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Published: December 7th 2012
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car outside sun studios Hi Y'all, Yes that is the southern greeting of choice in this lovely State and the people are very friendly. We started out by going to a campground close to Crossville, which is between Nashville and Knoxville. Here Rosemary and Richard (my relatives) caught up to us and we spent a few days touring and having some laughs as well as a US Thanksgiving (Chuck used the "Force" and cooked a great turkey on the B-B-Q). We ventured to Pigeon Forge a town that is home to the Hatfield and McCoys and Dollywood (yep a Dolly Parton theme park).Dolly grew up in this area. It was a tourist area but unfortunately we arrived later in the day and because of the time of year they close early. We had fun just walking around the town. This is situated in the Great Smokey Mountains and boasts the fact that it is Davey Crockett country. We also toured the country side and went to a Mennonite Village that had some very beautiful rocking chairs, charcol drawings,depicting early days farming in the country (they were very good), and some beautiful leather work. We had a wheel bearing go on the truck and spent a
Hall of Fame
city picture of Nashville few extra days at this campground which was not a hardship. Then we were off to Nashville. Here we stayed at a KOA becuse it was close to Nashville and we could take a tour bus right from the camp ground.A bonus for us was the musical entertainment right at the campground our first night there. So we toured the Country Music Hall of Fame, The Ryman Theatre (which was the old Venue for the Grand Ole Opry) and we were at the Hotel/Pub on music row the place where Willie Nelson slung beer and sold the all time leading juke box hit - Crazy- to Patsy Cline for $50.00. We also went to the Parthanon which was built to within a 64th of an inch to the Parthanon in Athens, Greece. At a war memorial stands 50 columns with different toned bells that play songs every hour. The two leading industry's in nashville are medicine and music. In the 50's there were only 4 recording studios in Nashville and now there are over a thousand.Elvis cut most of his records at RCA in Nashville. Oprey Winfrey also started her television career at a very small studio here. We had
Patsy Cline Room
grand Ole Oprey-the Rayden theatre now known as the mother church of country music a great time here in Nashville and even went to a dinner music theatre, which was very entertaining. We also went to the Grand Ole Opry complex and although we did not actually go the the Opry (at this time of year the rockets play Christmas themes every night) we did toured the Opry Hotel which was amazing. From here we headed down the road to Memphis home to the King, Blues and Soul. The birthplace of Rock and Roll. Our first tour was to Sun Records, where the greats like BB King, Elvis, Jonny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich and the Howling Wolf got their start. This was a very small place but recording acoustics were very good and although it was vacant for 20 years it is back in use today and recording new artist's, like U2. We also drove past Heartbreak Hotel on our way to Beale Street ,the musical heart of Memphis. Here you walk the street-there is only pedestrian traffic here-and listen to Blues, Jazz and Soul stop at a cafe where we had crawfish, alligator chips (yes alligator-tastes just like chicken) tour the many shops. Beale street was the
Inside Sun Studios
artist's recording here hub of the black community in the south, they were poor had no work and they sang music which was a way of getting by when they were blue-thus the Blues. Here also is where we got our first glimpse of the mighty Mississippi River as we crossed it to get to the campground in Arkansas. Next day we took a tour bus to Graceland. The grounds and the house were as they were when he was using them. There is also a memorial garden right at the house which has the graves of Elvis his mother,father,paternal grandmother and twin brother-who died very young. You can tour his planes The Lisa Marie and the Hounddog II. This tour , for us, was slightly depressing when walking through his life and you recognize what a great talent was gone at such a young age. There is no other artist before him or since that has earned some many gold records or awards. Now we are off to Tupelo. Mississippi. The weather remains in our favour.
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