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Published: June 14th 2007
Blues Hall Juke Joint After getting out of Alabama it was smooth sailing to Memphis (thank goodness!...Tennessee is much better). We arrived at the Smythe’s beautiful house, family friends of the LaGasse’s, in the evening and were ready to eat. After Mrs. Smythe suggested a few places around the city we could try, we headed out towards downtown Memphis. We made our way over to Beale Street, the most happening part of the city. Beale St. is shut off from all traffic, leaving people free to just walk down the street at their leisure. We were lucky enough to make it to Beale St. on a Saturday night, a party night of course, and the experience was just fantastic.
For dinner, we made our way over to the Blues City Café, as the Smythe's had suggested. I had a big plate of Barbeque Ribs and steak fries, and Allison had Southern Fried Catfish and potatoes. The meal was delicious and satisfying, starting the night off right. From there, we just soaked in the entire Memphis experience, which was awesome. People from Memphis, and all over, congregate on Beale St. for the party atmosphere. Beale St. is lined with bars, restaurants, clubs, and stores.
There were street performers doing flips, cartwheels, and other moves. There were street vendors selling an assortment of items and artists drawing/painting pictures. Everyone is carefree, just out looking to have a good time. Everybody is pretty social, and it’s a great collection of people enjoying music and partying with friends. There is a good number of cops around, but we didn’t see a single fight or person get out of control. You’re even allowed to walk around the street with drinks (we even saw quite a few cops sipping as well). The sights, sounds, and feelings from this place were like nothing we had ever experienced. It was laidback, fun, and just a total blast. We did a bit of shopping in a really cool little blues/Memphis/music/souvenir shop.
Memphis is home of the Blues, and just about every bar we passed (well over a dozen) had a live band. Allison and I stuck our heads into a many of these places to enjoy it. Most of the places were full of people drinking, partying, and loving the music. The bar we stayed the longest in was called the Blues Hall Juke Joint, which featured the “Dr. Feelgood Potts
Band.” We really liked their music and hung out there for a while. Our other favorite act was a street performer named Robert Johnston. He was the most redneck looking dude (complete with white T, overalls, barefeet, and a mullet), but man, could he play some good music. He played each instrument, guitar, drums, and symbols, and had a good voice. He was teamed with an older black guy whose job was just to dance. He would dance around, grab people from the crowd, and keep the dancing going (we especially liked his go-to move…the chicken). After a great time singing, dancing, and partying to the music, we headed back to the Smythe’s house for the night at about 1:00. We were tired, but we vowed to make it back there the next night.
The next morning we were a bit mixed up by the time change and woke up an hour earlier than we had intended (9:00 instead of 10:00…very disappointing to me). We ate breakfast and started to make plans for the day. Mr. and Mrs. Smythe were again very helpful in offering us suggestions of places to check out. Our first stop of the day was
Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. We got a full audio tour of his entire estate which was very interesting. His house wasn’t super big, not like a rapper’s house you’d see on Cribs. However, the decorating was a bit different than anything we’d seen before. He had shag carpeting all over (floor, walls, ceiling), a giant, circular, white feather bed, a “Jungle Room,” mirrors everywhere, whole rooms covered in fabric, and a bunch of other 70’s fashion disasters that we are thankful didn’t make it to today. We toured a couple of his trophy rooms and learned a lot about his upbringing, musical influences, and rise to stardom. He has an unreal amount of gold and platinum records, and besides the Beatles, must be the most popular/successful/rich musician of all-time. It’s a real shame he died so young, only 42 years old, but I guess the money, drugs, alcohol, and partying lifestyle catches up with you quick. Overall, he seemed like a pretty down-to-earth dude, liked sports, family, hanging out with friends, and even had a tour in the ARMY. The whole tour was done pretty well, and we recommend it to those that visit Memphis.
Our next
stop was the Stax Museum, also known as Soulsville, USA. This is where the legendary Stax Recording Studio once stood, and put out such artists like Otis Redding, Booker T. & the MG’s, Isaac Hayes, Sam and Dave, Rufus and Carla Thomas, Ike and Tina Turner, and many other recognizable names. It started with a 20 minute introductory video about some of the history of the place, and then we were free to browse the museum at our own pace. They had so much information about the history of many different types of music including blues, soul. Country, gospel, R & B, and even some Rock n’ Roll. We walked around for quite a while, learning about the different types of music, their histories, and how they influenced each other. There was also a ton of exhibits having to do with all the artists on the Stax label. We read, listened to music, and watched videos about lots of different musicians. When we finally exited the museum we were surprised to see we had spent over two and a half hours in there! I guess it was just so interesting and fun we were in there longer than we expected.
We had planned on visiting the Lorraine Motel (the place Martin Luther King Jr. was killed) and its civil rights museum, but had accidentally spent so much time at Stax, that there wasn’t enough time to visit. With a couple hours to kill we decided to relax and go catch a movie. We watched the movie Ocean’s 13, which was good but not really great, on by far the biggest movie screen we’d ever seen. It probably held 500 people and the screen was twice as big as in a normal movie theater.
After the movie we headed down to the Riverwalk. We walked around the Riverwalk area for a while and looked out over the Mississippi River. It was a bit cloudy, so we didn’t get to catch a sunset down there, but it was a nice walk through a nice area. At this point, we were getting hungry so we headed back to Beale St. for dinner. We ate at a little place called Dyer’s Burgers, which was again very good. Rumor has it, Dyer’s uses the same grease from over 25 years ago, just recycling it and cleaning it with each use. We spent the
rest of the evening walking around Beale St., taking in the live music and stopping by the Juke Joint again. It wasn’t quite as active as the night before, but still a lot of fun. Tired from a long day, we headed back to the Smythe’s house, where we watched some TV and went to bed.
Overall, Memphis has been the most fun stop on the trip. It was different from anywhere else we have been. We had a great time walking around the area, and visiting some interesting places. The city gives you an awesome feeling and is a unique in almost every way. We definitely want to make it back here sometime in the future for a longer visit.
Brian & Allison
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non-member comment
YOOOOO
Brian, it's cousin Michael. I'm stoked you are getting to do this trip. Grandpa just sent me the link to the site today. It is one in the morning and I work at 9 am tomorrow, so I can't really spend a lot of time reading this now, but I will check back after the weekend and catch up on the whole trip. Make it out there and back safe. I'll catch you soon, son. Also, Allison, I'm glad you are able to do this trip too. I know I only met you once, but you were in my prayers when things weren't looking too great. Your trip almost sounds better then my was last summer, just because you don't have to sit through 4-8 horrible bands every night like I did! Hope you have an awesome time.