BackinMemphis

Collectors and nostalgia lovers will be able to find Jazz Concert Posters of Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and many more. Rock and roll rarities feature LPs and 45rpm records of Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Jim Morrison, The Beach Boys, The Who, The Rolling Stones, et al. Rhythm and blues classics include the music of Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye and other Motown favorites. Folk finds are there from Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, The Weavers, Ed McCurdy et al. Country legends include Webb Pierce, Bob Wills, Johnny Cash, Sons of the Pioneers and many more.  Big bands are represented by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Chick Webb, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Artie Shaw and Quincy Jones. There is opera and classical music plus reggae from Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff, blues from B.B. King and Ray Charles etc. etc. Rare African American sheet music from the early 20th century, others from the 1800s, photographs of rock and r...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The design of a new downtown Hilton hotel was revealed Wednesday. The new Hilton will be built at the corner of Linden and Fourth, just south of the Fedexforum. It will be 11 stories high with 290 rooms. It's estimated to cost between $68-$72 million. Marlon Phoenix, who's developing the project, says downtown Memphis needs more top of the line hotels. "We saw that a lot of things were happening in Memphis and people were staying in Tunica, and we saw an opportunity to build a first class hotel up here." Construction is expected to begin early next year, and could take up to 20 months to complete.

Memphis International Airport is the fifth most expensive departure ticket in the nation. According to the Bureau of Transportation, statistics the average domestic flight ticket out of Memphis cost about $437 dollars. That’s about $90 more than the national average and up almost 19 percent from last year. Knoxville ranked fourth on the list with an average fare of more than $441 and Nashville came in 52nd with an average of right at $335. The cheapest airport is in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Source: My Memphis

East Main St. water tower in Tupelo It was recently painted and repaired at a cost of more than $50,000 even though it hasn't been used in years. One viewer wanted to know "Why did Tupelo spend $51,000 to paint a water tower that's not in use?" Here's what we discovered. The East Main Street water tower has been a fixture in that part of town since the 1950's, with its golf ball and tee design. It sits in City Councilman Jonny Davis' ward. Davis said, "This tank is one of only a few that were built in the country. It's a golf ball and tee style tank. When I spoke to the people who were painting the tank this year, the gentleman's business had been around for fifty years itself and he told me it was one of the few he had ever seen and the only one they had ever painted in fifty years." The name Presley Heights is on the tower. That's the same name of the neighborhood where the tower sits. The guitar painted on it is significa...

Include a few new titles by Cory Branan, The Hold Steady, Old Crow Medicine Show and, of course, Sheryl Crow’s “100 Miles to Memphis,” and, before you know it, Memphis has padded its lead as city mentioned in more recorded song lyrics than any other city on the planet! The list of commercially recorded songs which mention the city of Memphis, Tennessee, the home of the blues and the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll, has now expanded to 1,074, featuring over 800 unique titles. The comprehensive song list, compiled by the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum is posted and can be viewed at http://www.memphisrocknsoul.org/over1000songs . When a more abbreviated list was first published in 2008, the museum expected some flack or competition from other cities, namely New York, Paris and Nashville, each frequently harmonized in karaoke bars everywhere. However, crossing almost every musical genre, the city which has influenced the world’s music more than any other stands supreme. And, with new titles su...