I’m having lunch in a most unusual setting, enjoying my tangy chicken and crispy noodle cabbage carrot salad with mint basil cilantro, when I realize I’m sitting opposite a hooded Belvedere hair dryer. Yes, I’m in what was a 1950’s-era beauty shop, but didn’t quite realize it when, just a short time earlier, I had walked in the eatery named—no surprise—the Beauty Shop Restaurant. The place is buzzing with customers, many sitting at tables within thick glass partitions that once separated each stylist’s booth. I still didn’t quite get it until I finally spoke with the restaurant staffer. “Pricilla Presley would come here to get her infamous beehive about once a week in the middle booth over there—that was her spot.” says bar manager Stephanie Cook. “Each stylist had their own hair dryer and they’d wash hair in the back.” Elvis Presley’s wife getting her hair done at what now is a trendy restaurant in Midtown Memphis is just one small connection back to this city’s renowned and deep musical roots. Not only was Memphis home to the “King of Rock and Roll,” but also boosted the careers of jazz, rock, and blues legends B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Booker T. & the MG’s, Johnny Cash, Ike Turner, and the list goes on and on. For many musicians, lucky breaks leading to fame and fortune started in Memphis’ 50s-era recording venue Sun Studio. Their stories enliven exhibits with original recording equipment, and records in the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, originally Stax Records, and the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum. Blues players’ guitars, glittering clothing, and personal items fill the showcases in the Blues Hall of Fame Museum. And, of course, no trip to Memphis would be complete without a visit to Elvis’ Graceland home and stopping in to hear the soulful vocals and screaming guitar riffs at Beale Street blues bars. Memphis’ modern music scene can be traced back to after the Civil War when African Americans settled here with their spirituals and fieldwork music. Music Mecca: Memphis Blues, jazz, soul and gospel made Memphis the ‘birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll’ Story and photos by Richard Varr
with the (North Mississippi) hill country blues, the fife and drum tradition, and Delta blues sort of led to this really fertile ground for this community that ended up near Beale Street, which became the Harlem of Memphis, so to speak.” “Jug band was typically ragtime sounding music played on affordable or man-made instruments ranging from kazoos to washtub basses, washboard percussion, and ukuleles, guitars and banjos,” adds Early, who’s also the Content and Archives Manager of Overton Park Shell, one of the few still active, depression-era outdoor bandshell amphitheaters. It’s where Elvis had his first major concert in 1954 and the same for Johnny Cash a year later. Central to Elvis’ Graceland is the richly decorated, colonial revival-style mansion with adjacent buildings including the family’s office, a racquet ball court, the so-called Trophy Building with family mementos, and the Meditation Garden where Elvis and family members have been laid to rest. Visitors entering the home first see the living room with a white sofa and chairs. A stained-glass entranceway etched with peacocks leads to the music room with a white baby grand piano. The downstairs level
“Jazz-based jug band music was really popular,” says local music historian Cole Early. “The melding of that
The Beauty Shop Restaurant.
MUSIC MECCA: MEMPHIS
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