MEMPHIS, TN.---There are few better places to have a cold beer than in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis. And a beer in Memphis in August is special as beads of condensation drip down the bottle like tears in a Bobby Bland song. That's why they serve beer with a white napkin down here. First you wipe off the bottle then you dry off your eyes.
I've been visiting Memphis on almost an annual basis for 20 years and a stop at the Peabody (built in 1869, closed in 1923, reopened in its present location in 1925) is always on my list of things to do. The Peabody lobby is the launching point of the Delta as argued by historian David Cohen in 1935. He wrote, "The Mississippi Delta begins in the lobby of he Peabody Hotel and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg. The Peabody is the Paris Ritz; the Cairo Shepherds, the London Savoy of this section. If you stand near its fountain in the middle of the lobby...ultimately you will see everybody who is anybody in the Delta........"
There's a black piano in the Peabody lobby that sometimes has a piano player and other times plays mechanically by itself. [Although Freddy Cole, the brother of Nat King Cole, will perform Aug. 26 at the Germantown Performing Arts Center just outside of Memphis.] Tonight I stopped in the lobby after watching the Iowa Cubs beat the Memphis Redbirds at AutoZone Park, across the street from the hotel. After an unusually thoughtful blog the other night from Nashville, I was back to myself: wasting time on the Cubs---even their minor league team.
Perhaps my second favorite thing to do in Memphis is to sit in the right field bleachers at AutoZone park and watch the sun set over the Peabody. I grab a pork sandwich from the Rendezvous rib stand along the third base line and snag a bottle of water. All of that is in one hand. The other hand is consumed by my scorecard and three days worth of decomposing newspaper parts that have accumulated in the back seat of my car.
People are sure to keep a safe distance from me,
The Cubs game was boring, outside of being able to scout 21-year-old phenom Felix Pie. (pronounced pee-ay). He got a single in four at bats, the only hit coming of the Cardinals Mark Mulder, who was in Memphis on a rehab assignment. Pie later struck out on a high fastball with two outs and a man on second. He doesn't take a lot of pitches, which means he will fit in well with the big league Cubs. Pie does play center field with a flair. He wears his socks high like current Cubs centerfielder Juan Pierre, he has big white wristbands and he salsa stepped off the field after the Cubs won 5-4. His number 20 reminded me more of former Cub Adolfo Phillips than former Cub Corey Patterson.
After the game I checked my voice messages from a public phone in the lobby. I love old school hotel lobby bars, especially since I don't have a cell phone. There was a message from my friend Maggie asking about things to do in Memphis. Because of the events of the week, her friends cancelled their honeymoon to London, England and picked Memphis instead. Good idea. I read today that in the U.K. you can't even carry a book on a plane----coming to a country near you, I'm sure.
Well, there's a story I wrote on Memphis in this Sunday's Sun-Times, something I saved from a visit several months ago. And I did a couple of stories in the 36 hours I've been here. But here's a fine twin spin I have yet to share : have a hamburger at Huey's, then visit Shangri-La Records. There's several Huey's in town, but go to the one at 1927 Madison Avenue in Midtown. These are the best burgers in the city and they're only $5. Huey's has a Texas Toast burger with pepper jack cheese and jalepeno, a Smokey Melt Burger (with smoked cheddar cheese), a West Coast burger (guacamole, Monterey jack cheese on a toasted whole wheat bun) and a couple of other variations.
Midtown is a residential neighborhood away from downtown. A couple of years ago during the NBA playoffs I was at the Midtown Huey's and Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash was sitting down the way, wearing a Bob Marley tee-shirt. and blending in with the regulars. Maybe he too, was going across the street to Shangri-La, 1916 Madison Ave, (www.shangrl.com). The place is packed with Memphis rockabily and soul CDs and vinyl, blues, gospel, indie rock, and '45s. There's also books and fanzines. Memphis country-soul-rock producer Jim Dickinson is the hipster saint of this place. Today I was pressed for time at Shangri-La, but I did pick up the LP "Jamaica" by Herb Jeffries. It had a cool Belafonte like cover and great song titles such as "Devil Is a Woman" [didn't hear that on Bob Dylan's XM Radio show devoted to the devil], "Don't Spank De Baby" and "Calypsociety." The liner notes mention that Herb debuted in Detroit, moved on to the Grand Terrace in Chicago and then opened his own club in Paris. The notes don't say if this is the same Herb Jeffries who was the singing black cowboy. Or maybe he became a cowboy after his calypso phase. I will have to do some research. No one in the Peabody lobby could help me out.
I have so much more to say about Memphis. It's my third favorite American city behind San Francisco and Chicago. With the possible exception of New Orleans, no other American city has given us so much music [Elvis, Stax, Hi Records, The Rev. Al Green, Jerry Lee, Charlie Rich, Alex Chilton, Tav Falco, Bobby Bland and B.B. King, Furry Lewis and I'm missing dozens of others]. The range of Memphis music is as diverse as the faces you see in the Peabody lobby. Tonight there were people dealing it and working it. One young woman sat on the lap of her man, another man sat alone with a word puzzle. There are other hotel lobbies, of course, but this was a symphony of life in the Delta--- the sound of sweat and tears.
NASHVILLE, TN.---A long day on the road began by touring the Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg (pop. 400), located in Moore County--which is dry. What a cruel joke. But they do put Jack in their candied apples. Over lunch Lynne Tolley, the great grandniece of Jack, told me, "Anything that comes with vanilla, you can use Jack Daniel's instead." See?
This is one blog that gives you a belt.
Then there was the matter of tracking down some of that new Hank Williams Jr' Family Tradition B.B.Q. Sauce for my pal John Soss (no pun intended)......
