Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Memphis: day 2, part 2




706 Union Avenue.  One of a select few of Holy Grail hotspots in the birth of "rock and roll."

Sun, or the Memphis Recording Service, as it was originally called, was well-established as a bastion of blues by the early 1950's, having recorded high-profile blues artists like Rufus Thomas, Little Milton, B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf.

But by the mid-1950's, Sam Phillips' roster of artists had expanded to include the likes of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich and Ike Turner.

Being in the same cramped studio that all those giants recorded in was an amazing feeling.

 If you ever get the opportunity to visit Memphis,  a trip to Sun Studio is well worth your time.

After hanging at Sun, we paid our first visit to Graceland, this time in the dark for the annual lighting of Christmasy stuff.

It looked pretty cool, though it proved difficult to capture well on camera.

The centerpiece of the Christmas decorations is shown below, although in daylight.

I'm not much of a religious guy, so people that know me might ask if they saw the below picture: "why do you have a picture of a nativity scene?"


Answer: it's Elvis' freakin' Nativity scene!!

Coming soon:  Memphis, day 3, or Morning At Graceland.