Wednesday 30th November – Leaving Arkansas…

Our seven-night stay done, we had one more significant Memphis location to visit on our way through – Stax Museum of American Soul.

Stax recording studios is where many of the greats of Soul laid down tracks between 1957 and 1968.  Isaac Hayes, Ike and Tina Turner, Otis Redding to name but a few.  We underestimated the scale of the museum – there were soooo many exhibits!  

Stax' original two-track recorder. Otis Redding cut 'Mr Pitiful' and 'Respect' on this machine

It was sad to hear the negative impact that the death of Dr King had on the studios.  Founded by two white Siblings, Jim STewart and Estelle AXton (hence STAX), many of the artists were racially integrated bands, for example the house band - Booker T. & the MGs.  This was rare in a time of racial tension around Memphis but at Stax it wasn’t a point of focus.  Straight after Dr King’s death racial sensitivity was heightened at Stax and there was negative feeling from some African Americans towards whites in Memphis.  This, only 6 months after Stax lost one of its main stars, Otis Redding, in a plane crash really dented the spirit at the record company that it never fully regained.  Problems between Stax, Atlantic and CBS records over distribution deals forced the studios closure in 1975.  But you can see the volume of recordings that the studio was responsible for from this picture:

Isaac Hayes Oscar for 'Theme from Shaft'

After a swift late lunch in the car park we hit the road, heading North-east towards Nashville.  We had many miles to cover.  Here is the sun setting over the Tennessee river as we crossed towards our campsite for the night: