The frau got a few unexpected days off and we decided to take advantage of it and head to the the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We absolutely love the Outer Banks (OBX) and went there every year while our kids were growing up. It does not have all the trappings of some beach areas since much of it is a National Seashore.
We set up our base at the National Park Service campground near Frisco, NC. This campground is situated in the maritime forest near Buxton, NC.
Our tent in the maritime forest.
The next day we took the ferry from Hatteras Village to the island of Ocracoke. When we first started visiting Ocracoke more than 20 years ago it was just a sleepy little fishing village with two restaurants and a couple of watering holes. Today it is a bustling tourist area with hotels, restaurants, bars, t-shirt shops, etc. There is a lot of traffic on the only main road through the island. But that's OK. The type of tourists Ocracoke attracts are not the obnoxious type. Mostly just old and young beach bums.
Waiting for the Ocracoke Ferry.
Leaving Hatteras Village
The next day we went to the north of the island. We visited Kitty Hawk and Nags Head. This is the area that is the most built up. Just what you would expect from a Spring Break destination. There were heavy rains there the day we were there so we decided to head for my favorite seafood restaurant, Fisherman's Wharf in Wanchese, NC. The restaurant is located above the fish processing plant in Wanchese Harbor. Fresh!
Fisherman's Wharf Restaurant in Wanchese, NC
It's also a good area to take some maritime photographs since it is a working harbor.
Fishing Boat
The Pacifics
Fishing Boats
The next day we just spent hanging out at the camp. The weather was cool for the OBX in July. That evening we bought some tuna steaks and grilled them at the camp. Delicious.
Tuna steaks back at camp
That evening we walked down to the beach for one last look at the ocean. Next month I will be sailing on a freighter across the Atlantic Ocean to Germany. That trip will probably be my next post on this blog. Stay tuned!
The Atlanic Ocean. I'll be crossing it next month on a ship!
We began our first day in Memphis with a visit to the National Civil Rights Museum. The museum is located on the same space where the boarding house stood from which James Earl Ray assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. across from the Lorraine Motel. There were many artifacts from the assassination and exhibits on the Civil Rights Movement.
The spot were Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated
From the bathroom window where James Earl Ray fired.
From there it was on to Sun Studios! This was one of the highlights of the trip for me. Sun Studios is where Rock 'n' Roll began. It is said that "If music were a religion Memphis would be its Jerusalem and Sun Studios its most sacred shrine".
Sun Studios!
"X" marks the spot where Elvis was standing when he sang "That's Alright, Mama"
The Sun recording studio
Looking towards the control room.
From Sun Studios we headed for Beale Street. What can i say? When you say Beale Street to a musician a faraway look comes to his eye. Beale Street WAS the center of the musical universe from the 1920s to the 1950s.
It was here that black musicians would head as soon as they had scraped up enough cash to buy a ticket out of the Mississippi Delta. Beale Street was a collection of juke joints, gambling halls and whore houses. Rufus Thomas, a Beale Street entertainer, once said, “If you were black for one Saturday night and on Beale Street, never would you want to be white again.” Well, that was Beale Street of the past. Today Beale Street can be compared to Bourbon Street in New Orleans. There are more tourists (mostly white) than locals and everyone has a camera hanging from around their necks. Drinks are overpriced as is the food. BUT, you still have to go!
Entrance to Beale Street
Just off of Beale is the Gibson Guitar Factory. Tours were available so, naturally, we took one. Photography was not allowed in the factory due to trade secrets. Competition between guitar manufactures is fierce. Suffice it to say the tour was very interesting IF you are a guitar player. The frau just didn't get why I was so excited.
Gibson Guitar Factory
The frau and I had dinner at B. B. King's Blues Club at the entrance to Beale. No, B. B. King was not there. He rarely plays the club, it is just a side business that uses his name. There was a band playing called the King Beez.
The frau and I at B. B. King's
That evening we spent doing what you do on Beale Street... hopping from one blues club to the next. We wound up in Jerry Lee Lewis' club (again, just a business name) and the place was jukin'! There was a pumping piano player in the style of Jerry Lee and even included audience members dancing on the piano! This is where we spent most of the evening. I am sorry that the audio in the video is not that great, but it was rockin'!
Dancing on the piano!
After Jerry Lee's we went back the hotel to get ready for tomorrow... Graceland!
The next day we headed for the home of the King, Elvis Presley. Graceland was Elvis' home and retreat from the pressures he endured as a world class performer. By today's standards Graceland is just a normal, everyday home. He only paid $100,000 for Graceland... but this is the 50's we are talking about.
Graceland
Living Room
Graceland from the back. Note the window units. No central air conditioning
Lisa Marie's swing set. Nothing fancy here!
The swimming pool
Elvis' grave. I forgot to bring a guitar pick!
From Graceland we headed for Stax Records. The day before we visited Stax Bobby Blue Bland, a Stax artist, passed away. Stax was home to many of the Rhythm and Blues artists of the 60's. The first song I remember really listening to as an adolescent was Otis Redding's Sitting on the Dock of the Bay on Stax Records.
