The rides are less scenic these days. Driving from St. Louis to Memphis kind of resembled the NJ Turnpike's southern half. Pretty non-descript.
It was about a 4 hour drive from St. Louis to Memphis & my first stop was the Stax Museum of American Soul.
After a 20-minute video chronicling the history of the label, you're able to wander through the rest of the museum to see some of the other exhibits. Some great musicians recorded here - Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, The Staples Singers, Booker T & The MG's, Sam and Dave....the list goes on.
I actually had a chill run through me when I walked through the studio where so many of these musicians recorded.
One of the flashier exhibits was Isaac Hayes' 72 Caddy with gold-plated everything, including the windshield wipers!
My hotel for the night is one of the nicer ones - Springhill Suites, a short walk to Beale Street.
I took a walk towards Beale St., where a friendly homeless man (Cliff) asked about coming to my place for dinner. Boy did I have bad news for him!
Beale St. reminded me very much of Bourbon St. - some cool history, but mostly a place for tourists to go and get drunk. The street is closed off to traffic and lined with bars selling lousy beer in big plastic cups.
I stopped to see WC Handy's home.
He's credited with being the "Father of the Blues", writing "St. Louis Blues" and "Beale St. Blues".
It's a really small house where five kids were raised (but still bigger than my apartment). He ultimately moved to NY and opened a publishing company not too far from my place on 52nd Street & 6th Ave.
And kids doing back flips on the street for money.
I had a night of music planned seeing bands at both Rum Boogie Cafe and Blues City Cafe.
Guy Venible was playing at 5:30 at Rum Boogie Cafe & I was hungry. I heard a few songs and was all set to order some food when the lights went out! At first I thought it was just this bar. Then I heard sirens and realized it covered a bigger area in downtown Memphis. I promptly offered to purchase beer at half price to keep them from having it go bad, they declined.
I was pretty sure my hotel would be far enough away from this and would still have power. I walked up Beale St. and the party moved out onto the street, since the power was out and the AC wasn't working.
Still hungry, I was in search of something quick to eat. About 4 or 5 blocks from Beale on Madison Avenue, I found that the Madison Avenue Cafe had power and "food". On the menu was something called a "Memphis Dog". When in Rome....
It turns out this is a hot dog with cole slaw and BBQ sauce. Not too bad when you're hungry.
But around 8:45 I was having my doubts as the police had floodlights shining down the street. I thought that having to walk back to the hotel in pitch black wasn't a good thing, so I left. A few blocks away, in front of the Flying Fish, the lights suddenly came on! You could hear a roar from the crowd on the street! Maybe because they could actually see their way to the bathroom.
About face to Beale Street! First I had to pass through a police security check and the metal detector revealed nothing. I found it interesting they didn't do anything when there was no power.
After a few photos with the lights on, I returned to the Rum Boogie Cafe to see the Blake Ryan Band.
They're a blues band that plays mostly covers from bands like the Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band, Stevie Wonder and even Pink Floyd. They were pretty good and worth every dollar they didn't charge at the door!
One odd thing tonight...people were lighting up their cigarettes in the bar. It seemed like they were breaking some law, but they weren't. Tobacco is still King here in the South. Clothes right into the laundry bag!
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