Memphis Music Landmarks
Memphis music is a magical stew of people from different backgrounds, cultures and beliefs, blended together in an unmistakable sound and simmering almost a century later. These are but a few of the places still serving it up.
Soul
Stax Museum of American Soul Music
Welcome to the house that soul built. Stax Museum of American Soul Music holds more than 2,000 cultural artifacts dating back to the 1957 launch of Stax Records—the tiny studio cranked out a huge catalog of hits from soul icons like Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Rufus Thomas, the Staple Singers and more.
Stax Music Academy
Where souls are born. The 27,000-square-foot unique learning center, where music education is used as a tool to mentor primarily at-risk inner-city children, is a source of great pride for the Soulsville, USA community. Its year-round programming allows students to tap their creativity, learn valuable life lessons and meet their goals through professional instruction and counseling, field trips, unique performance opportunities and travel.
Royal Studio
It’s good to be the king, especially if you’re Willie Mitchell, producer, bandleader and creative visionary behind Royal Studio. Home to Hi Records for over twenty years, Royal is anything but a museum. If they let you inside, you’re allowed to touch. That’s because it’s a working studio, a place where musicians come to record with much of the same equipment that captured the sweet soul sounds of Al Green and Ann Peebles.
Aretha Franklin’s home
Pay your respects to the high priestess of soul. Just a few blocks from Stax stands the house where Aretha Franklin was born and raised until she moved north at the age of eight.
Memphis Slim’s house
Soon to be restored, the home to legendary blues pianist and singer, Memphis Slim, sits directly across the street from the Stax Museum of American Soul Music parking lot.
Al Green’s Full Gospel Tabernacle
Save your soul with some holy rollin’ thunder. At the church home of the Reverend Al Green, Sunday services begin around 11 a.m. and have been known to last as long as three hours. While not always present in body, the purveyor of those sweet, soul serenades of the 70’s is always there in spirit, and song.
WDIA
In Memphis, some folks spell soul W-D-I-A. WDIA was the first radio station in America programmed entirely by African-Americans. Led by disc jockeys Nat D. Williams, a local high school teacher and nationally syndicated columnist, and Rufus Thomas, WDIA “brought the street to the station” and, ultimately, the nation’s airwaves.
Rock ‘n’ Roll
Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum
Black, white. Rich, poor. Country folk, city folk. The story of Memphis music is about people connecting, and no place better dramatizes the cultural and social ramifications of Memphis’ musical connection to the world better than this seven-gallery chronicle.
Graceland
Now that the legendary home to Elvis Presley is a National Historic Landmark, we can argue that a trip to Memphis that doesn’t include a tour of Graceland is an act of treason against the state. Well, maybe just against the city of Memphis. Either way the 14-acre home of the King is a must-do for any visitor. Take in the mansion, the Hall of Gold, “Sincerely Elvis” museum, the vintage automobile collection and his airplanes. That’s right, there’s more than one.
Sun Studio
Sam Phillips’ famous recording studio is ground zero for rock and roll’s explosion onto the world stage. Literally packed with memories and memorabilia, the “Birthplace of Rock and Roll” gives visitors a chance to hear historical outtakes and even touch Elvis’ first microphone. Experience the stories that put legends like Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and more on the map, and see why artists like U2, Tom Petty, Maroon Five and 3 Doors Down continue to flock here today.
Lauderdale Courts
Elvis slept here and so can you. Though Lauderdale Courts began life in 1938 as one of America’s first public housing projects, the Uptown location is known not so much for its history as for its most famous resident. From 1949 to 1953, Gladys, Vernon and their teenage son Elvis called Apartment #328 home. Now restored to reflect the Presley family’s simple life and times, The Elvis Suite is officially the only place in town where visitors can sleep exactly where the King did.
Gibson Beale Street Showcase
The smell of freshly carved tonewoods. The incandescent flutterings of abalone and pearl inlay. Classic details of a Gibson, arguably the most famous guitar brand in music. Gibson’s Memphis factory offers tours of its state-of-the-art production facility, home of the revered ES series guitars, which have been played by the likes of B.B. King, Scotty Moore, Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry.
Ardent Studio
Where did Led Zeppelin record in Memphis? Sun? No. Stax? No. In the Jungle Room? Absolutely not. Robert Plant and company set up shop at Ardent Studios. Founded by John Fry, Ardent Studios stands as one of the most important music studios in the history of Memphis music. Well known for its contribution to such rock legends as The Allmann Brothers and R.E.M., the studio continues to shape popular music working with the likes of The Gin Blossoms, The White Stripes, and Cat Power. Ardent also played a significant role in the development of soul recording the likes of Isaac Hayes, Booker T. and the MGs, The Bar-Kays, Johnny Taylor, Rufus Thomas and Albert King.
Heritage
Beale Street
Beale Street is a neon tunnel, packed with people wandering over worn cobblestones. The smell of hickory fills the air. Cross-cut electric guitars sizzle above thumping rhythm sections. Once the heart and soul of Memphis’ African-American culture with its banks, beauty salons, dance halls, barber shops and other black-owned establishments, today’s Beale Street has re-emerged as the city’s focal point for live blues, R&B, jazz and rock, as well as succulent soul food and exotic gift shops.
W.C. Handy House and Museum
Composer, teacher, publisher, bandleader and businessman, William Christopher Handy is credited as the first musician to document the raw, emotional lyricism of the blues. His modest Beale Street home-turned-museum may be small, but it is the axis upon which Memphis music turns, and quietly captures the flavor and spirit of Old Beale like no other place on Earth.
National Civil Rights Museum
The Lorraine Motel is set in time, framed within a moment that changed the world forever. Housed within the Lorraine Motel, site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this exceptional museum brings the stories of civil and human rights to life in moving fashion. Interpretive exhibits and in-depth audio/visual displays focus on milestone events like the Montgomery bus boycott, the Memphis sanitation workers strike and much more.
Center for Southern Folklore
Music, books, art and entertainment, no matter the form, if it’s Southern, it has a home in the Center for Southern Folklore. Celebrating the wonders, lifestyles, people, history and cultures of the South, the facilities on Main Street include the Folklore Store and entertainment hall that features live jazz, blues, rockabilly, soul and gospel performances.
