
A wall of singles inside the Stax Museum of American Soul.
July 28 - If you are making a music pilgrimage to the Delta, one place that you don’t want to miss is the Stax Museum of American Soul in Memphis. Everybody who loves the music of this era has heard of the legendary record label that brought us Isaac Hayes, Albert King, Booker T & The MGs, Carla Thomas, and so many more, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. A trip to the museum provides a window into essential aspects of local history and beyond, and is the perfect jumping off point for return visits or further reading, listening, and all around digging into your inner (and outer) funky soul.
Your visit starts with a twenty minute film about Stax and the era that gave birth to it. One of the most important ideas that you take away is how blacks and whites worked together to produce this music, despite terrible outside pressure and tragic events. That openness and generosity of spirit is also present throughout the museum, with the many soul artists who weren’t on Stax, such as Al Green, getting their due, as well.

After the film, the first exhibit is of a small chapel that has been moved from Duncan, Mississippi and installed in the museum. The Hoopers Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church (above) was built around 1906 and is used to illustrate the gospel roots of soul music. Various preachers deliver their impassioned sermons from the television set that is mounted in the upper left of the photo.
The museum is housed in the original Stax studio building, which was formerly occupied by a movie theatre. The building was demolished in the ‘80s, but the Soulsville Foundation, a group of community leaders and philanthropists, did an amazing job of recreating the façade and designing the museum. For musicians especially, the recreated Studio A (below), with its unusual slanting floor, is an inspiration.

Issac Hayes gets a certain pride of place. He may be the biggest selling Stax artist, although there isn’t an emphasis on sales figures. But his gold-plated, custom Cadillac Eldorado, mounted on a rotating platform speaks volumes. I was highly impressed by a display that included the Maestro Boomerang wah-wah pedal that Charles “Skip” Pitts used on the seminal funk track, “Theme From Shaft.” The outrageous stage wear favored by many of the later Stax artists is also given ample space.

After our visit to the Museum, we re-entered the 97 degree heat before jumping in the car and heading down Highway 61 to Clarksdale, Mississippi, home of the Crossroads where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil. Our first destination was The Shackupinn, a unique ‘motel’ of sorts that is comprised of numerous renovated sharecropper shacks that have been brought to the site of a former plantation outside Clarksdale. There is also a music venue with a bar/restaurant and of course, a gift shop.

The front room of the Pinetop shack.
The shacks themselves are fantastic – character filled, clean, and maybe most important of all, air-conditioned. They smelled of old, dry wood – a lovely smell – and had numerous windows through which the blazing sunlight filtered in through simple curtains. We stayed in the ‘Pinetop Shack,’ named in honor of Pinetop Perkins, the superstar blues pianist who made his mark playing with Muddy Waters. There were pictures of him around and get this – a fully functional upright piano. It broke my heart a little to leave.

That night, after some barbeque at Abe’s, a very good diner-like place right at the corner of the Crossroads (pictured above), we went to Hambone, an art gallery and performance space that is owned and run by Stan Street, a musician and painter from Buffalo, NY. There was a warm atmosphere with inexpensive beer to help it along as Mississippi Marshall, a singer and guitarist took the stage with his ten-year-old grandson on second guitar.

Stan later joined Marshall (left to right above, Stan Street, Mississippi Marshall) on harmonica and drums for two excellent sets, but that boy damn near stole the show. With a derby hat on, he played a perfect boogie bassline on a three-quarter-size guitar on the first song as Grandpa warmed up into his fluid, multi-voiced blues tunes and gravelly, melodious vocals. Aided by an occasional looped chord progression, Marshall had a great technique on a vintage Stella. I spoke to him for a few minutes in between sets and he handed me his guitar. To my surprise, the strings were super light for that kind of instrument and he said, ‘that’s all my hands can take at my age.’ You would never have been able to tell by the sound, which was full and sustained. Afterwards, we headed back to the shack to get some rest before our planned trip to Avalon the next day.