Memphis

My first attempt at blogging. (This is Kory by the way) I can now understand why people take so long to update their blogs. I've been back from my trip for weeks and am now just making myself post something about it. My burst of productivity mostly due to a 2 hour nap this afternoon and now I can't sleep.

To the task at hand - Memphis! As some of you know I get to travel for work, and this time I went to Memphis Tennessee. Seeing as the only time I've been east of Denver was a layover in Texas, this was pretty exciting for me. Because of schedule conflicts and everything going so well, I had almost two days to do whatever I wanted!

Memphis you see, is the birthplace of rock and roll. I took the first chance I got and went over to Sun Studio.



This was by far my favorite part of the trip! This is where Elvis Presley lied to get in to record his first song, where Jerry Lee Lewis got his start as a musician as an in house pianist, where Johnny Cash recorded his first album, and so on. It was a really cool place. I got to handle the very shure 55 microphone that all of these greats sang into! Here's a picture I took of it with a picture of Jerry Lee Lewis, some guy, Elvis, and Johnny Cash in the background.




This studio was also where U2 recorded their Rattle and Hum album. These are the actual drums they used to record.



There were some really cool vintage equipment there too, like this tape machine and this really old mixer and patch bay.


After the studio and some other sightseeing I drove across the Mississippi to Arkansas for lunch. Mostly just to add another state to my list of places I've been.


The crappiest picture of the Mississippi ever.

After lunch I headed to Graceland! After finding out it was 30 bucks for the cheapest tour, I took pictures from the street. That's the gate and the best picture of the house I could get. (Boring pictures I know)



The other really cool thing I got to do was going to a blues bar on the famous Beale street. I was walking down the street and this guy stops me and says that I need to check out the great scene in his bar. Being cheap I asked him how much the cover was. He told me 5 bucks, just as a huge bouncer came over and shook his head at the guy. He looked back at me and said, for you, it's free. Maybe I looked like I could drink a lot or something, but they were disappointed when all I had was water. The live band was really cool. I got to talk to the saxophone player who was 78 years old and claimed to have played the sax for James Brown. He also had the raddest James Brown impression I've ever seen.

All in all it was a great trip, with minimal work and plenty of overtime pay. As a side note, don't fly northwest if you can help it, they lost my luggage both ways. There's some really cool history in Memphis. If you get a chance to go there, I'd take it.