Beale Street and Overton Park).

We saw quite a few examples in Memphis of a shotgun shack where you could walk into the room and fire a shotgun and kill everyone with one shot because the layout was really just one long skinny room.

We also visited the Peabody Hotel. Now this Hotel has a fountain in the main foyer and its such a lovely art deco hotel that a fountain doesn’t seem out-of-place. And when you hear the sound of the water rushing over the fountain, its quite relaxing, But when you see ducks in the fountain, well, you get a shock.

The Peabody is a Memphis landmark for a couple of reasons. One is the ducks. The other is Mr Lansky at Peabody. He was the man who Elvis would visit and get his fashion advice and clothes from for his performances. e was known as “Lansky - Clothier to the King”. Elvis used to model some of his clothes for him. And even today, the store is right there in the foyer of the Peabody Hotel.

We also saw where Elvis lived with his family after he arrived in Memphis, It was an apartment in the projects where rent was $35 per month. BB King and Elvis were neighbours; Elvis lived in apartment 48 and BB King in apartment 52.

We also drove past the Lorraine Hotel, where a lot of the Stax records artists would stay and hang out. You see Stax Records didn’t have air conditioning, so these boys and girls would be singing soul all day and night and would get back to the Lorraine Hotel to the airconditioning in their rooms. In these late night parties and jam sessions at the Lorraine Hotel the songs Knock on Wood & Midnight Hour were all written at the Lorraine Hotel. The Lorraine Hotel was also where Martin Luther King wrote the Mountain Top Speech (see part 1 and part 2), a moving and inspiring speech.

Unfortunately and its prophetic in his speech, as he knew his days were numbered. Within 24 hours of giving this speech at the Memphis Masonic Hall around the corner from the Lorraine Hotel, Martin Luther King was assassinated. The white wreath on the balcony marks the place where his life was taken. It’s a very sombre moment of the trip.

Later though Brandon was able to lift the spirits of the group as we came to the end of the trip and it was tip time.

That night after getting back from the tour, we went to Rendezvous and Hank enjoyed some good ribs with two sides; one of slaw and awesome black beans and a pickle. Bobby-Joe enjoyed a cheese sandwich on Memphis’ own Wonder bread, the bakery round the corner and is the whitest of white of all breads. Ever.

Keen for a dessert that supported the great flavours of Memphis, Hank and Bobbie-Joe stopped by the Flying Fish. It was lovely, had a big lineup, and was a bit smoky inside. Extractor fans didn’t seem to be drawing all the smoke, so it felt a bit greasy. However, the the Key Lime Pie, fried chocolate cake and margaritas were excellent. But it wasnt just the key lime pie that was amazing about this place; it was also the “World’s First Billy Bass Adoption Centre“. True to form, every wall was panel to panel adopted Big Mouth Billy Bass fish.

After dinner, Hank and Bobbie-Joe headed back to the Vista and chilled out for a while before we headed back into Beale Street and stopped by the Black Diamond Bar and heard a band called The Bluesmasters play an awesome blues song called Real Sad Story and a Bobby Womack song called Stand Up In It ; a song about men thinking the know what women want and goes out to all the 5 minute brothers. It was written in response to Denise LA Salle’s Lick it Before You Stick It. And another song I didn’t get the full title of, but along the same vein.

Memphis is definitely grittier than Nashville, but an amazing place for music, people and stories. Well worth a second visit.