With the Beale Street Music Festival just a week away, it seems only appropriate to focus this week’s installment of the museum-focused series on several local music attractions: Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Sun Studio, and the Gibson Guitar Factory.
Stax Museum of American Soul Music - 926 E. McLemore Ave.
www.soulsvilleusa.comI
t would be difficult to overstate Stax Records’ impact on the American music landscape. Trailing only Motown in sales and influence, Stax was a seminal soul label, recording its unique brand of raw, powerful soul and R&B with smash hits from soul icons like Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, the Staple Singers, Wilson Pickett, Albert King, the Bar-Kays, Booker T. & the MG's, Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, Rufus and Carla Thomas, and many other artists. During the label’s 15-year-run, Stax artists notched over 160 songs on the Billboard Top 100 pop charts and 243 hits on the Top 100 R&B charts.
Stax was responsible for more than just timeless soul, though. Race wasn’t an issue at any level in the company during a time in which segregation was heavily supported in the South. And, as the museum’s website explains, Stax, which was founded by two white businesspeople, Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton, was committed to reciprocating the support it received from its predominately African-American music-buying market: “It utilized its marketing budget to help keep publications like Jet and Black Enterprise operating. Stax financed free benefit concerts with its artists, helped raise money for the needy during the holidays, participated in and helped publicize the federal government "Stay in School" program.”
A tour of the Stax Museum provides visitors with insight not only into the history of the Stax label but also into the history of soul music itself with features like the award-winning introductory documentary and a 100-year-old Mississippi Delta church, which explains the origins of soul. The museum’s varied collection of iconic instruments and apparel includes Albert King's purple Flying V guitar; the organ Booker T. Jones used to record “Green Onions”; Phalon Jones’ saxophone, which was recovered from a lake after Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays’ fatal plane crash; Tina Turner’s gold sequined stage dress; and Otis Redding’s brown suede jacket. You can also surround yourself with soul classics in the Hall of Records, where over 1,100 45s and LPs are on display, and stand inside a recreation of Stax’s historic Studio A.
For information on hours and admission, check out
http://www.soulsvilleusa.com/plan-visit/.
Sun Studio – 706 Union Ave. www.sunstudio.com Without the passion and creativity of Sun’s owner and self-taught recording engineer, Sam Phillips, another city might wear the title “The Birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Originally called Memphis Recording Service, Sun opened in 1950. The next year Phillips recorded what’s considered by many the first rock ‘n’ roll song when Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, which featured the song’s writer Ike Turner on the keys, recorded “Rocket 88.”
Two years later a young Elvis Presley made his first visit to make a record for his mother’s birthday. It wasn’t until a year later at the suggestion of assistant Marion Keisker, who recorded Elvis’ first record at Sun, that Phillips brought Elvis in for a recording session backed by Scotty Moore and Bill Black. After an inauspicious start to the session, Phillips knew he’d discovered something special when Elvis and the group struck into an impromptu version of Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right.” The rest, as they say, is history.
In the years that followed, Sun Records signed future icons like Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich, and others. After Phillips sold the facility to Shelby Singleton in 1969, the studio was dormant until 1985 when Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis united to record Class of ’55. Reopened officially in 1987 as Sun Studio, it has been a hot tourist attraction as well as a working recording studio, drawing many notable artists, including U2, who recorded their 1988 album Rattle and Hum there.
When taking a tour of the studio, you’ll hear about its history from a knowledgeable tour guide, get a glimpse of classic recording devices, listen to ground-breaking recordings, and eventually wind up standing in the studio where the rock ‘n’ roll magic began nearly 60 years ago. In fact, you can even pose with a mic The King himself used.
Gibson Guitar Factory - 145 Lt. George W. Lee Avenue http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Locations/FactoryTours/#BealeStreet 
Arguably no other instrument is as synonymous with rock music than the Gibson solid-body “Les Paul” electric guitar. Ever wonder how a Les Paul or other classic Gibson models are made? Wonder no longer. Head downtown to the Gibson Guitar Factory and learn the painstaking process it takes to craft the celebrated guitars as you get an intimate view of the Luthiers as they take the guitars through binding, neck-fitting, painting, buffing, and tuning. And, if you find yourself with an urge to get your hands on a Les Paul or an SG, drop by the retail store after your tour, where you can find a host of Gibson’s electric, acoustic-electric, and acoustic models.