Less than a week in Memphis and Nashville

Less than a week in Memphis and Nashville

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When my brother-in-law got a five-and-a-half-week engineering gig in Nashville and my sister and her kids began planning a trip to Tennessee, we figured we’d crash their vacation. Would we ever go there for another occasion?  We flew into Memphis and our first meal was at the Arcade Restaurant, which fed MLK and was seen in Mystery Train. I have to admit that my exposure to roots rock and rockabilly is through X, Social Distortion, and The Blasters. And Joe Strummer and Jim Jarmusch…

Although I anticipated the visit to be fun and maybe a little kitchy (Graceland! Dollywood!) our serious highlight was the National Civil Rights Museum. MLK was assassinated on the balcony at the Lorraine Motel in the spot marked by a wreath (below). The  exterior has been preserved and the interior transformed into a state-of-the-art museum that starts with slavery, moves on to Jim Crow, and has exhibits on key developments including Rosa Parks, the Greensboro sit-ins, Freedom Riders, and the Memphis sanitation strike leading up to MLK’s death. It’s a moving experience and sadly more relevant than ever; we saw it with our daughter saw it less than a week before shit hit the fan across the U.S.

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The next day, we met up with my sister’s family and we made a different sort of pilgrimage to Sun Studios. This is where Elvis was discovered and rock ‘n’ roll was born. Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison–the list goes on and guests are welcome not only to stand in the very room where they recorded but take pictures with The King’s microphone.

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At the site of the Stax recording studios, a museum has been built recreating the old movie theater facade and studio where Booker T. and the MGs held it down for the likes of Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, and Rufus. Checking out one of Tina Turner’s shiny dresss and Isaac’s gold Caddy was pretty cool, and so was seeing Eloise and her cousins bounce through a wall-sized projection of the Soul Train line dance.

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Of course, we went to Graceland. The gold records, jumpsuits, cars, and airplanes are legendary and so are the Jungle Room and racquetball building. But in person, it seems a lot more like a house with a kitchen right off the highway. Each visitor is given an iPad with narration by John Stamos and Lisa Marie Presley, with anecdotes, photos, and home movies. I liked reading the notes painted by fans on the wall outside the gates. You don’t need to pay for the tour to see them or feel the love that The King still receives from around the world.

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We finally made it to Nashville, and by now you’ve probably noticed that I haven’t mentioned barbecue or fried chicken because I don’t eat meat. but we did check out the Grand Ole Opry and its previous location, the Ryman and they were impressive. We also made a point to visit the much smaller Johnny Cash Museum, which is lovingly packed with artifacts, posters, videos, and anything else related to The Man in Black, who transcended musical genres by being a badass. (Great gift shop, too.)

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Our last and most Griswold-esque stop was at Dollywood. We arrived an hour later than we thought because we didn’t realize we would be crossing a time zone and then everything shut down early due to a downpour and lightning warnings. Oh well, it was more like a Smoky Mountains version of Knott’s Berry Farm than a Dolly Parton wonderland, and we did get a dose of Southern Hospitality when, as we ate our dinner watching the huge drops of rain fall, the server asked us if we’d like to wear garbage bags on our way back to the theme park’s exit.

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There was more: More Mystery Train pilgrimages to the train station and Elvis statue, finding an old 7″ single by our friends in CH3 at Goner Records, Eloise getting to play the piano that Elvis liked to warm up on at Studio B, crashing Paramore’s session in Studio A. But mostly exploring and spending time together in new places with family is the best.

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