45 minutes outside of memphis is one of the most culturaly important cities in blues history. Paul B. Mac Cleod lives in Holly Springs in a mansion he calls Graceland Too. Fanny Alger has a revival and plays the Bessie Jones’ classic “Sometimes” with Paul.

]]> http://www.greatbighugecompany.com/99/?feed=rss2&p=17 http://www.greatbighugecompany.com/99/?p=15 http://www.greatbighugecompany.com/99/?p=15#comments Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:07:15 +0000 admin http://www.greatbighugecompany.com/99/?p=15 Full Stomach

Jerry Lee again. The days are starting to blend into each other in regards to what we did down here. The more acclimated we’ve become to the area, the cloudier my mind becomes to the details of our doings. I believe we lounged around until lunchtime and decided on dining at Neely’s – a famous BBQ joint across Hwy 61.

People like Robert Plant, Eartha Kitt and Sinbad grace the walls with their 8×10 signed glossies inside Neely’s. Quinn, of course, stuck one of our business cards between the frame and the glass of Steve Guttenburg’s picture.

It was the BBQ’d spaghetti that drove Shane and I there in the first place. I was starving and cleaned my plate. Shane and Quinn took bird nibbles out of their BBQ’d spaghetti in favor of the cole slaw and baked beans. Henry and Jon E. Catt shared a sampler plate. Four out of five stars from us.

Stax

While we were in the area, we toured Stax – an old recording studio in the seedy part of Memphis where all the gospel-inspired recording artists in its heyday laid tracks down. It’d been shut down twice, and reopened twice, but a lot of the hits came out of this historic building (since refurbished).

After the educational tour of this era of music history, we drove around the corner to see Booker T. Jones’ childhood home (666 Edith Ave!), who was “Booker T.” of Booker T. and the MG’s. The house was abandoned and in ill-repair. There was some garbage laying around on the unkept property. We helped ourselves to a broken and dirty “no tresspassing” sign.

Prank Rock

The evening culminated in our second night of recording at Sun Studios. Comfortably, we set up and cranked out the bulk of our tracks on first or, rarely, second take. Jon E. Catt was on fire, slapping skins perfectly on all of our cover songs and the remaining originals we needed. But the kicker and highlight of the night was when we recorded our non-instrument songs (Sometimes, and a new one Quinn penned, called Battery Club).

The vocal mics were set up and we tracked vocals for Sometimes, then, with the same set up, we told the engineers – James and Matt – that we were going to record a new one. With some secret planning on our part, we thought it’d be funny to mess with James and Matt and devised a plan to brawl amongst each other while we were recording and film it all – just to punk them. As we were trying to get our first take of Battery Club, we argued and picked on each other and grew more and more cantankerous.

Before long, James, the head engineer came into the studio at referee the tension. At that point, Shane suddenly reached down on Quinn’s left leg and tried a single leg takedown on him. Quinn responded by slugging Shane repeatedly on his shoulder and back. All of us commenced with the random kicking upon Shane and he reeled on the floor. James then announced “Matt and I will kick all y’alls asses”.

The gig was up, though Henry wouldn’t give in to the prank even after James asked if we were seriously fighting. He couldn’t tell!

But the soon-to-be-famous skit was already on tape for prosperity and it’ll be on the CD as the engineers heard it through the mixer board for your enjoyment. James and Matt admitted that was the most elaborate band prank ever done in Sun Studios and called it “Legendary”. We’re happy about that. You’ll hear and see what it was like very soon!

Battery club, battery club…the coolest club I know…wah wah….

Sunday was the morning we were going to witness a real, live revival – at Rev. Al Green’s church (or “Let’s Stay Together” fame, and many others). We were a bit late, as his services begin at 10:30am, but locals told us that we wouldn’t need to show up until around noon because that’s when things really get cooking! That man still wails like his pre-Gospel days. What a voice!

We took in the final 40 minutes of his revival/sermon/mini-concert (perfect for our collective attention spans). Now we know how to REALLY conduct a revival for our fans. Just you wait!

