Memphis (Tennessee)

Since Nashville couldn't live up to our expectations, we decided to make another stop in Tennessee before crossing the Mississippi River to Arkansas: Memphis. Home of the Blues.
We went directly to the Memphis Recording Service or Sun Records Studio, as it was later called. The place was opened in the early fifties by Sam Phillips, who wanted to give all the black musicians he had listened to on Beale Street an opportunity to record their songs for small money. Many artists took the chance and recorded a two sided demo record with one song on each side for 4$ in this studio. For some of them it was the first step to national and even international fame, such as Howlin' Wolf, Ike Turner and Jackie Branston.
Word got around and also white artists came to record at Sun Studio, for example Johnny Cash, who recorded his first three LPs there. One day, a young 18-year-old kid came in with 4$ that his family had saved for three month. He wanted to make a demo of a ballad he had written. He was very nervous, but sang well and made a great impression on Marion Keisker, the secretary, who then secured him a spot at a Sun Records Band, which should play background for other artists or do sound checks for them and so on. But they turned out so good that the band soon became a group of their own, named after that 18 year old boy: Elvis Presley.
The tour at Sun Records was amazing. We heard many funny and interesting stories, listened to great music and in the end we stood in the recording room, in which all of the above mentioned artists had performed and recorded. In that room was even the original microphone that had been used for all lead vocals of more than 700 LPs and many more demo records, including Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash and the first ever recorded piece of Elvis Presley!

After the tour we drove downtown, parked our car at the pedestrian bridge to Mud Island Park and walked across it. Mud Island Park was out of this world. It seemed like a beautiful park and event location, but something was a bit off. Nobody was there except maybe 5 tourists. Everything was closed...and has probably been closed for 10 years. Someone stopped the time there. The place was insane: an amazing amphitheater-like stage with views of the downtown skyline, a mile long walk along a miniature copy of the Mississippi River, a museum, a swimming pool, several cafes. All closed. And for some magical reason with close to no vandalism at all, even though you could get into the park and most of its buildings! Maybe some day there will be life again in this phenomenal island park. Hopefully.Read more