"Football season is approaching very quickly," Bocephus said in a statement that accompanied my sauce. "All my football buddies at training camp keep calling and wanting my BBQ sauce so we are now bottling it and shipping it to all my rowdy friends." I haven't tried it yet and likely will have to wait until I return to Chicago. But Hank Jr. dishes up BBQ Rub, sauce and a 6-oz. bottle of Jalapeno Hot Sauce (visit www.hankjr.com). I will give you a report and any other barbecue sauce observations are welcome.
Around dinner I found time to hang out with my 3-year-old nephew Jude, his Thomas train cars, my brother Doug and his wife Molly. They took me to a wonderul place called Bobbie's Dairy Dip, an ice cream stand on the corner of Charlotte Avenue and 53rd Ave. North on the west side of town.
With vintage awnings and old picnic tables the place looks like 1962, the year my brother was born. Its a legendary Nashville joint that was resurrected by Claire Mullally, a former New York entertainment attorney who is married to songwriter Greg Trooper. And Bobbie's is across Wendell Smith's, an old school 'meat and three' restaurant---and liquor store!!! I had a Bobbie's chocolate shake and Jude and his family downed the fresh Belgian-style French Fries. Bobbie's ( a Emmylou Harris favorite) is also known for its Sweet Potato Fries served with a homemade sweetened sour cream dipping sauce. Doug and Molly treated, perhaps to ease the pain on my expense report.
Readers may know my brother is a singer-songwriter in Nashville. [I'll be posting his website on 'Favorite Links'.] There are thousands of other singer-songwriters who live in this town and many of them have families. Some had families. They have all made difficult sacrifices -but they are not my kid brother. I don't have kids. Sometimes when I am alone driving in my car I weigh the impulsive wonder of a road trip against a more measured path. I was in such a hurry to get there, maybe I never got it. But then Jude kept smiling to interrupt those thoughts. Each of his brown eyes were as wide as the moon that danced across the Cumberland River. In those eyes I saw trust in tomorrow, a different inspiration for travel and the road to reconnect. Yes, we had a good time.
I'm listening to Celia Cruz and Johnny Pacheto (part of the fine Fania Records reissues) while packing for a road trip. Nope, I'm not going to liberate Cuba.
I'm heading to Nashville and Memphis, the country and soul of American music respectively.
Maybe I will bump into that great American Toby Keith, who once had his road manager call me to pick a fight six months after I criticized Keith's daughter's performance and too-tight jeans at the CMA Awards. If they had given me more than a few hours notice, I would have gone backstage at the Tweeter Center, outside of Chicago. Toby Keith nails me with one left hook and I'm set for life listening to Jimmy Buffett in Turks & Caicos. The E-mails mysteriously stopped coming in 2006 after Keith recorded "Runnin' Block," where he's a wingman for a night out with a buddy but ends up with an overweight woman. Keith sings about "I keep tryin' to drink her skinny/But she's still about 215/Sometimes you gotta' bow up/and take one for the team...." Toby Keith, full of integrity.
Also gotta go down to Lynchburg, Tn. and try to see if that Jack Daniel's works for me like it did for Floyd Landis. Although I will only be in Memphis for 48 hours, look for reports on Elvis Week. I'm already all jacked up for Elvis Karaoke at Hernando's Hideaway.
Tennessee: Home of the Al Gore Invention Museum.
That's one of 50 "state mottos" sent to me by my good friend "rt66roadologist".
I won't bother with all of the other 49, states, but here are a few of my favorites:
Alabama: "Hell Yes, We Have Electricity."
Arkansas: "Lituracy Ain't Everything."
California: "By 30, Our Women Have More Plastic Than Your Honda."
Connecticut: "Like Massachusetts, only smaller" [I've heard that one before]
Florida: "Ask Us About Our Grandkids and Our Voting Skills."
Illinois: "Please, Don't Pronounce the "S"
Indiana: "2 Billion Years Tidal Wave Free"
Kansas: "First of the Rectangle States"
Louisiana: "We're Not ALL Drunk Cajun Wackos, But That's Our Tourism Campaign."
Maine: "We're Really Cold, But We Have Cheap Lobster."
Mississippi: "Come visit and feel better about your own state."
Nebraska: "Ask About Our State Motto Contest"
North Carolina: "Tobacco Is A Vegetable"
Oklahoma: "Not All Our Keiths Are Toby" {I made that one up, thank you}
Rhode Island: "We're Not REALLY An Island"
South Dakota: "Closer Than North Dakota"
Vermont: "Too Liberal For the Kennedys"
Wisconsin: "Come Cut The Cheese"
The District of Columbia: "The Work-Free Drug Place"
Sun Ra didn't say it, but if he were around today he would think it:
Cyberspace is the place.
Since our blog about Dr. John's (Malcom Rebennack) tender once-in-a-lifetime Chicago concert in honor of New Orleans composer Wardell Quezergue, the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund [NOMRF] received a nice random donation. Thank you.
"I've heard Mac play many, many times," Quezergue said after the show. "And I thought he was brilliant that night. It was one of the best shows I've ever heard him play." Former dBs bass player Jeff Beninato co-founded NOMRF, came to Chicago for the show and sat in with the house band. Wardell is legally blind. Jeff said, "I consider him Mr. Ears because when you lose one of your main senses the other ones sharpen. That's probably why Wardell is so gifted as an arranger. I was getting chills sitting behind him at the show watching his head bob and sway to the music. The next day we asked if he had a good night and he said, 'Did I ! I must have been jigging because I slept so good. We're going to keep him out again for the Katrina Anti-Versary."
Wardell is back at his home in New Orleans. His friends and neighbors are asking him about his Sunday night in Chicago. He is telling them that Chicago is one town that won't let you down.
