photo by gusto

What do blues music, barbecue, and Elvis have in common? They have all called Memphis home. Great food and music truly are the lifeblood of this community. The famed Beale Street is officially the Home of the Blues, according to an act of Congress in 1977. Musicians from B.B. King and Howlin’ Wolf to Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison have spent time recording here, and you can retrace their steps at Sun Studio, where Johnny Cash recorded his first hits. Of course, the most famous resident of Memphis was Elvis Presley. His Graceland Mansion, which opened to the public in 1982, remains very popular. Hundreds of thousands of visitors each year walk through the King’s former home.

If you come to Memphis to see Graceland, stay to try the barbecue. This tasty treat is lauded during the Memphis in May International Festival each year, with the largest pork barbecue cooking contest in the world. The Memphis in May Festival is also associated with the Beale Street Music Festival, a three-day event featuring blues, rock, gospel, R&B, and alternative. The festival sells out annually and grows larger every year.

A Tale of Two Cities

By Tim Leffel

©Gusto LLC

If you want to immerse yourself in pop music history, go get schooled in Nashville and Memphis.

Forget Liverpool, London, New York or Chicago – Tennessee is pop music’s Mesopotamia. Nashville may be known as the home of country while Memphis gave birth to rock and roll, but as usual, the story’s just not that simple.

These days, we think of musical styles like sections in a record store. But in the early era of recording in these two cities, the music was more like one big stew. They would throw in some new ingredients, stir the pot, and see what happened. Out came Hank Williams and Jimmie Rogers. Out came Howlin’ Wolf. Out came Elvis. Then Ike Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash. That led to more new concoctions in the form of Al Green, Otis Redding, and Waylon and Willie.

It’s no secret that Memphis acts such as Elvis, Jerry Lee and Carl Perkins took elements from the black performers on Beale Street to make their music, but it wasn’t a one-way street. A Ray Charles exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville has Ray’s words on the wall: “I just wanted to try my hand at hillbilly music. After all, the Grand Ole Opry had been performing in my head since I was a kid in the country.”

The Beale Street of today’s Memphis is a more packaged, tidy entertainment district than it was in the days of segregation, when the area was the epicenter for the black community. But it’s still a sure bet for good music and good times. A half-dozen bands are playing at any given time in different clubs in the small area. This is just one option for live music, though: On an average night there are four or five rock bands playing in clubs along Beale Street and there are more than 20 venues away from downtown that have shows happening for mostly local crowds on weekends. Good local rap shows can sell a few hundred tickets just by word of mouth.

Nashville’s equivalent of Beale Street is Lower Broadway, where rows of honky tonks feature raw country performers working it hard for tips. One night during a set break at the Bluegrass Inn, the man leading the band on stage implored the crowd to dig down deep for some money to throw in the bucket making its way around the room. “Please be kind folks. We’ve got a pot roast on layaway at Piggly Wiggly, and if they hold it much longer it might spoil.”

Most of the performers will never get vaulted to stardom, but it does happen now and then. Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson got their starts in the area back when “Lower Broad” was a place respectable people avoided at night. Kenny Chesney and BR-549 launched their careers from there in more recent times, and local clubs host dozens of singer-songwriter nights. Here the song is a serious thing; talk too loud during a performance at the Bluebird Café and you’ll be ushered out the door.

It’s not all about country and blues, though – while Nashville is still the capital of the country music industry, the city also hosts a thriving indie scene. Up-and-comers like The Features, Kings of Leon and The Pink Spiders are all residents of Music City, under-the-radar label Theory 8 is putting out great indie music and folks like Elvis Costello and the Pixies’ Frank Black have recorded here.

Meahnwhile, John Hiatt, Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams call Nashville home, joining dozens of country stars and more than a few aging classic rockers. When a surprise guest shows up on stage at a show, it could be anyone from Peter Frampton to Kid Rock to Adrian Belew. As a visitor from Los Angeles in a Nashville club was overheard commenting, “I’ve seen more great shows in three nights here than I usually do in three months at home. And I barely have to drive!”

While Nashville’s output often leans toward Americana, Memphis is more schizophrenic. It’s the home of heavy metal band Saliva, ex-boy-band star Justin Timberlake, bluesy rockers North Mississippi All Stars, and recent Oscar-winning rap act Three 6 Mafia. On any night you can catch great live bands, though don’t expect the jaded audience to get too excited. “Most of us Memphis musicians are used to a really tough crowd,” says local artist Nancy Apple. “We all know we have to get out on the road to get noticed.”

Before you hit the club circuit, get your education. At Memphis’ Rock & Soul Museum, listen to tracks from Delta bluesman Robert Johnson and soul legends The Staple Singers. Try to squeeze in the Stax Soulsville Museum and Sun Studio. It’s amazing to see the humble conditions under which songs like “Try a Little Tenderness” and “Great Balls of Fire” were recorded. On your way out, swing by Graceland and stop in at Al Green’s church, where he preaches and sings to the faithful and the curious, then tour Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame, which chronicles the genre from the Carter Family to Faith Hill.

It’s not that hard to take in the whole musical stew in a vacation of a few days or a week. Nashville and Memphis are less than four hours apart and throngs of visitors from around the world make the pilgrimage each year. You’ll see college students from Japan toasting longnecks with middle-aged tourists from Liverpool.

Ready to check out the scene? Pick up the local entertainment rags: Nashville Scene and The Rage, Memphis Flyer and Memphis Playbook. You’re almost sure to catch a great songwriter, a great singer or a band that will blow you away. In these two places, the music still flows through like invisible soup, the pot getting stirred all the while. Dive in and drink it up.

Tim Leffel is co-author of Hip-Hop, Inc.: Success Strategies of the Rap Moguls. He is also author of several travel books, including The World’s Cheapest Destinations. He lives in Nashville.