FROM MUDDY'S PLACE TO MEMPHIS, PART 2 OF 2

Last month, I began a journey that took me from Clarksdale to Friars Point in the Mississippi Delta. Along the way, I retraced the steps of many legendary bluesmen such as Muddy Waters, Pinetop Perkins and Robert Johnson.

We visited some spots that point to a true blues renaissance in Mississippi, including the Shack Up Inn, the Delta Blues Museum, and the Cat Head store. The Shack Up Inn provides an up close and personal view of life in the Delta. It's a bunch of renovated shacks turned into a B & B (bed and beer), Mississippi style. The Delta Blues Museum is a must-see destination, along with the Ground Zero Blues Club, just steps from one of the most exciting collections of blues memorabilia around. Cat Head also repays the pilgrim's journey many times over, and the folks behind the store have put together a diverse mix of local art and CDs to satisfy the most demanding blues fan.

Last month, we worshipped at the Crossroads Clarksdale, honored Muddy's memory in the fields of the Stovall Plantation, and traded stories with one of the true oracles of Mississippi history, Robert Hersberg, at his family's store in Friar's Point.

This month, we're heading north to the bright lights and big city of Memphis. We'll learn about some of the exciting stuff behind the scenes at Soulsville, USA, and carouse on Beale Street.

We'll also celebrate two Memphians' birthdays: Donald "Duck" Dunn's on the 24th and Booker T. Jones' on the 12th.

With that in mind, let's light the candles.

Highway 61 leads right to Memphis. One of my first stops was the Smithsonian's Memphis Rock 'N' Soul Museum, connected to the Gibson guitar factory just a short walk from downtown Memphis. If you stray from the tour, you can peek at Gibson craftsmen sanding and polishing the newest ES-335's or other guitars that have shaped the blues or rock and roll. While there's many exhibits extolling the rightful place that Memphis plays in popular culture, I was drawn to the photos and songs of bluesmen like Furry Lewis, Robert Johnson, and B.B. King. The exhibits include full-length songs you can hear on portable CD players and headphones, and I was in blues heaven when I heard Furry Lewis sing "Katie Mae" or Robert Johnson sing about "The Crossroads."

There's a short film at the beginning of the tour that puts Memphis in proper musical perspective. We hear Memphis legends like producer Sam Phillips or Steve Cropper talk about the Memphis sound, ranging from Otis Redding, Howlin' Wolf, Sam and Dave, and Rufus Thomas, to Issac Hayes. Few cities have such a storied musical legacy, and the Smithsonian has done Memphis proud with the Memphis Rock 'N' Soul Museum. I was surprised at one of the original American Bandstand podiums, though. Dick Clark launched his career behind a small, homemade bandstand, and when I took off my middle-aged glasses, I noticed that American Bandstand was written in faded magic marker.

No visit to Memphis would be complete without Beale Street.

Beale Street is home to a very vibrant blues scene that features B.B. King's nightclub, The Pig BBQ, Mr. Handy's Blues Club, King's Palace Café, Rum Boogie Café, and Wet Willie's, among a dozen or more other nightclubs that offer live music seven nights a week. In Memphis, live music means live blues, and all along Beale the bar bands are equally adept at playing traditional or country blues, plugged-in or acoustic, and together, they will help any blues fan get his or her fix quite nicely.

Issac Hayes' club in Peabody Place offers a range of menu items that range from "Rib Tips 'Til Payday" to a full plate of Southern cooking. There's live music most nights, and I was very fortunate to catch one of Memphis' long-time bluesmen, Preston Shannon. Shannon played a fundraiser for Soulsville USA, the new museum honoring the achievements of Soulsville USA and Stax Records, and he included several songs from his Rounder/Bullseye CD, All In Time, which I reviewed on these screens in April 1999.

Soulsville USA will have a grand reopening next Spring in Memphis. It will celebrate Memphis' many contributions to soul music, and open new doors for young people in Memphis. Not only will this new facility provide opportunities for youth to experience and play music in the tradition of Stax Records, it will also be a community focal point for one of the area's most distressed communities.

As I mentioned last month, the Memphis Youth Opportunity program provides much-needed avenues of expression for young people, including ways to reinterpret the Stax Records legacy. Soulsville USA is making these opportunities a reality, thanks in large part to the contributions of folks like Marc Willis and others behind the scenes at Soulsville USA. Marc's also a professor of music at Lemoyne-Owen College, one of America's Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and he's working hard to help young people discover their dreams through music. For more on this exciting, groundbreaking project, go to www.soulsvilleusa.com.

I've realized many dreams through my day job at the US Department of Labor Office of Youth Services and at the blues desk at Cosmik Debris, but few have matched the trip from Muddy Waters' cotton fields to the bright lights of Beale Street. I plan to return for the Soulsville USA grand opening next spring, but until then, I'm going to keep track of Soulsville's progress on their website. For good measure, I'll put on the Bar Kays, Otis Redding, or Booker T and the MGs, just to get "that Memphis sound" until I get back to the Delta.

(C) 2002 - Eric Steiner