Memphis, the blues in the heart

While the exact origins of the blues are unclear, it is known that this music, strongly associated with the African-American community, has roots firmly planted in the Mississippi Delta.

In the humidity of the Big Muddy River, cotton plantation workers used this music to share their sorrows, their disappointed hopes, but also their dreams.

In Memphis, Beale Street became a meeting point for blues musicians from all over the region as early as the 1860s. In the 1950s, B.B. King himself spent many evenings there, showing off his mastery. “It all started on Beale Street for me,” the father of the blues often said.

Since that golden age, the street has undergone many transformations and is now very popular with tourists who pass through to soak up the incomparable atmosphere of the place. Beale Street may have lost its authenticity, but the fact remains that very high-calibre musicians perform night and day in the music clubs that stretch on both sides of the ribbon of asphalt.

What’s more, Memphis residents don’t hold back on their pleasure, regardless of skin color. They frequent the bars on Beale Street, dance happily and feast on generous meals of catfish or chicken – fried, of course – that are served almost everywhere.

Besides BB King, the other king of Memphis remains Elvis Presley, who lived here the vast majority of his short life. His statue, a stone’s throw from Beale Street, reminds passersby of him every day.

If Graceland is a must-see pilgrimage for King Presley fans, Beale Street remains a must-see for fans of BB King’s guitar (and incomparable vocal timbre). Not to mention that the Stax recording studio, located in South Memphis, greatly contributed to the popularity of soul music. There’s no doubt about it: music has always flowed through the veins of this city.

Visit the Travel Memphis website (in English)

Check out our West Tennessee Music Spotify playlist

Back Beat Tours

To see Memphis without breaking a sweat—it can be very humid here—the best option (by far!) is to sign up for a guided minibus tour. Back Beat Tours offers a tour of the city’s major attractions, as well as the history of the various locations, accompanied by a professional musician.

Our guide, Davy Ray Bennett, told us about Memphis for nearly two hours, playing his guitar. Here, the hotel where Elvis had his high school prom (he told his date he couldn’t dance, according to legend). Further on, the neighborhood where Riley B. King, who would become BB King, grew up. Further still, the offices of WDIA, the first station to play black music on its airwaves in 1947. Segregation was raging, but a whole generation of young white people were able to discover gospel, soul music and blues thanks to WDIA. And the future King was surely among them…

The tour doesn’t pass Graceland, which is located outside the tourist center of Memphis, but Elvis’s shadow looms large, especially during a stop at Overton Park. It was here that the young Presley first wowed the crowd with his renditions of That’s Alright (Mama) And Blue Moon of Kentucky. His famous hip movements were also born here…

Visit the Back Beat Tours website (in English)

Sun Studio

It was in this modest room on Union Avenue that Elvis Presley entered in 1953 to record two ballads for his mother Gladys. Cost of the exercise: $3.98. Despite the mawkishness of the songs chosen, the young man’s voice and charisma did not go unnoticed. Result: he became a few months later the big star of Sun Studio.

In 1955, Sam Philips, the studio’s founder, ended up selling his contract with Elvis to the RCA Victor Studio in Nashville, but he continued to welcome musicians who have since become legends: Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and even the bluesman Howlin’ Wolf (the studio’s greatest discovery, Philips often repeated).

Guided tours are offered of these legendary locations, where recording sessions still take place in the evenings. Despite the fact that our guide delivered his comments in the monotone of a man in a hurry to move on, the experience was still moving. After all, many consider Sun Studio to be the birthplace of rock’n’roll…

Visit the Sun Studio website (in English)

Graceland

Coming to Memphis without stopping by Elvis Presley’s final resting place is almost unthinkable. The big house with its columned pediment. Its decor frozen in time (and kitsch as can be). The King’s grave on which admirers continue to lay flowers. The place is almost as famous as the White House or the Empire State Building.

That said, if you exclude the King’s apartments that you visit in single file, Graceland has the allure of Disneyland for nostalgics. The land facing the house has become a huge museum where you can discover the King’s cars, the King’s planes, the King’s costumes… Here, the legend of Elvis unfolds over several rooms, without necessarily lingering on the essential: the music.

Between the candy pink Cadillac and the jumpsuits in glitter are about ten souvenir shops bearing the image of you know who. Already the basic visit (museum and mansion) costs $82 US (about $113 CAN) per adult, we quickly understand that this tourist site has become a money printing machine! Some love it and spend the day there; others say that once will be enough. But hey, you have to see Graceland once in your life to know which side you are on!

Visit the Graceland website (in English)

Stax Museum of American Soul Music

The Stax Records Museum may be less famous than Sam Philips’, but it undoubtedly played a major role in building bridges between communities. Here, black and white musicians played side by side, ignoring the racial tension outside its walls. The interracial group Booker T and the MG’s, who made the Green Onionsis one of the most convincing examples!

The studio, closed in 1974, has now become a very interesting museum on soul music. It is home to instruments used by the greats of the genre. From the modest wooden chapel where gospel music once resounded to Isaac Hayes’ gold-plated Cadillac Eldorado, the entire history of soul music is there.

Visit the Stax Museum website (in English)

Lorraine Motel/National Civil Rights Museum

The Lorraine, a motel in downtown Memphis, has hosted many musicians, some of whom wrote instant hits there. This is the case with Eddie Floyd and his song Knock on Woods (which later became a disco hit).

However, the motel is most (and sadly) famous for being the site of the assassination of the reverend and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. King was killed while talking to his entourage on the balcony of room 306. His last words were to ask musician Ben Branch to perform the song Precious Lord, Take my Hand at the rally scheduled for that evening. At the funeral of the man who gave some of the greatest speeches ever made, Mahalia Jackson performed this sad task…

Today, the former motel is home to a wonderful civil rights museum where the struggles of the black community in the United States are poignantly told, notably through numerous photos and archive videos. The emotion reaches its peak when you arrive in front of room 306. Here, time seems to have stopped on that fateful day… The visitors are silent. It is a moment of contemplation.

Visit the National Civil Rights Museum website

Part of the cost of this report was paid by the Tennessee Tourism Office, which had no say in the matter.