Horse-head tour july-aug 2011

[CRAZY-HORSE]

luckily, Stax Records was only a couple of blocks away from Sun Records so we couldnt really have gotten lost....or could we?
being a "black" artists label it is situated in a real derelict part of Memphis,shops boarded up, foreclosure signs on homes,shops etc etc
i find it amazing that so many of the great musicians from the 1950s black or white came predominanty from around Memphis...unbelieveable IMO!

a short history of Stax from wikkipedia:

Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee.
Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the name Stax Records was adopted in 1961. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and blues recordings. While Stax is renowned for its output of African-American music, the label was founded by two white businesspeople, Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton (STewart/AXton = Stax) and featured several popular ethnically-integrated bands, including the label's house band, Booker T. & the MG's.
Following the death of Stax's biggest star, Otis Redding, in 1967 and the severance of the label's distribution deal with Atlantic Records in 1968, Stax continued primarily under the supervision of a new co-owner, Al Bell. Over the next five years, Bell expanded the label's operations significantly, in order to compete with Stax's main rival, Motown Records in Detroit. During the mid-1970s, a number of factors, including a problematic distribution deal with CBS Records, caused the label to slide into insolvency, resulting in its forced closure in late 1975.
In 1977, Fantasy Records acquired the post-1968 Stax catalog, as well as selected pre-1968 recordings. Beginning in 1978, Stax (now owned by Fantasy) began signing new acts and issuing new material, as well as re-issuing previously recorded Stax material. However, by the early 1980s no new material was being issued on the label, and for the next two decades, Stax was strictly a re-issue label.
After Concord Records acquired Fantasy in 2004, the Stax label was reactivated, and is today used to issue both the 1968–1975 catalog material and new recordings by current R&B/soul performers. Atlantic Records continues to hold the rights to the vast majority of the 1959–1968 Stax material.








the museum contained mainly outfits of stars from back in the day with little tit-bits of information..not really a good museum IMO but as it formed an essential part of American popular music history, it was good to actually see it, especially me being a big fan of people like Wilson Picket,Otis Redding etc etc..
next pic is of stage outfits of Ike And Tina Turner

...sorry for the slightly out of focus pic, but this sums up the museum well



just around the back of the museum,adjacent to the carpark there was an old derelict building...just like all the others in the area, but this one belonged to old Blues legend Memphis Slim