MUSIC IN MEMPHIS / ELVIS!!!!

Beale Street Memphis














Day 240

Memphis, Tennessee, USA

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Day light saving in Perth has started. We're now 14 hours behind again! And next week, day light saving STOPS here in the US..so what does that make us - 15 hours behind????
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The music here in Memphis is full of soul...and is deep and passionate! Last night we went back to Beale Street and ended up at a place called Kings Palace where we had BBQ chicken and steak fries...

And Jack Daniels and wine (which is crap in the bars in the US!)..

And really got rockin...

What a night!!!!




Graceland










And today..we went to GRACELAND.....It's about 15 minutes from Beale Street...(by bus) and oh, what a place that is!

It's huge..the grounds alone are just magnificant..Elivs really knew how to live. What's amazing is that he bought Graceland when he was 22 years old...in 1957 just one year after he made all the famed records...in fact, he had 100 records in the top ten..amazing hey.

No wonder he is THE KING of rock and roll.

















We learned so much about him...and Priscilla and Lisa marie by being at Graceland..and seeing his cars and airplanes..and his mansion..and his gravesite..(and that of his father, mother and his grandmother..who incidently outlived them all...!)

Graceland is awesome..

Just seeing his piano's and the way he decorated his house is incredible. It's real seventies..but so lavish and outlandish. Especially seeing it was 30 years ago that he died. Aug 16 1977.

I was trying to think if i recall that moment of his death...like when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon..but i can't! I had just turned 15..and don't recall it being a big event. Not like when John Lennon died in 1980. I remember that day clearly.

I think i just always thought Elvis was alive. His music was always so alive.

Our view and respect for Elivs has increased after seeing what he achieved in his 42 years. We always knew he was a 'star'..but after learning more about him, we realise he was a genius..and one of a kind.

His aura lives on that's for sure.

Here's a pic of us with Elvis' famous pink Cadillac!














We spent five hours at Graceland!

And we met some great people. A lot of Aussie's come here to Memphis it seems...to see where the rock n roll scene all started! Imagine..BB King was here in Memphis...Johnny Cash...Jimi Hendrix...i keep having to pinch myself when i think of all the people that walked these streets, played their guitars in these bars, sand their hearts out...oh...it's awesome!

After Graceland..and catching the shuttle bus that ferries everyone around...we headed off to Sun Studio's to see the studio where the 'greats' like Jerry lee lewis, Johnny Cash, and of course Elivs Presley cut their records. We saw original recordings and the gold records....

Pic of Greg using THE ORIGINAL MICROPHONE that Elivs and Johnny Cash and all the other famous Sun performers used when recording in the Sun Studios!














And these are the original drums the performers use when recording!!!














It was just amazing. We unfortunately didn't get to the gospel service that we set out to do....Reverand Green puts on on here in Memphis....but that's ok...by the time we spent the day seeing Graceland..Sun Studios and the Soul and Blues Museum we were itching to get back to Beale Street...

And we've just gotten back.

Honestly..the blues here..is mesmerizing. We ended up buying another CD from these blues guys in the "Handy PARK" in Beale Street...who could resist them...and buying the CD's for these guys is their payment for performing...




Blues City Cafe!








Had BBQ Ribs and Nashville Beer tonight...at the Blues City Cafe...where "ELVIS" was playing again....

What a place! If i thought Nashville was a place that seemed ficticious..then i've just awoken from a Memphis dream.

Sometimes i have to pinch myself to realise that we're in some places...place i'd only ever heard of or read about...

Imagine..here were are, in Memphis...

And tomorrow...

We're off again..

It seems so surreal!

PS I hope i can find somewhere to get a haircut soon! It hasn't been cut since Paris and it's DRIVING ME NUTZ!!!!!!!

GREYHOUND TO MEMPHIS

Half Way House, Jackson, Tennessee








Day 239

Memphis, Tennessee, USA

I felt so grumpy getting ready to go to Memphis on the Greyhound! I hated the trip to Nashville and expected the same to Memphis..and it was! Grrr...

The only hightlight was getting out at Jackson (remember the song that Johnny Cash sang about getting the train to Jackson......) and having a cheese burger! I was so hungry.....

What a highlight! AND..i overcooked it in the microwave that was on the counter there at the Half Way House.

It took four hours..a bit like the trip from Perth to Gero...only the bus (if you can imagine) was 10 times worse! Crikey........what are we doing travelling like this?????

Anyway..we survived and when we arrived in Memphis we decided to catch a taxi (cab) to our hotel, then realised it was only about 200 metres down the road...so it cost us $7 for a hop, skip and a jump.

