All Hail "The King": a trip to Tupelo

Sorry . . . .I didn't take this photo! 

How could we possibly visit Mississippi without a stop at the Birthplace of Elvis Presley? Elvis is probably the most iconic figure in Rock History and yet sadly became a caricature of himself before dieing far to young at the age of 42 from a host of issues.  His early life story is actually quite compelling but the commodification of everything "Elvis" has turned him into a circus sideshow.

I love this photo of young Elvis that was in the so called "museum" (also no photos allowed. . . . whoops)

 His childhood home is clearly that of a poor, working class family and was in a corner of Tupelo that was really a ghetto but alas. . . . . The area around the house has been turned into a giant park, museum, and gift shop with more cool ELVIS stuff than you could ever imagine (no photos allowed in the gift shop, sorry !) He did in fact grow up very poor making his enormous success even more astonishing.
Elvis was indeed a huge influence on and influenced by a host of styles and receives tributes from both the Blues Trail and the Country Music Trail in Mississippi. My personal feelings about Elvis' music is that his early work with Sun Records and Sam Phillips was his best and that his move to RCA and then to film star was mostly a sad story but we are going to leave the details out of this Blog entry

There were some suprising things in the museum including this menorah and apparently his grandmother was Jewish ( sorry for the terrible photo but remember no photos allowed)

I have a foggy memory of this statue of young Elvis in one of the Star Wars movies where Darth Vador turned him into Bronze. . . .or was that Lando Calrissian?

 but perhaps the coolest thing of all is Elvis' outhouse. . . .well not exactly "The King's" outhouse but kind of like in the movie Spinal Tap this an outhouse much like the one Elvis probably had. If you don't get the Spinal Tap reference I apologize but in one of my favorite scenes the band is setting up to play at an Air Force Base and one of the military brass compliments the band by saying. "We are such fans of your music and all of your records. I'm not speaking of yours personally, but the whole genre of the rock and roll."

 sadly I just read a bizarre story on line that Elvis' personal physician said 5 years ago that Elvis actually died of chronic constipation. . . . I'm not kidding.

And finally, this is just about the most common microphone there is that's decent. I have one in my bag right now. But here it is on display as one of Elvis' microphones. . . . .isn't that amazing!!!

Sadly Elvis has "left the building" but his memory lives on!!

Birmingham AL and Gip's Place: One of the last true Juke Joints

Birmingham, Al has the distinction of being a beautiful city with a tragic history of racism. It may have been the most racist city in the US before the civil rights movement and is the location of the 16th St Baptist Church bombing that killed 4 little girls in 1963. More on this story later. 

On our arrival we explored the 1930s downtown and stumbled on the Shoe Hospital. 

Rhonda the owner of the Shoe Hospital was a wealth of knowledge and said we had to get out to Gip's Place, some kind of blues spot that she had only heard of. Well we followed her advice and ended up at one of the few true juke joints inAmerica. You can follow the link to an NPR story for more into.  http://www.npr.org/2011/05/21/136497027/gips-place-a-blues-lovers-dream

Henry Gipson started Gips in 1952 

His age is. . . .well apparently its been 86 for some years

Die Dra the Blues Queen with the Ruff Band

Gips is in Bessimer 20 miles from Birmingham and almost impossible to find but the joint was hopping at 10:30 when we got there. It was a totally mixed scene with Black and White folks partying together, something you don't see so much in Alabama. 

This place is a must do for any music fans in Birmingham. Totally the real deal. Check out the NPR story for more info.

A Visit to the Ole Miss Blues Archives

Yours Truly and Greg Johnson standing in front of a very cool Edison cylinder  player 

Last week we had a wonderful visit to the Blues Archives at the University of Mississippi. Greg Johnson is the archivist and he set up a bunch of amazing stuff for us to check out. The Archives is believed to be the largest collection of Blues information and artifacts in the world. Greg is very cool and very knowledgable and we had a great time hanging out. He is also an excellent bass player and versatile musician who plays many styles and instruments.

Crazy Blues is the first Blues record and first successful African American recording
Recorded in 1920 by Mamie Smith

Holding this stuff in your hands is quite an experience to say the least. All of these 78s are extremely rare. 

one of Robert Johnson's very rare recordings
but not as cool as the next item . . . . .

Robert Johnson's Death certificate

The actual cause of Johnson's death has been a source of debate for many years. Greg thinks he had VD and legends say he was poisoned. The death certificate says "No Doctor" so we will never know. 

How about this. . . .WC Handy's gig contract from 1918 for a gig at Ole Miss. The band was paid really well just like we are today . . . . .FIVE DOLLARS!!!!!!

A Visit to Rowen Oak: The Legendary home of William Faulkner

Our friend Rob is the director of the museum at Ole Miss and consequently Faulkner's home is under his care and supervision. We had a private tour with Rob that was quite amazing.

The classic entrance to the Faulkner home

On the wall next to his phone Faulkner had written his important phone #s 

The house is very much the way it was when Faulkner passed away in 1962. I really like this shot!

Faulkner did not allow any electronics in the house except for this one radio in his daughter's room 

Faulkner's writing room and typewriter

You gotta love the story boards hand written on the wall of his writing room !!

And the most amzing thing of all is that Harry Potter lived under the stairway. . . . LOL

Faulkner's contributions to American Literature and writing style were revolutionary in many ways and these few pictures hardly tell the whole story. We also learned that much of his career evolved into writing screenplays for Hollywood. There is something quite magical about this museum house  that is hard to describe. 

Grammy Museum Mississippi Grand Opening

So once again the challenge with a blog of this nature is keeping any kind of logical order to the time line of events. We are already weeks behind and so I am going to simply jump in with some fun stuff.
One of our set stops on this trip was to attend the opening of the new Grammy Music Museum in Cleveland Mississippi in the Mississippi Delta.

This is 17 year old MS guitarist Kingfish ripping it up at the museum opening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UwfcMe9gGw

We were visiting our good friend Rob Saarnio who is the director of the history museums at Ole Miss in Oxford. On the way to Cleveland we stopped off at the legendary Dockery Farms Plantation where Blues Legend Charlie Patton lived, worked and played music in the 1920s.

The Plantation has been restored in a state of arrested decay and there was a fundraiser going on in conjunction with the museum opening. Just by chance we ended up meeting the decendants of the Dockery family, Joe's daughter Kay and Granddaughter Carolyn pictured below with Rob. How cool and crazy is that!!!

We were also lucky to meet Scott Barretta, a wonderful Blues historian who designed most of these wonderful Mississippi Blues Trails Markers found all over the state. This shot is Kate and Rob enjoying the beautiful sunny day. 

The Museum itself was a mixed bag but some of it was outstanding. The building is beautiful and the exhibit on Mississippi music was great but much of the Grammy Awards overview was predictably bogus. . . . .sorry to say. 

Marfa, Texas

Marfa, Texas "Tumble In" RV Park 

 

Hey folks, this is Kate and it's my first time sharing in this blog!  I hope to participate more these next months.

I was inspired by Marfa- it's truly an island of creativity and historical preservation
in West Texas.  Overcast skies prevented us from seeing the renowned "Marfa lights" although we visited the viewing platform in the desert.

We have a lot more in store for everyone. Kate has also become an excellent photographer so we will both be adding photos and stories so stay tuned.

Here is a quick preview of coming posts
A Review of the first few weeks of our trip.
Austin Neon
The Grammy museum of Mississippi Opening
Oxford, Ole Miss and a visit to Rowen Oak: William Faulkner's historic home