Beale Street Beauty

Beale Street attracts tourists in droves. All day, every day bars blast the Blues into the streets and come nightfall, it becomes difficult to move, with hordes of revellers queuing to get onto the street past the police cordons and burly doormen. The atmosphere is laid back, the people friendly and the beer, super-sized.

My very favourite place on Beale Street, without a doubt, is A.Schwab, the most spectacular nostalgia store, museum, soda fountain and ice cream parlour, you will have the good fortune to stumble upon in Memphis. I love everything about this place, the original windows and facade, the wooden floorboards and the wonderful selection of cute tablecloths, toys, shirts and cigar box guitars. The best bit though, is the ice cream parlour and soda fountain, complete with candy coloured tablecloths, striped paper straws and 'create your own' soda fountain.

I went back to A. Schwabs twice. I couldn't leave Memphis without trying the ice cream could I? I also scooped a green floral 30s style tablecloth to remind me of our visit. Next time I'm in memphis, this place will be top of my Beale Street list!

One thing I find that Beale Street -a street in the city that gave birth to rockabilly via Sun Studios- is sometimes lacking, is good old fashioned rock n roll. Modern and old school Blues can be found in abundance throughout the bars along the street, pop and soul are a mainstay of the karaoke but you will have to weave your way through the crowds to the very bottom of Beale Street to hear the music made famous by the Million Dollar Quartet at Jerry Lee Lewis' Cafe and Honky Tonk.  Admittedly, this place can be cheesier than a Papa John's pizza at times and at some point during the night, someone is fairly likely to don an Elvis jumpsuit circa 1976 but there are moments of genius, particularly if you manage to catch one of Jason James' shows.

At this end of the street you will also come across 2 beautiful theatre venues -The New Daisy and the Daisy. During the week, these venues look derelict in the day time but in the evening at weekends the beautiful facades becomes home to a cocktail and beer bar and a make shift stage area for open air performances from blues bands and DJs. I couldn't resist a little spin in my 1950s 20th Century Foxy dress!

Have you been to a city with some hidden gems? I'd love to hear about them!

Taking Care of Business

As part of the big trip to Tennessee and as an Elvis Presley fan, a trip to Gracelands was clearly in order. I've been to Gracelands before and of course, the house stays the same but there is much more to Gracelands than just the estate itself. Around the edge of Gracelands, owned by EP enterprises is a collection of museums (housing his outfits, planes, cars -including the pink Cadillac- and more), a variety of shops and a handful of diners including 'Rockabilly's Cafe'.

We started the day with tour of the mansion itself, walking up those famous steps and through the front door into what is, by today's rock star standards, a modest, comfortable, personal family home with more than touch of extravagant 70s kitsch!

With my plane, obviously.

Memphis (wedding) Belles

I was lucky enough to spend 8 fantastic days in Memphis earlier this month, partly as a pilgrimage to the city that has inspired me so much personally as well as musically and partly to celebrate my mother’s wedding.

I’m going to post about some of my favourite aspects of Memphis separately but I thought I’d start with some pictures from the main event, the wedding at Gracelands.

The ladies in charge of arranging the wedding could not have been kinder or more friendly and my mum and her husband, Pete, had a wonderful small service in the tiny little wooden chapel in the grounds of Gracelands.

The wedding was broadcast via a small camera at the back of the chapel, back to our friends and family back home in the UK and in Australia. It was wonderful to see my mum so happy to be marrying someone she really loves and in a life-long dream setting.

My favourite part of the day was the ride in the driven by the wonderful Tad Pierson of ‘American Dream Safari’. He picked us up at the hotel and took us on a mini-tour of rock’n’roll Memphis, including the South Main and Stax area of the city. When we all emerged from the chapel Tad was kind enough to take pictures on my camera and decorated the car with a pair of blue suede shoes and a retro ‘Just Married’ sticker, which prompted a lot of fellow car horn tooting on the way back into town!

Tad can take up to 4 passengers on a urban safari around Memphis and let me tell you, there is nothing this man doesn’t know about rock n roll and his wonderful home city. Get in touch via his FB page if you are visiting in the future and want a real insiders tour! https://www.facebook.com/pages/American-Dream-Safari/174034782626621?fref=ts