Things to do in memphis and MS delta?

Probably should have done this earlier but my dad, bro and i are on a plane headed to memphis. Mostly to try and hit a concert monday night(mike doughty from soul coughing), but otherwise im just going to show them around the delta. We are staying in cleveland MS tonight and in memphis tomorrow night for the concert.

Plans, along with the mike doughty show, are to his bb kings museum in indianola, cruise by po monkey’s and dinner at a restaurant i know in merigold.  Ive been in the delta quite a few times, my dad and bro are pretty much newbies to it.  Any other concert venues or other blues/music/delta related things we should see? Nature stuff is good too.   

Thanks!

I got nothing other than, "Let the Mango threw"  ???

Graceland?  Always a trip.  

Go see Pete gossett? He's in Biloxi. 

In Memphis obviously you have to eat some bbq. In the delta all I could think of is look for some of the REAL blues clubs.  

Watch planes take off from the Memphis Airport? I think it is one of Fedex's cargo plane hub.

Good flight, Huge fedex facility.  Gonna hunt some BBQ now. 

Rendezvous is good bbq across the street from the Peabody hotel.

Doe’s in Leland Mississippi is famous and has huge steaks and tamales.

In reply to TJL :

My dog's name is Barney.  For short I often call him just Barn

As you might imagine I then call him "Super barn-barn, Super barn-barn"  

In reply to John Welsh :

Good one! You a fan of them?

In reply to TJL :

I couldn't name another one of their songs but back in that era I was driving a ton of miles daily and I was lucky enough to have the greatest Modern Rock Station. Imagine a major market and in that market, one station with TWICE the broadcast signal strength of any other station and their format is modern rock and that signal strength made strong enough to cover two countries and into two states.

Super Bon Bon got a lot of play, probably in with songs like 3 Strange Days and  Stars

Mndsm said:

Go see Pete gossett? He's in Biloxi. 

They’re most certainly welcome, but they couldn’t get much further away from me & still be in MS. It’s a 5-hour drive from here to Memphis averaging ~80mph.

In reply to John Welsh :

All great 90’s songs! 

Mike doughty show was fantastic. Was at bar dkdc. Now im too tired to sleep. 

And yup, were quite far from Mr. Gossett. 

We have some time to kill in the morning before flying home, maybe hit the Stax museum. Its supposed to be sunny and 20 degrees, should be interesting. 

Had a nice huge summary wrote up that just got zapped.  Son of a Berk. 
Try to write this again. 
 

it was a great trip. Dad got to see and do some bucket list stuff. Bb kings museum, visit the site of Po Monkeys Juke joint which is now kinda gone. After Willie Seaberry(Po Monkey) died, it was hoped and expected that his house would be preserved for its amazing history. Unfortunately his family just wanted $, so they auctioned off the things at his house, so now it just looks like any old dilapidated sharecroppers shack. Sad. Ive visited many times but never been inside. Always been closed. 
 

Went to the town of Dockery, MS, supposedly where blues started. Very cool place on the "blues trail". You can get in the old gin mill and explore a bit. 
 

back in Memphis we got to Bar DKDC for the Mike Doughty concert. At peak there was prob 35 people there. So nice. No smoking in the club, not too loud, not to many people, i got to sit at a table, sip my water and enjoy an amazing show.  Like the other time i saw Mr Doughty, he was easily approachable and very nice, very appreciative of his fans. Talked with him a bit and he strongly recommended we visit the Stax records museum so of course we did. 
 
Stax was very good. So much history. So many of the original artifacts of the era. Isaac hayes pimptastic caddy, the pedal and guitar that made the shaft soundtrack. So many irreplaceable items. So much history. 
 

We tried to hit Beale street. Unfortunately its been turned into a huge tourist trap so we quickly dropped that and scooted over to the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. Very powerful place. 
 

all together is was a great trip with my dad and brother.  Gonna have to do another boys trip like this again. 

drive by at Sun Records. Gotta stop in there next time. 

po monkies now. All the cool stuff was sold by his family and bought by 1 person who is trying to find a proper way to preserve it. 
heres what Monkies looked like while Willie was alive. One of the pics i took on a previous visit. Sadly i never visited when open and didnt get to meet Mr.Seaberry. 

