Shedd
Greg Cottrell Joined: October 8th 2008
Logged in: September 29th 2009
Logged in: September 29th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
The Dance of Life
Suggested Listening for this Entry: Let me attack this three ways. First, for historical context, listen to “The Cheater” by Bob Kuban and the In Men. Second, for a feel of the music heard at this show, find your city’s biggest name wedding/bar mitzvah band and sit through their versions of “We Are Family” and “Celebration". Third, I can’t leave you readers with a bad musical taste in your mouths, so give a listen to the CD Rockin’ Eighty-Eights by St. Louis piano players Johnnie Johnson, Clayton Love and Jimmy Vaughn. Suggested Food and Drink for this Entry: Since we’re back in the Anheuser-Busch fatherland, let’s go with a bottles of Bud Light. For grub, grab something off a hot dog cart in a park. When I was in St. Louis the prior week, I had ... read more
Shemwell's Menu
Suggested Listening for this Entry: Some classic country from the 1960s. "Hello Walls" & "Wine Me Up" by Faron Young and "The Cold, Hard Facts of Life" & "Sorrow on the Rocks" by Porter Wagoner. Suggested Food & Drink for this Entry: A sliced pork sandwich on white toast and a Pepsi. After a few hours of driving two lane roads along the Missssippi, exploring state parks in two states, and a rather sobering visit to downtown Cairo, I was ready for lunch. I didn't plan on eating at Shemwell's. In fact, I'd never heard of it. I just stumbled upon it as I was driving north, heading out of Cairo. As soon as I saw Shemwell's sign painted on the side of its building, I made the turn into the parking lot, got out of ... read more
Graceland
Suggested Listening for this Entry: "Heartbreak Hotel", "Don't Be Cruel", "Hound Dog" and "Crying In the Chapel" by Elvis Presley. Suggested Food and Drink for this Entry: To eat, a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. To drink, anything you think would help you wash down such a nasty sandwich. Unless you were born on the moon, you know the Legend of Elvis Presley….a poor white kid who was born in Mississippi, and spent his teen years in Memphis, combines elements of blues, country and gospel to invent rock and roll. His career explodes in the mid-1950’s, was all but over in the late 1960’s before a comeback brings him back into the public eye allowing for him to become a caricature of himself in the 1970s prior to his death at age 42 in 1977. ... read more
The Lisa Marie
Suggested Listening for this Entry: "Moody Blue", "Way Down" and "My Way" by Elvis Presley. A concert clip of Elvis performing "My Way" a few weeks before his death is attached below. If you need a chuckle and want to know what "really" happened to Elvis, listen to "The King Gets a Day Job" by the Reverend Billy C. Wirtz. Suggested Food and Drink for this Entry: Are there any situations where prescription drugs can be considered nourishment? While 1957 can be considered the zenith of Elvis’ career, 1958 can be considered the year when the seeds of Elvis’ undoing were planted, although that undoing would take nineteen years to totally play itself out. In March 1958, Elvis was inducted into the U.S. Army after receiving a temporary draft deferral to complete the movie King Creole. ... read more
Sam Phillips Avenue
Suggested Listening for this Entry:"Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats", "Howlin' Wolf Boogie" and "Moanin' At Midnight" by Howlin' Wolf and "Bear Cat" by Rufus Thomas. Suggested Food and Drink for this Entry: As Jackie Brenston sang in "Rocket 88", go around the corner and get a fifth, everbody in your car should take a little nip. Ike Turner, B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Rufus Thomas, Junior Parker, Little Milton, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison. All American music legends who started their recording careers at a small recording studio located at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis owned by Sam Phillips. Although Ike Turner would go on to have success with his wife Tina well after the days he spent in the Union Avenue studio, his recording career started ... read more
The Sun Studios
Suggested Listening for this Entry:”That’s All Right”, “Blue Moon of Kentucky”, and “Good Rockin’ Tonight” by Elvis Presley. Then go back and listen to Arthur “Big Boy’ Crudup’s original version of “That’s All Right”, Bill Monroe’s original 1940’s version of “Blue Moon of Kentucky”, and Wynonie Harris’ version of “Good Rockin’ Tonight”. Suggested Food and Drink for this Entry: Although nearly the same meal was suggested for the Rock N Soul Museum, go with one of Elvis’ favorites, a cheeseburger, fries and milkshake. With our Sun Studio tour continuing in the museum room above the actual studio, our tour guide hit the highlights of the studio’s blues and R&B days in the early 1950’s that included hearing snipets of “Bear Cat” and Howlin’ Wolf. Looking around the tour group, I could tell at least a few ... read more
The Interstate BBQ
Suggested Listening for this Entry: Some Little Milton from his days on the Malaco Record Label in the 1990's and the early 2000's. Start with "The Blues is Alright", "Annie Mae's Cafe", "A Juke Joint in My House" and "She Know How to Wear a Hat". (A video clip from earlier in Little Milton's career is included at the end of this entry.) Suggested Food and Drink for this Entry: Anything you can smoke and cover in barbecue sauce. You’ll soon discover why. D.C. area blues guitarist Linwood Taylor once told me “it ain’t a party unless the cops come”. Well, my visit to Jim Neely’s Interstate Barbecue with Ips and the Player made me think of a twist on Linwood’s thought, “it ain’t a trip to a barbecue joint unless you leave covered in sauce”. ... read more
Dusk Over Mud Island
Suggested Listening for this Entry: Marshall Chapman's CD It's About Time.... It has very little to do with Memphis other than having a song that references Elvis and the Pyramid, but oh well. The CD was recorded live at the Tennessee State Prison for Women in Nashville, so there probably were some former Memphis residents in the audience. Suggested Food and Drink for this Entry: Tamales....I didn't partake of any while in Memphis or the Delta, but there were signs for restaurants serving them all over. Maybe a reader could explain to me the Mid-South's apparent fascination with tamales. If you visit the Peabody Hotel, you can have a drink that comes in a martini glass in the lobby bar. It's not really my thing, but the Peabody is a class joint that doesn't sell Beale ... read more
The Stax Historical Marker
Suggested Listening for this Entry: "Respect Yourself" by the Staples Singers. "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding. Suggested Food and Drink for this Entry: None It's impossible for one person to tell the Stax story over the course of a few blog entries. I hope you, the reader, will visit the Stax Museum if you are ever anywhere near Memphis. As a music fan, it is one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had that did not involve seeing a live performance. At one point while touring the museum, the visitor goes thru a room where a copy of every 45 RPM single and LP Stax, and its subsidiaries, ever released is on display. It's here, after hearing the Stax story, the visitor realizes the magnitude of what was accomplished ... read more
The Fellas Outiside the Stax Museum
Suggested Listening for this Entry: "Starting All Over Again" by Mel and Tim. "Who's Making Love" by Johnnie Taylor. "Walk on By" and "Theme from Shaft" by Isaac Hayes, a clip of which is included below. Suggested Food and Drink for this Entry: No food, just a forty of Schlitz Malt Liquor. (Unfortunately, Rufus Thomas' ad for Schlitz Malt Liquor isn't available on YouTube.) After the events late 1967 and early 1968, Stax found itself in a dire position and change was in order. The company was sold to Gulf and Western, co-founder Estelle Axton left the company and her brother Jim Stewart assumed a lesser role at Stax. At the same, Al Bell, Stax’s sales director assumed control of operations at Stax. Bell, an African American, had a different vision for the company. He wanted ... read more
