Tagged With "Carl Hammond"

One of the great iconic symbols in the history of R&R! Sam Phillips was an absolute genius. And sometimes most amazing to me is that all that talent lived in one small city. I think Memphis has only around 300,000 or so population. Memphis gave rise to soul, rhythm and blues, and of course rock and roll music. What a wonderful musical legacy! Thanks for the stroll down memory lane!

Thank you Ottoman. Great photos and thanks for this important piece of Americana.

Thanks Ottoman for sharing your Sun Studios visit. I was there in 2007 and enjoyed every magic moment of it. My wife had to drag me away after the third day as we had to move on to our next destination (!). Being there was like stepping into the shoes of all the musical greats who had passed through those doors. My music collection has an abundance of Sun recordings and they are still my favorites.

Actually, the importance of Memphis is long-standing and for good reason: it's on a flood-free bluff above the Mississippi. At different times in its history, both French and Spanish armies built forts there to control traffic on the Mississippi, and before the Civil War, it was the terminus of the only east-west railroad to cross the South...so it has always been a big transportation center. The railroad guaranteed its role in shipping cotton, and made it the center of the region.

Well "I'm all shook up". "Thank you. Thank you very much" to all of you who liked and commented on my Sun Studio blog. I really appreciate your feedback. I hope you enjoyed this blog as much as I enjoyed putting it together and posting it. Cheers and happy travels everybody.

Generations of Bally's collected shoes and they are on display in Schönenwerd, Switzerland.  Bally is  a 164-year-old fashion and leather goods brand best known for its shoes. The museum is in a 18th century manor...

Travel writer Marilyn Jones takes us along on a road trip, and test-drives a new car.

Marilyn Jones shares a lesson in the South Carolina Lowcountry art of basket weaving.

         What a thrill it was to visit Sun Studio at 706 Union Ave, Memphis, Tennessee!  To step through the doors of this old building is to walk into Rock 'n Roll history.  It was at Sun Studios that...

It was easy for guessers to mistake Chicago's central library building, named for the late Mayor, for a rail station or a public market, and to place it in Paris, Barcelona or Belgium. As a post-modernist building, it incorporates bits of the style...

Shades of Willy Wonka! That looks like fun.

Thanks for sharing! I lived in the Denver area 5 years and never knew about Hammonds. This will give me a reason to return!

Thanks for the comments guys. It is a lot of fun and I am sorry that you didn't make it there Travel Rob. Maybe sometime as a "visitor", lol. I always look forward to bringing out of town guests. Hope you guys can visit one day.

What's neat to me is he brought jobs to that small Swiss town and created a production facility there, instead of a bigger city.

Sorry, but I just can't trust that many cats gathered in one place.

Samantha takes us on a tour of a candy factory that is a Denver tradition as well as a delight for children of all ages...

In Minneapolis a new and much-too-small museum puts a big emphasis on the communities that built Minnesota's African-American heritage and culture.

While in Memphis, Samantha and her husband toured Sun Studio. No matter what type of music you like, you will appreciate the history of this studio.

Thank you for bringing back terrific memories of visiting this famous studio. My wife and I first visited it in the late 1980s and enjoyed the tour, followed by lunch at the Sun Cafe. To my great delight, the cafe's Wurlitzer had an original Sun 45 by Elvis in its stack (Sun #223). I have been collecting records since I was in early teens and have a number of Sun records, including all 5 of Elvis' Sun records in both 78 rpm and 45 rpm formats. Not sure what they're worth right now, but...

Great story and photos Samantha. One of my favorite singers of all time is Roy Orbison who got his recording start with Sam Phillips and Sun Record at Sun Studio. Roy's spectacular recording successes were offset by the tragedies in his family life.

Samantha says Sun Studio in Memphis has to be on your to-do list, no matter what type of music you like, you will appreciate the history of this studio.

It's been estimated that a huge percentage of the pictures on the internet are of cute cats. Now an art auction is about to offer a picture of cute cats that is huge (the painting, not the cats.)  

 Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond of Top Gear were driving across France while filming an episode. They were doing 143 kph (88 mph) in a 130 kph (80 mph) zone and received a harsh penalty.