Today the original studios are no longer standing, but they have been reconstructed to the original structures. Today there is also the Stax Music Academy where at-risk youths are turned onto music instead of drugs and gangs. Stax also operates a charter school. As a former educator, I was impressed.
Stax Records
Students in session
Looking into the studio from the board
Some of the original analog recording equipment
So ended our Blues Pilgrimage. The next day we left for home in Asheville and resumed our day to day lives...for now. We have a trip planned for the Outer Banks beginning next week and then we have to make our final preparations for Germany.
The next day we drove to Memphis, TN. It is not a very long drive from Clarksdale, only 70 miles or so. We took a lot of detours and it wound up taking us the whole day.
The first stop was Helena, AR. Helena is the home of radio station KFFA which broadcasts the King Biscuit Flour Hour. This program was started in the 1940's and is till on the air today. It is credited with bringing the Delta Blues to whites. It seems if you were black in those days it was much easier to get your music heard if the public did not know the color of your skin. Sonny Boy Williamson (whose grave we saw yesterday) was one of the first performers on the show.
The drums used by Sonny Boy Willamson's Band
In front of the KFFA studios
From Helena we drove back into Mississippi and visited Lula. Lula was home to many of the blues greats, but you could not tell it from the state of the town today. The best two words to describe Lula is economically depressed. It's not hard to imaging someone having the blues living here!
Downtown Lula
Leaving Lula we headed for Walls, MS in search of Memphis Minnie's grave site. Lizzie Douglas Lawlers, better known as Memphis Minnie, was one of the few women playing the blues. Her guitar playing is respected even today. She was said to be able to out-drink, out-fight and out-cuss many of the men in her day. Today she rests peacefully in a church cemetery just outside Walls.
If you look close you can see the guitar pick I left for Minnie
The frau was getting kind of tired of hanging out in cemeteries so I promised here just one more grave and then we would head to Memphis. We drove to the west of West Memphis, AR to see Albert King's fina resting place. Albert King was famous for his left hand Gibson Flying V guitar. Below is a video of him playing with Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Another guitar pick left as a tribute to Albert King
As I promised the frau, that was it for the day and we would head for the hotel in Memphis to rest up. The Nugent's were getting ready to take on Beale Street!
The next day we spent driving around the Delta seeking out spots that have significance for blues fans. First we drove to Tutwiler to see Sonny Boy Williamson's grave site. In Tutwiler we saw the ruins of the train station where W. C. Handy first heard a young black man playing the blues. Handy never forgot this eerie sound and years later wrote St. Louis Blues.
Old train station in Tutwiler
After visiting the train station it was on to Sonny Boy's grave. Sonny Boy Williamson is the harp play that all blues players model themselves on (at least they should). He is credited with starting the King Biscuit Hour on KFFA radio in Helena, AR, a program that is still on the air. It is customary for harp players to play a little and then leave the harmonica on Sonny Boy's headstone. I did this, although the frau could not understand the purpose in leaving a perfectly good Mississippi sax on a tombstone.
Playing for Sonny
From Tutwiler we headed for Greenwood, the site of Robert Johnson's grave. Even people who are not familiar with the blues know of Robert Johnson. It is said that Johnson sold his soul to the Devil at the Crossroads in exchange for guitar virtuosity. There are actually three sites in Mississippi that lay claim to being Johnson's final resting place. The site in Greenwood is generally accepted as being the probable true site due to an eyewitness report (the grave digger's wife). It is also customary to leave a small token for Robert on his tombstone. I left a Tortex guitar pick in hope that some of his playing ability would be granted to me. I still think it requires practice, practice, practice to approach his playing! The frau thought leaving a guitar pick was a lot better idea than leaving a harmonica!
Paying homage to Robert Johnson
We then drove to Indianola, the home of B. B. King. The B. B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center was great! It follow B. B. from a young boy learning to play the "diddly bow" to the international star he is today. I was fortunate to have seen B. B. King when I lived in Hamburg, Germany.
B. B. King Museum in Indianola, MS
On the way back to our shack we stopped to see Po' Monkeys. This is a juke joint that is literally in the middle of nowhere. It is only open on Thursdays and we were there on a Saturday afternoon.
That evening I decided to partake of Hick's Tamales. It's funny, but tamales are everywhere here. No one could tell me how tamales came to be ubiquitous to this area. They are a little different than the Mexican tamales we are use to. They are made with corn meal instead of Masa flour and tend to be highly spiced. Even Robert Johnson wrote and sang about them in the song They're Red Hot. Hick's are said to be the best and they were VERY good!
Even though we were tired we were not done jukin'! This was our last night in Clarksdale, so it was back to Red's where Terry "Harmonica" Bean was playing.
That was enough for one day and we had to drive to Memphis the next day. It is only about 70 miles but there would be many stops along the way.
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