The 2006 new Camry Tennessee road trip is officially over after 2,195 miles on the long flat roads of the Mississippi River floodplain, to the crest and plummet pathways through the ridge and valley Appalachians. A lot of good things happened but the music is worth remembering.
Memphis has been pouring money into Beale Street for twenty years and the crumbling brick buildings are now completely gone and the neon is bright and abundant. There is good music in the clubs but my favorite place remains the band box of Blues City Cafe. The black poverty of south Memphis is still quite close and the bums and rascals and petty con artists are everywhere, but Lola and I have no concerns on late night downtown streets and our upper floor hotel room looks out over miles of the big river.
We check out Soulsville USA, also known as the STAX Museum of American Soul Music. Tina Turner’s stage dress and Otis Redding artifacts are worth a glance but it is Isaac Hayes’s 1972 "Superfly" Cadillac that triggers true desire. I want it and I want to drive its gold plated, white fur, teal blue opulence. Drive it real slow up and down McLemore Avenue with Sam and Dave or Booker T and MG’s playing from the speakers on a summer night.
In Nashville we skip the tourist zone and head for the gulch. We eat Texas BBQ while a county band plays their versions of the current corporate template. The singer songwriter takes pride in the one tune he got recorded by some “hat act”, with some airtime on WSM. It’s the classic tableau: getting stage time for a dinner crowd while trying to find the right solution to the fame and fortune formula.
Later on at 12th and Porter the other Nashville rocks the night. The building retains the big garage doors from some original purpose, but now a cavernous work bay is painted black from floor to ceiling and Atomic Blonde is pounding out seriously loud and furious emotions. Four young women choose this town to form a band with the dream of following “in the footsteps of rock goddesses like Janis Joplin, Chrissie Hynde or Debbie Harry.” Kendra controls the dynamic with her drum beats and Dacia commands the audience with her vocal presence. Amazing how a little head banging clears the mind.
The birthplace of authentic American country music is the region on the backside of the eastern mountains, away from the culture of the eastern seaboard cities. Lola and I are in Bristol for the Rhythm & Roots Reunion which has attracted around 40,000 people to listen to the hundreds of musicians. Of the two performers we specifically came to hear, Jim Lauderdale didn’t bring a band and Junior Brown apparently fired his long time drummer the night of the show. Professional to the core, however, they both show up on time and perform.
A band from Louisiana called The Red Stick Ramblers emerges as our favorite new discovery, and it is a pleasure to hear established masters like the Seldom Scene and the Del McCoury Band in person. We want to buy a recording of Chet O'Keefe and the Farmers Co-Op but Chet tells us they haven’t had enough money to do one yet. He hopes some sort of deal will come together this November. There may well be a deal because there is always a deal for the talented and the driven. We live with our ears tuned to the vibrations of the world, it is a fundamental aspect of our nature, and the exceptional flourishes are always captivating.
