"Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again"

So, Memphis. Hell of a town. Clif and I damn near wet ourselves when we arrived on Beale Street. Folks were playing music wherever they could find enough space to set up their gear. This meant you had a lot of bands competing for attention, space, and an audience. The best ones, though, were the ones who didn't seem to even notice their audience. There was this old black man sitting out on the sidewalk with his acoustic guitar playing the most amazing acoustic blues I've heard since I first found out about Robert Johnson. And he was just playing constantly. He'd stop in between songs just long enough to thank someone who'd put some money in his tip bucket, and then he'd start playing again. You got the feeling he was making it all up as he went along, just playing what felt right (the way the blues ought to be, y'know?). He was also playing as though he were just playing for himself. If he had an audience, so be it. If he didn't, you got the feeling it wouldn't change anything about how or what he was playing. And his stuff was the better for that.

Saturday was a busy, long day. We started with a tour of the Gibson Guitar Factory. It was neat seeing where the things are made. Just wish it'd been during the week so we could see the factory in operation as opposed to when it was closed for the weekend.

After Gibson came Sun Studios, where Elvis and Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison got their starts. The birthplace, if you will, of rock and roll. And the studio really hasn't changed any since the 1950s, which is cool. They had some neat memoribilia there, like Elvis's guitar and things like that.

After Sun Studios, we had lunch (mmm, barbeque) and headed out to a place called Mud Island out in the middle of the Mississippi River. Clif and I rented a canoe and canoed for an hour, which was a nice break from walking and a very relaxing way to spend time. We kept stopping in the shade of the bridges over the river, and the nice breeze meant we had a comfortable spot to stop and relax.

Saturday night was spent sitting in a park on Beale Street listening to music and drinking beer. There's something slightly surreal about drinking beer with your father and younger brother, and discovering that your younger brother is probably, against all common sense, more of a beer drinker than you are. It's weird.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. We got to spend most of it playing or listening to music, which is a great way to spend any weekend. Clif and I also saw Revenge of the Sith Thursday night, but I'll wait to talk about that until after I've seen it with Ev later. I will say I did enjoy it more than I thought I would, though.

Next up--album reviews (which I'm rather behind on) and pictures from the trip. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Neil Young, "Long May You Run"