Stax

One last night in Memphis then I hit the road to Nashville. After leaving my life savings at Graceland I headed to the Stax Museum and checked out some more of the sweet music stuff. Unlike Sun Records the developers got to Stax and the old studio has been torn down. Now there is a museum, a charter school and the Stax Music Academy on the site. They recreated the old studio inside though but it has nowhere near the ambience of Sun.

Still lots of really significant acts came out of Stax such as Isaac Hayes, Booker T & The MG's, Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. It was a compelling place and a much more intimate experience after Graceland but still while I would highly recommend going it still felt a little contrived.

There were some fun things to see. Booker T and the MG's was essentilly the house band for the label and Booker T Jones himself was a keyboard player who I greatly admire and imitate. To see the orginal hammond organ that he recorded his stuff on was amazing. It blew me away to see it was only an M3 hammond and not the mighty B3 that everyone associates with the early stuff. 

There is a certain irony to this picture. The guitars shown are a Fender Telecaster and Fender Precision Bass. Why the irony? Well Fender's main rival is Gibson and their factory is here in Memphis.

The other really cool things in the museum were Isaac Hayes's Oscar for the title song to the movie "Shaft" and his peacock blue gold trimmed cadillac. 

The night was spent back down on Beale Street where I went to BB King's Blues Club. I had to have more ribs though these weren't as good as last nights. There were a couple of acts on show Will Tucker being the first, they are a four piece that basically does metal blues. They were good but the Will was a little overpowering and didn't share the love. He was too loud in the mix and you couldn't hear the rest of the band all that well. He was a truly talented guy but would have benefited from some restraint. 

Next up was the BB Kings All Star Band. These guys were phat. They had sax and trumpet, keys, drums, guitar and bass with a lead singer who just owned the stage. I would have got their CD but this was clearly a pick up band of seasoned musicians so it seemed unlikey I would get to hear anything comparable. 

So its on to Nashville in the morning. Plus I have to tell you about my Baptist Church Convention experience and how the Community of Christ Church tried to save me. I really am in the bible belt. This must be the buckle.