memphis bar, originally uploaded by deanfx.
I used to travel for my job several years ago. It gave me the opportunity to travel throughout most of the South. Every once in a while there was a little time off and it gave me the chance to roam around and see parts of cities and the countryside that I normally wouldn’t see.
One such trip was to open a store in Memphis. I had been to Memphis previously on a family vacation and we did the things most tourists do like go to Graceland and all the Elvis stuff. I was never a big Elvis fan, but I was there for the ride.
This trip was totally the opposite. It was a “work” trip and I still had to deal with all of the Elvis stuff because the store I opened was right down the street from Graceland. One Saturday night my boss and I decided to venture away from our hotel and go to Beale Street.
If you love the blues, the real blues, like I do, you know you are in heaven as soon as you see BB Kings. Beale Street is like no other place I have been. Although it is considered a tourist attraction, the street is closed off to cars now, the flavor is still there.
We walked from honky tonks to juke joints to open air stages to little side streets and everywhere was the sound of the blues,the real blues. We stopped and drank and stopped and listened and stopped and just took it all in.
The picture above is not mine, but I have one of the same exact sign with my boss standing below it. I love a good old southern juke joint and there is no where like Beale Street to find them.
every picture tells a story 