Courtesy Destination Kings
Summing up Memphis’ music history
Memphis’s newest music museum sums up the city’s music scene.
“We like to say we are educating and preserving the true Memphis music story,” said Angela Davis, special events manager for the Rock ’n’ Soul Museum.
The museum’s location, next to the FedEx Forum at the foot of Beale Street, makes it a natural for events. After the museum closes at 7, groups can wander its galleries. “You can be having a drink and turn around and see Elvis’ jumpsuit or BB King’s original guitar,” said Davis.
The tour is self-guided and guests wear headphones. Popular stops are five juke boxes stationed throughout the circular exhibit hall. “People will say, ‘I haven’t heard that song in forever — they are literally standing there dancing to the beat. Our materials say it takes an hour to see our exhibits, but sometimes people spend four times that amount of time here. They say, ‘I wasn’t able to finish, I got so wrapped up in the music.’”
Given the museum’s close proximity to Beale Street and its many music clubs, groups often devise an evening that includes the museum and Memphis’ most famous avenue.
“Some might have a reception where they do a cocktail theme and then the group walks to Beale for dinner,” said Davis. “Or they might go to Beale for dinner and come here for dessert.”
Beale Street and beyond
No music lover leaves Memphis without a stop on Beale Street, where music bursts out of buildings, creating a cacophony along the crowded brick-lined streets.
It can be a long walk to Beale from the city’s convention district — Beale is on the south end, the convention district on the north — which accounts for the popularity of a fleet of restored trolleys that clatter from one end of Memphis’ two-mile long downtown to the other.
Base fare is $1; the $8 three-day pass is a good investment for longer stays.
Not far from the Beale Street action is the Peabody Hotel, another Memphis icon. The 464-room Peabody is also Memphis’ largest convention hotel, with more than 80,000 square feet of meeting space. The grand hotel is where the Peabody ducks first marched; happy hour in the lobby bar comes with a show each day as the ducks depart the travertine marble fountain.
As Memphis’ oldest hotel and its showiest, the Peabody stays in tune. “We are lucky to have our ownership right in town, right across the street,” said Kelly Earnest, director of public relations. “They are proud of the hotel and committed to it.”
Commitment means constant upgrades. Some $300,000 was spent recently on audiovisual and technology upgrades. In February, workers were gently adding 46-inch monitors outside meeting rooms in the hotel’s historic section, taking care to not damage plaster and marble. At the end of this year, guest rooms will get a makeover, with an upscale decor that befits a historic property.
All 800 windows will soon be replaced, a move that will improve energy efficiency and make for quieter accommodations.
“We are a historic hotel, but we don’t want to be an old hotel,” said Craig Smith, director of sales.
Farther north in the convention district, the 600-room Memphis Marriott serves the Memphis Cook Convention Center, linked to it by skybridge. Next door to the convention center is the 21,000-square-foot Cannon Center for the Performing Arts.
Much smaller than the Peabody and the Marriott is the Madison Hotel, opened a decade ago in an abandoned 1905 bank building. Unlike the Peabody, only the exterior of the hotel is old.
“When you come inside, it is a brand-new contemporary and very hip hotel,” said Mohamad Hakimian, managing partner. A recent remodeling made it more so. “It has more of a Soho look,” said Hakimian.
The Madison was Memphis’ first boutique hotel; as such, it caters to small meetings. “We have 110 guest rooms with eight rooms per floor so a small company can book rooms for 20 people and have three floors all to themselves,” said Hakimian.
One feature the Peabody and the Madison share is a rooftop venue. The Madison’s rooftop garden has a clear view of the Mississippi and room for about 100 people. The Peabody’s rooftop is home to a Thursday-night celebration, from April through October, attended by “1,400 of our closest friends” said Earnest.
Events like the Peabody’s are evidence that Memphis remains hard at work, bringing music to the masses.
