Suggested Listening for this Entry: Anything by the Staples Singers after starting with "I'll Take You There", a video of which is attached below. Suggested Food and Drink for this Entry: Catfish, Cornbread and Turnip Greens. You can pick your own beverage, but if it's some fancy coffee, you're banned from further reading. And, save room for dessert. I didn't and I regret it. Upon returning to downtown Memphis Saturday night, we decided we wanted to be at the Stax museum when it opened at one Sunday afternoon. One of the restaurants I really wanted to dine at in Memp [View Full Entry]

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Suggested Listening for this Entry: "'Cause I Love You" by Carla and Rufus Thomas, "Last Night" by the Mar-Keys, "Green Onions" by Booker T and the MG's, Suggested Food and Drink for this Entry: None. The music should be all you need. The story of Stax Records began in the same manner the stories of many of the other groundbreaking record labels of the 1950s and 1960s began. A person who was a visionary, a savvy businessperson, or both, realized the breadth of musical talent around them and set off from humble beginnings to record those talented performers and present t [View Full Entry]

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Suggested Listening for this Entry: "Rollin' Into Memphis" by Dash Rip Rock, "Memphis in the Meantime" by John Hiatt, "Sure Smells Like BBQ" by Big Joe and the Dynaflows and "Smokie, Part 2" by the Bill Black Combo. Suggested Food and Drink For this Entry: Slow smoked pork ribs and a few ice cold longneck beers. Seeing there is no entry about the great time I had kicking it with Lil' Ed and Blues Imperials, you've probably already assumed I face planted into bed back in my hotel room after leaving Al Hrabosky's. Well, other than me throwing in a stop [View Full Entry]

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Suggested Listening for this Entry: "Mystery Train" by Little Junior's Blue Flames (aka Junior Parker), "Get Rhythm" by Johnny Cash, "Haunted House" by Gene Simmons (no, not Kiss' Gene Simmons), "Respect" by Otis Redding and "Love and Happiness" by Al Green. Suggested Food and Drink for this Entry: Find a real, old school diner. Order a cheeseburger, fries and a large coke. If you're feeling fiesty, pull out that half pint of rum or Jack from your back pocket and spice up your coke. Trying to sum up the entire music history of Memphis is difficult to do in one museum, [View Full Entry]

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Suggested Listening for this Entry: "Bear Cat" by Rufus Thomas, "Three O'Clock Blues" by B.B. King, and "How Many More Years" & "Howlin' Wolf Boogie" by Howlin' Wolf Suggested Food and Drink for this Entry: No food. Just a smooth drink of Courvoisier. Although Beale Street was created in 1841, it's influence on the American music scene began in 1905 when musician W.C. Handy moved to Beale St. from Clarksdale, Mississippi. At the time, Beale St. was the most prominent gathering place for African Americans in the country. Also at the time, Memphis was one of the most vio [View Full Entry]

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Suggested Listening for this Entry: To get a real feel for today's Beale St., you'll need to go hear a rather pedestrian blues / R&B bar band somewhere. The band may have a good singer or a couple of decent musicians, but nothing about the band will overly impress you because you can only hear so many covers of "Mustang Sally" and "Pride and Joy". With that said, I'll suggest you harken back to the glory days of Beale St. and listen to "Further On Up Road" by Bobby "Blue" Bland, "Drving Wheel" by Junior Parker, "Don't Start Me to Talking" [View Full Entry]

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Sugested Listening for this Entry: Dr. "Feelgood" Potts CDs Make It Talk & Going Down to Memphis Suggested Food and Drink: By this time, anything you can get your hands on. Now I've been hearing a whole lot of talk going around lately about what a woman really wants in the bedroom. Clarence Carter said he be strokin'. Bobby Rush said he be wearing it out. Now there's another guy going around saying a woman wants a man to stand up in it. But let me tell you what a woman told me... -from Dr. "Feelgood" Potts' spoken introduction to his [View Full Entry]

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Day 84- Saturday Aside from the fact that I have long wanted to visit New Orleans for it's own sake, as a unique and fascinating city, I was really imressed to to see various aspects of the Mississippi River. The location New Orleans is interesting...between the final curves of the river and the amazing Lake Pontchartrain...so extensive and with such amazing long "bridges" across. These are things that I for one can only begin to comprehend having seen them with my own eyes. And since they enter into our cultural heritage through movies and social historyI commend them to you all [View Full Entry]

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Memphis, the home of Elvis. [View Full Entry]

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The home of rock 'n' roll and (more importantly!) the birthplace of blues. To sum up Memphis in one word i think we'd go for "great!" We planned to stop here mainly because it broke up our trip from chicago to new orleans, but it turned out to be, in my view at least, the best stop in the US so far. The place we stayed was a slightly decrepit motel that was in the middle of being renovated, but it was right in the centre of town, so perfect for us. Although we did wake one morning to find a [View Full Entry]

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