Graceland and Beale St.

I left Nashville Monday morning and headed for Memphis. There was an article in the Nashville paper that morning about a "Dukes of Hazzard" festival that had taken place in Nashville that weekend, complete with a photo of the General Lee jumping some cars. Interesting. After breakfast I got on I-40 west, and wouldn't you know, driving up ahead was a truck pulling that very same General Lee. So I snapped some pictures. I mean, how often is it that you pass the General Lee? I mean, who actually ever passes the General Lee?? I do, that's who.

When I got to Memphis I went straight to Graceland, the home of Elvis. Graceland was nice. I liked that it was decorated still just as Elvis had decorated it before he passed in 1977. So it's all shagged out with 17" color TV's. Pretty nice. The amount of gold and platinum records in his trophy room was absurd. That was easily the most impressive part of the tour. I also checked out the car museum (Elvis had a purple '57 cadi that was maybe the coolest car I've ever seen) and his private plane, the "Lisa Marie". I snapped a picutre of the bed on the "Lisa Marie", because hey, that's were Elvis joined the Mile High Club. Way to go, Elvis, way to go.

My next goal in Memphis was to eat some ribs. As the pictures above will atest, I was successful.

My final goal in Memphis was to listen to some blues music. So I wandered to Beale St and went into BB Kings Blues bar. The band in there was phenomenal and played some Bobby Womack, which I really appreciated. I swear, when I get married, that band is playing at the wedding. I also went across the street to another bar where this lady who looked like Chakha Khan was singing. I mean, she was wailing! I snapped a picture of her and her band (see above), which included the bass player she referred to as "Chocolate Thunder". And you know, as she said, "where there's thunder, there's lightnin' baby." Anyhow, this lady was over the top. She even told this one 8-year-old kid that was in there, "hey baby, keep on growin'. Momma's waitin' for you!!" Oh yeah. Hot. But she sang a rendition of Etta James' "I'd Rather Be Blind" that made my hair stand up (wait a minute, my hair already stands up. Oh well).

After a few hours of listening to music around Beale St. I headed back to the hotel and called it a night. On the way home I drove pass Sun Studios, where Elvis recorded many of his early hits. And that's what I think is cool about Memphis - you can just be on your way home and happen to drive by Sun Studios. Or the great Stax Records studio. Or Graceland. Or some lady wailing some Etta James. Or some dude playing Three 6 Mafia out of his '86 Caprice Classic. Hood.