Flying Fish

We chilled out at the mansion before walking into the city to eat fried critters: catfish, shrimp, mud bugs, hush puppies, and God knows what else we stuffed in our maws. Fried food really weighs you down.

Recording Session #1

Our initial recording session at Sun Studios was slated for 6:30pm, so we loaded up the van with gear and headed on down the street (4 blocks away). The engineers, James and Matt, were super accommodating with set-up and amp choice, etc.

After sorting out some confusion we were hearing in our headphones during our first song, we settled in and rocked out 3-4 takes on 80% of the songs we intend to put on our upcoming CD.

We now have Monday and Tuesday to fine-tune our sound by picking and choosing what we want to improve on and we are good to go!
I’ll have an update on our second session coming up next.

Jerry Lee Steamer

Hi kids! Still on our tourist portion of our trip down here and Graceland was on the itinerary today. Graceland was just like how Elvis left it, except the toilet he died on is not accessible to the public (Presley family decision).

The tour is very informative, what with the audio tour-guide headset we all had around our necks and on our ears. Tells about Elvis’s living room and kitchen furnishings and appliances, and carpeted ceilings in his Jungle Room (where two of his albums were recorded).

Quinn offered to bring down all new Whirlpool stuff from Anaco Appliance, but the live tour guides inside frowned on his idea. Henry seemed to be inspired by the carpeted ceilings and the mirrored staircases. Hmmm… Now that’s home improvement!

The Graceland Mansion had cavernous rooms and hallways leading to other rooms, not unlike a maze or a funhouse. The tour eventually led us outside to Vernon Presley’s office, from which he operated the worldwide Elvis Presley Fan Club during and after his death in August of 1977.

Elvis had an 8×8 gun range (brick walls on three sides…kinda dangerous, but Elvis lived on the edge), a kidney-shaped pool (or was it spleen-shaped?), and a racquetball court converted into a floor-to-ceiling display of his gold records from the 70s, plus nine of his jumpsuits from his Vegas years. Too much to mention, so maybe I can blog in detail some of the things we saw when we return to Skagit Valley.

Before FannyAlger left the building (or left the Graceland Mansion area anyway), we made a video of us singing “Sometimes” at the gates of the mansion (to be YouTubed later). The guard at the gate gave us a ringing endorsement with an enthusiastic thumbs-up through the window of his brick guardhouse. He knew the song!

That’s the way they greet us down here in Memphis. Such friendly folk around these parts. Jerry Lee here…Day Two in Memphis went a lot better for Quinn, FYI (I know people back home are worried about him!).

A hard, sideways rain stormed through the city for almost an hour on Friday and put a damper (pardon the pun) on things, but we strolled into town anyway. We had business to conduct, like to meet the legendary Memphis icon and “clothier to The King” (Elvis) - Bernard Lansky - who sells the racing strip jacket Elvis wore in “Speedway” (an Elvis movie from the 70s).

Bernard fitted us for our own jackets, we all bought the black ones with white stripes and they look damn sharp on us (even Jon E. Catt).

Biscuits

Before that though, we ate breakfast at the Blue Plate Cafe - a diner off of November 6th Street (that’s the name of the street, serious! Shane’s birthday!) and we all scarfed down four biscuits each. Homemade buttermilk biscuits all baked up in the south, slathered in whipped butter….(sigh)!

We all cried at the flavorful experience. It was like our tongues got to go to the prom with Cheryl Tiegs. Okay, maybe that was a bit of a stretch, but how else can I describe these biscuits to you from our collective point-of-view? That’ll have to do!

I had grits for the first time, in which I would describe it as a cross between buttery, granular Malt-O-Meal and white rice. I ate my bowl up in 47 seconds (Shane filmed it). Blue Plate rocks and the service is down-home Southern hospitality all the way! And we’re big tippers! We plan to eat breakfast there every day.

Auto Zone Park

Did some light shopping for our families and friends back home. Lansky’s Clothier Shop was close to Auto Zone Park (AutoZone is a national car parts franchise chain from Memphis), where the Memphis Redbirds AAA affiliate to the St. Louis Cardinals play.

