Memphis is Music

We'll be leaving Memphis in the morning just when we're beginning to feel like we understand Memphis.  We didn't get it right at first, but have it down now.
Memphis is Music.  We began our stay with a first night trip to Charlie Vergos Rendezvous for the number one rated rib joint in Memphis.  The dry rubbed ribs were spicy, juicy, and pulled cleanly from the bone.  Stu ate a rack of pork ribs, I enjoyed the lamb riblets smoked in its own dry rub.  This is a rib joint so if you want to begin with a small dinner salad, you'd better have that at home.  The Rendezvous in the alley serves ribs, you can smell them from the street before you descend to the basement.  We learned during our stay that Memphians will do battle to defend their favorite rib joint. The title of best ribs depends on who you're asking.  Locals said we paid too much for second class ribs.  It would take a month of rib dinners to make our own selection.
From the Rendezvous it was only a few blocks to Beale Street, drinks to go in paper cups, music at every stop, late night peach cobbler at BB Kings, still rocking.
Friday we headed to Graceland--our only pre-planned stop.  I was surprised at how emotional I felt learning about Elvis', his private life, his childhood, his music, and his comback.  One of the other visitors on our tour was visibly shaken up by the entire tour, especially at the Elvis gravesite.  He also wore his hair Elvis style, and was wearing the same dark glasses.  At the grave he left a silk scarf (probably polyester) he'd been carrying around.  Who knows how or why he so identified, who am I to judge?  But he was a bit spooky, especially when he stayed behind to retake the Graceland tour.
   Upon leaving the grounds we visited the Elvis auto collection, Elvis' airplane, various trophies and memorabilia, costumes he wore on stage (primarily two costumes with different trim; Elvis favored jumpsuits zipped in front).  Learning the story of his movie career, and then his stage comeback, reminded us of our youth--we lived Elvis.   Enjoyed the tour but the gift shops, multiple gift shops, all with a different theme, were over the top.  Anything you could possibly put an image of Elvis on, has been done: t-shirts, hoodies, plates, dolls, bubble heads, ashtrays, combs, pens, purses, watches, belts, and on and on and on.  We escaped with our dollars in tact.  Overall, we were reminded of the impact Elvis had on the music we loved, but it was time to say good bye.
   Saturday has been packed full.  We began with a visit to the National Civil Rights Museum built on the site of Martin Luther King's assassination.  The main building is under renovation so it's possible that when it emerges the museum will be worthy of its name.  Today, it is not.  The exhibits are dated, static, brief, and focus more on the assassination than on the Civil Rights Movement.  We really didn't care about the room James Earl Ray rented across from the motel where King was staying, or the car Ray drove.  We were surprised to learn that concurrent with the Civil Rights Movement was the campaign against poverty.  Neither of us remembered that focus during the 60's.  More disappointing than the museum, which Coretta Scott King would not permit to use MLK's name on the building, was the Sisters exhibit featuring a dozen important Black women.  Yes, the selected women were important, they were firsts, and leaders, but the displays were a 6 foot poster with a list of accomplishments and a photo--that's it.  Nothing dynamic, nothing very up to date.  For example, Michelle Obama was not included.   Definitely could miss this museum, at least until the renovation is completed.
  From the Civil Rights Museum to the Gibson Guitar factory tour--How its made.  Want to know why Gibson guitars are internationally in demand and so pricey?  They are all hand made.  Machines are evident but run by hand, not programmed in a computer.  Lots of people in put on each guitar which takes about a month to complete the process. The Memphis factory produces about 70 guitars a week.  Stu was disappointed that even after paying close attention, he still can't play a guitar.
  The highlight of the day was our visit to the Rock and Soul Museum, directly across the street from the Gibson Factory & store.  We should have begun our Memphis trip here and highly recommend that this be the first stop for anyone visiting Memphis.  The museum is an affiliate of the Smithsonian and every bit as professional, well researched, and well presented as anything you've seen in a Washington DC Smithsonian museum.  This is the history of Rock & Soul music and why Memphis is Music.        
      The self-guided audio tour begins with exhibits, photos, and music starting with sharecroppers gospel and blues, some mule working songs, early radio, crossover between Black and White music.  We were reluctant to leave after nearly 3 hours and wished we had begun our visit here so we could have listened to every recording, read every sign, examined every exhibit.  We could begin again, it was so interesting, informative, and kept our feet tapping to the sounds of recordings we've heard in our youth.  We'd give it 10 stars on any scale!  We wished we had time to revisit Beale Street, because we now understand its importance and history to Memphis, to the Black who lived and worked and shopped there, and the Jews and Italians who owned the stores.
    3:30 and time for lunch.  We walked a few blocks over to the one friend chicken place everyone agreed was number one--Gus's Spicy Fried Chicken on Front Street.  At 3:45 on a Sat afternoon, the place was packed, eat in and take out--as busy as a Chinese restaurant.  You could smell the frying chicken from down the street.   And it was great, moist, spicy.  But Gus's only serves chicken.  We began our gourmet meal with appetizers, succulent, juicy friend pickles artfully arranged in a shallow bowl, a closed container of ranch dressing balanced atop.  (We've begun to believe that Memphis fine china consists of paper and plastic, no dishwashers needed.)  Paired with the fried pickles were icy cold bottles of a local favorite, Green River beer.  The main course consisted of both light and dark meat fried chicken, breasts, thighs, a wing, and a leg sitting atop course grained sliced white bread.  Standard sides, generous helpings, slaw and vegetarian baked beans, cooked to perfection with red onions.  Just when we thought we couldn't eat another bite, out comes the fresh coconut pie--we shared one slice.  We got exactly what we'd come for, a fine example of Southern Fried Chicken.  Something you should all try, at least once or twice in a decade.   (Okay, so the Peabody Hotel uses fine china, the breakable kind, in its prix fix $195. dinner and pairing.  Gus's only serves on paper for under $25 for two.)
   We missed our planned trip to Mud Island, so settled for a stroll along River Walk overlooking the Mississippi.  Gentrification is coming to Memphis, at least at the River front, but the rest of downtown Memphis is sadly in need of a major overhaul.
  We finished our night with an outdoor concert at Levitt Shell in the Museum of Fine Arts park.  The Memphis symphony played multiple selections, all with a southern twang.  The highlight was the first live performance by Gary Williams, a singer/song writer whose music was lost during the Stax Studios bankruptcy in 1973.  There's a whole story here, one we learned about at the Rock & Soul Museum.  I read about the free concert when I was planning our Memphis trip, corresponded with the promoter, and was pleased to attend.  We were probably the only out-of-towners at this local event--free concerts in the park throughout the year.
   All in all, we had a lovely stay in Memphis, a little backward, but did get in lots of music, great ribs, and Southern fried chicken.  Next stop Nashville.
   We are thrilled to be visiting the USA, learning about our history, seeing our folks, great trip so far.
Adrienne & Stu