Ralph and Karen's Tours

We left Nashville mid morning and took a leisurely drive south west toward the Rock and Roll Music Mecca of Memphis. We were so excited 👏👏

Beautiful meandering old highway driving as opposed to crazy freeway madness added an hour or so to the trip but tripled the enjoyment.

Passing through tiny towns and villages that don’t even get a mention on a map, with each one having a music hall full of blues history, and quaint “gas” stations on Main Street.

It wasn’t too long – maybe four hours – before we got our first real glimpses of the Might Mississippi River winding through these towns and it didn’t disappoint.

We arrived in Memphis and it was damn hot. Standard every day. Easily finding our accommodation for the next few days in a street parallel to the Mississippi and five minutes walk to Beale Street – the centre of the music action for over a hundred years.

Our accommodation here was brilliant. An old renovated apartment, upstairs from a restaurant with our own parking spot, fully decked out with amazing air conditioning 😀

Perfect !

Off to the supermarket to stock up on basics for our stay. It’s always so much fun checking out what’s in the markets here, and we normally bring home more than expected.

There is a bar/restaurant/brewery here called “Bosco’s” the name of which holds family history with us so we just had to visit. Five minutes in our second Uber (first one took us to the other end of town 😳) and we were there. Even the logo of this place is the same as our Bosco from home.

The beer and food menu was spectacular ! the beers themselves? Not so much. Another totally wild coincidence was the name of one of their beers is “Cooper St Lager” – this is also the name of a street back home where a big community park is located. How bizarre.

After a leisurely meal, having great chats with the staff we left with the intention of heading back to our apartment. However !

Across the road we saw a very inviting bar with live music so we just had to investigate.

Lafayette’s

No cover charge, and we were able to grab a table easily, get a drink and listen to the most amazing Big Band just smashing through brilliant song after song.

It was only during this time we realised the posters all over the walls. This place that would only seat maybe 250 people packed in, has the most amazing history of artists performing there.

In the ‘70s Linda Ronstadt had a weekly residency there. Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, The Rolling Stones, CSNY, Elton John ……. And dozens more all played at this cute little acoustically brilliant bar.

We were last to leave after sitting and having drinks with the band when they finished learning all about the historical significance of this place. What a great night.

The next day was a tour highlight visiting Graceland and Sun Studios so they deserve their own post here

The night after doing the Graceland and Sun Studios thing, we walked around the local very cool area where our apartment was checking out restaurants, bars, cafes all having local musos entertaining guests.

We settled in at an old BBQ place that has been a Memphis institution for decades called Central BBQ where the atmosphere and food and service certainly disappoint.

How good !

This area of Memphis is also significant in terms of the civil rights movement, as the Lorraine Motel is right around the corner – the scene of Dr Martin Luther King’s assassination. More on that in its own blog post here

Lots of murals adorn buildings honouring those lost over the years of the rioting through the South which are quite moving.

Over the next few days we covered so much “stuff”

We visited the Peabody Hotel famous for its ducks that live in the roof and now as a tourist thing march through the foyer each afternoon to swim in the inside water feature – it was bizarre but pretty funny.

Bizarre !

We also went on a Mississippi River Paddle Steamer for a cruise up the river for a few hours which was terrific.

One of the highlights of our entire trip was a visit to the “National Civil Rights Museum”.

Housed in the Lorraine Motel, the location of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther skin on 4 April 1968.

The museum traces the Civil rights movement right back to the early days when slaves were first introduced to the USA from Africa and surrounds right to the present day.

An unbelievably moving and educational experience with old live video footage and photos not often seen before on display including MLK’ stirring “I have a dream” speech in full.

Part of the Lorraine Motel has been preserved in memory of the fateful day in April 1968, including leaving the motel rooms as they were, and the balcony where the assassin shot and killed Dr King and the cars that were parked outside for the security team still in place.

One of the best Museum visits we’ve had for sure.

The music vibe in Memphis is everywhere. And it should be. It’s the home of blues, soul and Rock n Roll with some of the greatest musicians in history passing through at various stages of their careers.

The centre of the music scene is the renowned Beale Street

This stretch of Rock n Roll heaven stretches for about a kilometre, with the road blocked off and made into a pedestrian thoroughfare in the evenings.

The hardest decision is which bar to go into to listen to the most amazing music that you can hear from the street.

So to make that decision a bit easier, why not grab a beer and a margarita from a street stall and just meander up and back u til you find the sweet spot ?

Eventually we settled on o e of the oldest and most traditional Bars in town – BB Kings Blues Club !

Man what a night.

The band on Stage was just next level excellent. An eclectic mix of blues, funk and rock and roll that had the place in the palm of their hands.

There was an elderly man and his wife sitting next to us – probably in their 80s and we started chatting and his story was fascinating.

They grew up in Memphis and moved away in the 1980s for business and family reasons.

They’d decided to come back for one last visit and it was very clear the impact music has had on their lives. They couldn’t sit still u til the band played an unbelievable rendition of Stevie Wonders “Superstition”

It all got too much for this lovely man so he made his way into the dance floor and just lived his best life. Eventually his darling wife joined him and the bar all stopped for their moment. It was gorgeous and so moving. What a night.