Didn't see this until now, but the Sun Records tour is worth it, as is the Gibson tour.

Didnt know about the Gibson museum. Dad would have loved that. More fun for next time!

In reply to TJL :

im the goon on left, dad in middle and bro on right. 
and we left after this pic. Got like 10 minutes down the road and dad had left his gift bag there on the bench. Luckly the nice ladies at the museum grabbed it and had it ready for us when we came back. 
wonderful small intimate show with an amazing artist, Mike Doughty!

i'll never be cool enough to rock a suit with my face embroidered on the back. Isaac hayes was next level cool

In reply to TJL :

isaac hayes fur lined, gold plated, tv and refrigerator equipped caddy 

Lorraine Motel. Amazing to stand there and think about how much of an historical impact the events there made.  Its now a huge civil rights museum. 

Native Arkansan here, been to Memphis 100s of times.  When I was young, my mom ran a summer literacy education program in the under privileged delta schools of eastern AR, and the Ramada in West Memphis was our base of operations. 

The big shows don't come to Little Rock, went and saw Elton John at the Forum last week.  Plus SWMBO's extended family is all in German Town and Millington, so we're there every Christmas and Thanksgiving too.

I miss the old Pyramid, it's a damned Bass Pro now.  They used to have amazing touring exhibits, I think they were called The Wonders Exhibits, which were Smithsonian style, audio guided, exhibits on all kinds of stuff like; The Ottoman Empire, The Titanic, Napoleon, The Chinese Terracotta Army, etc.  I digress.

Rendezvous is okay, but there's WAY better, less touristy BBQ in Memphis.  Central is my favorite, get the pork rinds!

Graceland is okay, the auto museum is better than the house, but I'm not a big Elvis fan.

Peabody is a neat old hotel.  The ducks are kind of gimmicky, but if you've got kids they'll love it.  I've never been disappointed with their bar.

Mud Island is neat, I'd go when it's warmer though.

The Cotton Museum, and National Civil Rights Museums are both worth a visit.

Sun Records of course, you already mentioned.  I recently saw Million Dollar Quartet at our little reparatory theater, now I want to go back.

Sorry I missed this the first time around.  If you go back, feel free to hit me up with any questions.

 

We did hit Central bbq, the location near bar dkdc. It was good, not like stupid good, but alright, id go back. I had the pulled pork, dad had the brisket. We did try the pork rinds, they were tasty. 

And the bass pro. Wtf. We were really not impressed by the touristy gentrified side of memphis, pretty much saw it and left. Im in central FL and it reminded me of our touristy theme park hell. Bass pro can go away. Compared to the pure harsh reality of the delta, its really kinda awful. 

I’ll check back before the next visit. This was a great trip. I previously saw memphis as a place to fly into and drive out of as quick as possible. Obviously i was wrong, its a very interesting place. 

I just spent 2 nights at the Guest House at Graceland for a conference.  I haven't been in that part of town since I was a teenager, still not a great area.  I didn't bother actually going to Graceland or any of the other on site attractions, too busy with the conference, but that's a really nice hotel.  It's not conveniently located to anything, but there's a $10 round trip shuttle from the hotel to Beale St.

I did the Graceland tour as a kid, so I didn't feel like I was missing much.  I'm not a big Elvis fan so most of the Elvis paraphernalia in the hotel was lost on me.  Surprisingly nice hotel and conference facility though.  Gated parking lot with security so any stuff you leave in your car has a better chance of still being there in the morning.

I was one of the only 2 "locals" (a 2 hour drive was local compared to most of the other conference goers) but the only free night we had before the conference started, a bunch of folks wanted to go out, I was out voted, and we wound up at Rendezvous.  I still don't like their ribs.  Dry rub doesn't mean the meat needs to be dry too.  Their pork shoulder was okay, but I don't much care for their sauce either.

Just another option for a place to stay, Guest House at Graceland was a surprise win.

Late to the party here but right across the river from Memphis is a Race Track.

Dirt oval, I saw some of the fiercest racing from Jalopies to Sprint Cars they even had a 305" Sprint class!

Gumbo dirt very heavy and slick at the start and  sticky and super fast at the end of the night.

The Gibson tour, Graceland, Beale St, Concerts in Handy Park, Main Street, and more.