Awesome minor league ballpark, and it happened to be open Friday during the day, so while we were there, we strolled around to take a look.

Not all of us in the band are sports fans (like I am), but I got to verse the rest of the boys a little on the details of the team (if they asked, of course!). Bought some souveys at the team shop and took in the scenery.

The security personnel were seriously way too nice. Keep in mind we are constantly in our “white shirt and black tie” outfits with our nametags (so we look like…take a guess). People are continuously checking us out and asking questions. An Auto Zone security woman chatted us up and was so representative of how nice and friendly people are down here, I think we were all impressed.

Graceland Too. Holly Springs, Mississippi

Difficult to keep these blogs short! Lots that we did.

Friday night, we took our van to Mississippi to see Graceland Too - a quirky spin-off of Elvis memorabilia and personal history of The King of Rock n’ Roll - in Holly Springs, MS.

The one hour ride was worth the $5 for entry fee to endure a 3-hour tour (a 3-hour tour! sing the Gilligan’s Island theme here). Took us a little while before we found it sans a map and directions (going off Shane’s memory, which isn’t exactly reliable!), but once we got to the small colonial-style, lion gargoyle-guarded cement steps of Paul McLeod’s home/museum, we were stoked to be there!

After beating on the door to get Paul’s attention, he greeted us, got us signed in and paid up, and then got what can only be described as a 180-minute live dream sequence - half-informative recollection of Paul’s experiences with Elvis (from his perspective), half-ridiculous and fully-bizarre nightmare! It was like a carnival ride, only we didn’t ride - we walked.

The circular tour through his cluttered home, filled with nothing but Elvis memorabilia had a story attached to each and every component that was stapled, taped or set in this house. Paul’s uppers were sliding a bit, and were distracting and distorting his voice slightly, but he was brimming with energy and knowledge of Elvis Presley.

I really have to skim over this and maybe I can blog our tour in detail another day, but I have to leave it at that. Look for pictures of our tour and that should encapsulate what it was like!

Look for my Day Three blog tomorrow about our actual Graceland tour! Good night from Memphis and thanks y’all for checking in on us all! We’re all doing great and having a blast!

Jerry Lee Steamer
(I developed the accent…I knew it’d happen!)

We are safe and about to record down here in the historical Rock n’ Roll Capitol of the World (and some Blues and Jazz, too!) at Sun Studios. Had a smooth flight down, although we had a short diversion around a thunder cloud, but we couldn’t tell since it was a 4 1/2 hour flight down here. We slept and chatted and laughed at Quinn, who begged for a window seat, then got seated next to a mother and her 15-month old son, Isaac - a cute kid, but a very happy and active little boy, but a random screamer. We secretly giggled to ourselves at Quinn’s predicament being seated by himself, without any of us to converse with, and next to the noisiest being on the plane. Every so often, Quinn would peer over his seat at us, like a forlorn puppy wishing he could be let out of his cage.

That wasn’t the end of Quinn’s plight. He seemed to attract every bum in Memphis, there on Beale Street to prey on tourists. Each of them approached Quinn with their individual “story” about why they needed “a dollar.” For the first four hours in the city, Quinn handed singles to each of them and by 11pm, he was out of money for the whole trip.

To add insult to injury, we were attempting to dine at B.B. King’s Diner and we ordered 6 different appetizers. In the meantime, we watched a decent cover band who played lots of hits from the 60’s. An hour later, we lost patience for our food and left, but not before Quinn borrowed a dollar from Tony so he could use the men’s room (you have to pay to pee there). On the way out, the men’s room attendant sprayed Hi-Karate, or Brut, not on Quinn’s jacket or neck, but straight onto the side of his face and in his mouth.

Quinn’s night ended by taking two couch cushions and sleeping in one of the bathroom to rest out of earshot of Jon E. Catt’s horrendous snoring. Hopefully Quinn will have a better day tomorrow. The rest of us are having great comfortable fun though!

Check back again soon for more of our work trip happenings and hi-jinx.
Jerry Lee Steamer
FannyAlger

 photos and screensaver by ShaneG