I've had a few comments about being a 'strong woman' when people see me carrying my front and back pack. Women comment that they wouldn't do it..and men comment to Greg that they're going to get their women to do this!!!

It's so funny. America doesn't seem to find it acceptable for a woman to be carrying gear like this......(At times..i find it pretty unacceptable as well!!! And after being on a grotty bus was one of those times i just wish i was in a five star hotel with a porter!!!!)

I almost feel unfeminine when the woman look me up and down.....like they're thinking i'm some poor thing with a husband who is demanding i carry this heavy load or something! (Greg says, "Hey, mine's heavy too!!!" haha

Anyway, getting a taxi saved us trying to work out how to get to the hotel and going the wrong way (which is something we're good at) and it's nice here...we pre-booked the accomodation here in Memphis, because when we came by here last time (when we came from Dallas) we had a few hours to check out hotels and found they were booked out due to a convention going on.. so when we got to Nashville we booked this...

It's near Beale Street so we're in the heart of town...which is great! It's the BLUES capital of the universe here in Memphis i tell you....

AND...Elvis impersonator is on every corner!!! We saw them on the way here in the cab..then when we went for a walk after booking in, they were singing their hearts out in the bars Beale Street!!!

Such a great place...

And we only have two nights here now.......

KISSED BY A KING IN NASHVILLE!

(Elvis Impersonator!)






Day 238

Nashville music scene is so alive and full on..we love it. Anything goes from Blues, to Rockabilly, to jazz to country...it's all fantastic!

On Thursday night..I GOT KISSED BY THE KING!!!!

At a concert just out of Nashville by an Elvis impersonator called John Beardsley..it was cold, sweaty and rather ewww..but it was fun!

I guess it's 'almost' the next best thing to seeing Elvis..he was pretty good but who could ever have that charisma, charm and sex appeal that ELVIS does!!!!

Was funny going to an Elvis impersonator for the night that's for sure...we really got into the swing of things listening to all the songs..and he got into the pelvising.......hilarious night!



Nashville Country Music Hall of Fame!







On Friday we spent the day at the Nashville Country Music Hall of Fame and mixed with all the big names...and even sang a the Ryman Auditorium where all the country greats peform! Apparently this auditorium has the best acoustics in the US next to the Morman Tabernacle in Salt Lake City.

We sang a great solo there!!

It was so low noone could hear us...hehe

Hmm...

The atmosphere at the Hall of Fame was very nostalgic...we heard stories from Dolly Parton, Jimi Hendrix, Berry Cordy, Garth Brooks, Paul McCartney, Chet Williams....and of course Elvis, Johnny Cash and oh, so many others...

We heard some gossip about Keith Urban...he's in Nashville celebrating his 40th birthday..and he and Nicole like to have dinner at Emma's....which we went passed. We did wonder if we should go there for dinner too!!! Oh, we're such groupies! He is playing here on the 29th Nov..and i was wishing we were going to be here..but apparently he's the hot new star in Nashville..and all his concerts are a sellout along with Hannah Montana who is Billy Ray Cyrus' daughter!! Ok..enough of that..

Oh wait!...At one stage we THOUGHT we saw Willy Nelson..and if it wasn't him..it was someone that looked like him! Who knows who you'd see though..it's NASHVILLE!

We also went on a tour of Nashville to find out more about what's here...

Nashville is such an 'alive place'. Not just the music, but the general buzz of the place!

Some of the stories our driver told us was funny...he said in Nashville..there are over 1700 bars! There are something like over 600 churches as well...! He said they have to have so many churches so the people can repent!!!

He also said there are HEAPS of doctors..because there is a large teaching hospital here...so if anyone has a heart attack there will be a doctor on every street corner to help...and if we die....there will be a songwriter to write about it!!!

Such a sense of humour!

He also said Nashville was changing..cos he was seeing more sushi bars and men with purses and the original Nashvillites, like him, don't accept change that well!

He was so funny!

In between learning all about the music in Nashville, we went to the Post Office and the lady there gave us some free tickets to an art exhibition, The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America which Opened at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts!

So off we went to that...and it was so interesting comparing modern American art to all the European art we've seen over the year!

Friday night we went downtown Nashville to Broadway and there was music everywhere! It was great! We ended up in a place called "Tootsies" and there was a guy called Jake Myers playing Johnny Cash and Hank Williams...and other familiar songs which we liked so much we bought his CD!



Tootsies!!!












Unfortunately our stomachs got the better of us and we had to leave to seek out food and ended up with a pizza and thinking we had to get up early to catch the silly bus to Memphis...

NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO CATCHING THAT BUS!!

In fact..felt grumpy thinking about it.................