Music and Memphis

Obviously both start with the letter M and both belong together. I did a lot of music stuff during my trip. I went to the Stax recording studio and museum. Wow the history there. I learned a lot and liked listening to the music as I walked around.

I hit the Smithsonian Rock and soul museum. That was a nice retrospective of Memphis and some of the music influence. They actually had a good piece on the roots of Memphis music and a look at a sharecroppers life and so on.

Did the Gibson Guitar factory tour. OKAY that was awesome we walked right in - the factory was not operational on Saturday (my birthday - yes that is what I wanted to do for my B-day). But to just see the sweat, glue and guts that begin the journey of sounds I love so much - ok yes I am silly and got choked up. I got sawdust on my shoe and have not washed it off yet - lol. I so admire people in the music industry and here is another area to admire craftman and craftwomanship.

I visited a cool venue called the New Daisy Theater. I saw So She Sang, The Crashing Falcons, Remembrance of her and a fourth band I shall recall in a moment. They were hardcore/screamo but having just seen The Family Stone movie and gotten depressed - it fit. Plus my Birthday was the next day so what better way to spend it then live music. If I had not been solo or having to drive I might have even thrown in a few drinks - eh next time perhaps... anyone wanting to sign up for the Music Memphis tour???

Just let me know and I am there in a moment.

Also had a great floor show at the concert watching this guy even older than me scam on four young teen girls (all wearing these funky matching pink shirts). Can we be more obvious??

I have a pic of the venue which was cool (I have lots of pics and once they are loaded to my website I will post link) - it was broken into sections with these metal blue bars which meant lots of leaning surface. The stage was at a good height and it was not too packed so it was was easy to see. The first two bands I think the average age of audience was prolly 16. But as the night wore on I started seeing a shift to college and older. Also there was a basketball game down town and as that got out things started filling.

The club is at the end of Beale street which is a whole street of music history. I need to go back to Memphis - did not get to Sun Studio and a few other places. Plus I'd like to go back to the New Daisy and also there were a couple other clubs I would have tried like Hi-Tone and BackTracks. And every place almost on Beale street has blues bands. And no I did not get to B.B King's place.

Again I need to go just to spend the nights on Beale and sleeping the day

So much to do, so little time.