Blue Suede Shoes

Mississippi River

Memphis.  What can I say about Memphis?  Well the first thing that strikes you as you come into the city centre is the magnificent expanse of the Mississippi River.  It truly is one of the great rivers of the world.  Its not hard to see why the Chickasaw Indian people chose this spot as their home.  In fact, the cliffs or bluffs along the river were Chickasaw lands for thousands of years before the Spanish and French came along.

You can also see that Memphis was once a magnificent and very wealthy city, which like so many I have visited here in the South, fell into hard times and is now dragging itself back to grandeur through new business opportunities, industry and tourism.   The telltale signs of the past are there in the amazingly beautiful and elegant old buildings dotted throughout the city, but which sadly are in various stages of decay and repair.

Memphis has such an interesting history which perhaps lends an explanation for this layered decay.  In the late 1700s, the land on which Memphis sits, officially became Spanish territory and it remained so until the end of that century when the Spanish abandoned it entirely and Memphis became a ruin and ghost town.  It wasn't until 1819 that Memphis was developed as a river transportation centre.  Cotton become an economic boon for the area and so consequently, and sadly, Memphis became a significant slave market delivering the labour to the antebellum South.  Then of course the Civil War changed the face of Memphis yet again.  This period saw Tennessee secede from the Union and become Confederate territory briefly.  With the end of the war came a series of yellow fever epidemics which almost destroyed Memphis reducing its population by over 70%.  With increasing and suffocating city debt, Memphis again fell into despair and decay.

Lorraine Motel, Memphis

The Mississippi, cotton, lumber and livestock fortunately saved her and dragged her into the 20th century only for the city to be the centre of the civil rights battles of the 1960s.  It was at the Lorraine Motel in downtown Memphis that Dr Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated the day after giving his "I've been to the Mountaintop" speech.  April 1968 I think changed the world for us; certainly the world in which I grew up and now live in was changed by the events of 1968.  The National Civil Rights Museum and the Lorraine Motel memorial site were a very inspiring experience, if not emotional.  There is also a great new exhibition on the Freedom Sisters, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  It tells of the numerous women in the US who have fought for civil rights throughout the last 200 years.

But throughout all this tumultuous and tragic history, music has been the one constant in Memphis' makeup.  Music is in the blood of the local people; you can see it in the way they move and walk!  Memphis is the hometown of so many greats that I grew up listening to.  Jerry Lee Lewis, Muddy Waters, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, BB King, Isaac Hayes, Booker T Jones, Al Green and yes.....Elvis Presley.  Oh, its also the birthplace of Justin Timberlake.

So a trip to Memphis would not be complete without cultural immersion including a good dose of music.  With my mad Elvis-loving mother in toe, I spent a day at Graceland absorbing all things Elvis and I was pleasantly surprised with what I learnt about Elvis.  We grew up somewhat amused by my Mum's nutty passion for this fella and other than for his songs, movies and dance moves, I really didn't know much about him.  Consequently, I was impressed to hear about his social welfare, charity and civil rights work.  I was also blown away by his collection of books which, by all accounts, he actually read.  He lived a very simple life at home at Graceland.  Not the big rock star flamboyance that I had expected.

From Graceland to the Rock & Soul Museum, Star Records, and of course, Beale Street.  We topped off our trip with a great night at BB Kings Club where we listened to some amazing jazz and blues.  A performer by the name of Memphis Jones blew us away.  Every part of your body just wants to move when listening to blues I think.  But you can hear this kind of music on the street corners of Beale Street.  It truly is the birthplace of blues and I am grateful for my time in Memphis.  As a music lover, the South is like being in a chocolate factory!!