Memphis/Gonerfest Part Three - Beale Street / Rock'n'Soul Museum

From Sun Studioswe took the free shuttle over to Beale Street, which, of course, is mainly a tourist trap nowadays, but still looks pretty cool from an outsider's point of view. BB king has a place there, innumerable places have "Blues" in their name, Jerry Lee Lewis has a restaurant, and there are even a few original buildings.

Of course, we had to get a pic of Jerry Lee's car, even though, since it is displayed outside, it is a little worn. Still quite cool! Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed while we were there so we could not see the memorabilia that is displayed within.

After lunch, another must was a trip to the Mississippi River, since it was only a couple of blocks away. Of course, we had to go since we had seen it in New Orleans, as well, though it was fairly small at this juncture. Still lovely.

We stumbled upon the Gibson Guitar Factory as we headed to the Rock'n'Soul Museum and while we didn't take the tour, we peeked inside and took a look at the store. Quite cool!

From there we got to the Rock'n'Soul Museum. While still neat, this was slightly disappointing as it was less artifact heavy than other places in town and leaned more on photo reproductions and displays. All well-done, mind you, but we would have liked to have seen more actual items.

That's not to say that there weren't any original swingin' pieces, like this original poster for Fats Domino, Ruth Brown, the Clovers, Little Richard and more.

This piano is supposedly the one used by Ike Turner on "Rocket 88"! Dig!

And, though he is not as synonymous with Memphis as some other artists, one of the coolest things there was Sam the Sham's gold jacket and turban! Yowza!

Not a part of the museum, but referenced throughout it, is Ardent Studios, which we later stumbled upon in a completely different part of the city as we walked back from dinner! This city has crazy hip and important stuff almost everywhere you go!