Memphis 2007 Vacation

For a vacation this year, Sandra and Troy met some friends (Tom & Sue Goebel) in Memphis, TN to take part in "Elvis Week" festivities. We arrived on 8/15/07 and left on 8/21/07 (you can check out pics by clicking here!). Here are a few highlights from the trip:

8/15/07:

• We ate Superior B-B-Q on Beale Street, and Troy got to sing Elvis karaoke (Heartbreak Hotel) while there.
• Troy got invited to sing and play guitar on two songs (Reconsider Baby & Steamroller Blues) with a local blues band (The Juke-Joint All Stars) in an outdoor pavilion!
• Troy & Tom got to shake hands and have a picture made with guitar virtuoso, James Burton (Elvis' guitarist)!

8/16-17/07:

• We had VIP tickets to the 30th Anniversary Elvis Concert at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. They project video footage of Elvis on a screen, and members of his band play live. It was sold out. The VIP tix meant that we got to attend a reception before & after the concert where we had B-B-Q (again) and other snacks. We also received some quite nice souvenirs (a pic of Elvis, Lisa Marie, & Priscilla hand autographed by Priscilla, a copy of an autographed pic of Elvis' TCB band, two different souvenir books, & a champagne flute), and we sat on the 4th row. At the reception, we got to see Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley, Jerry Scheff (Elvis' bassist - thanks to my friend Sue, I got his autograph on his CD, A Fire Down Below), Ronnie Tutt (Elvis' and Neil Diamond's drummer), Glenn D. Hardin (Elvis' pianist), and Richard Sterban (formerly bass singer in the Stamps Quartet and currently in the Oak Ridge Boys - I got his autograph).
• We also had tickets to the Midnight in Vegas concert, also at the FedEx Forum. The video footage of Elvis was all from Vegas. The band was more rockin' at this one. Maybe they were nervous at the earlier show. This was the first (and likely last) showing of this concert - sadly.

8/17/07:

• We ate at one of Elvis' favorite Italian food restaurants, Coletta's. He liked their B-B-Q pizza. We didn't have that.
• We visited Sun Studio at 706 Union. Still a cool place.
• We visited the Rock 'n' Soul Museum adjacent to the FedEx Forum. This is well worth the price of admission. It is a history of Memphis music starting in the early 1900s. It really helps one see how rock & soul developed. FASCINATING.
• We did a riverboat dinner cruise on the Mississippi River and ate . . . you guessed it . . . B-B-Q. Troy got to sing three Elvis songs with the band (Jailhouse Rock, All Shook Up, & Little Sister).

8/18/07:

• We took a little 1 1/2 hour drive to Tupelo, MS to see Elvis' birthplace. The highlight here was the story wall of Elvis' childhood friends reminiscing about the good old days. The adjacent museum was "okay."
• The Tupelo Automobile Museum is worth the price of admission with cars going back to the late 1800s and including rarities such as a Tucker (only 51 were ever made).

8/19/07:

• We went to church & visited Troy's Aunt Mary & Uncle Rich in Collierville, TN. We also said farewell to our friends, Tom & Sue.

8/20/07:

• We went to the All Access Jumpsuit Museum across the street from Graceland. It was pretty amazing, beginning with the two-piece karate type suits he wore in '69, to the first actual jumpsuits of Feb '70, to a suit he never got to wear in concert. It was pretty amazing. I wish they would have spread them out more, though. It showed how little Elvis Presley Enterprises care about Elvis post-'73. Most of those suits were jumbled together in one place, so you couldn't see them well.
• We visited the Gibson Guitar Factory near Beale St, where they make guitars such as Les Paul Studios, semi-hollowbodies electrics (like the ES-335 & B.B. King's Lucille), and hollowbody electrics. Too bad I didn't get to play one!
• We walked around downtown Memphis window-shopping until we go tired.

That's our trip in a nutshell. Wish you could've been there!