Memphis Soul

Which Came First, the Music or the Food?

When I visited Memphis in June 2007, the city was beginning an eerie 12 month celebration of tragic anniversaries and pilgrimages. May marked the 10th anniversary of the drowning of soulful pop icon Jeff Buckley, whose body washed up by Beale Street, the legendary birth place of the blues. August brings the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s demise, an event known across the Planet Elvis as “Death Week,” despite civic efforts to put a more lively spin on it. In that vein, all of 2007 has been christened the “50th anniversary of soul music,” reckoned by the emergence of Stax Records which was synonymous with the sultry horns, organs and drums that amplified the blues and merged them with gospel.


All those events were preludes to the following April and the 40th anniversary of the day the music died - for this city, and for race relations in America - when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel.


Memphis was dressed up for its big year like Elvis in a brand new jump suit. Graceland has been expanded into a shopping mall, a Heartbreak Hotel and a series of museums. The former Sun Studio, where Elvis, Howlin’ Wolf and Johnny Cash all cut their first record, is now a time travel machine to the middle of last century. Beale Street is still edgy, though it reminded us more of touristy Bourbon Street in New Orleans than the infamous strip that drew generations of Delta musicians to its bright lights. When we walked Beale Street, we heard more Elvis, and even Neil Diamond, impersonators than original blues singers.

Soul music may have been born in Memphis, but its children moved away before they grew up - Howlin’ Wolf to Chicago, Isaac Hayes to Hollywood, Aretha Franklin to Detroit, etc.. Another, more deeply significant, soul culture remains predominantly Memphian. While authentic soul food cafes are disappearing from the genre’s co-founding hometowns of Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit, they are alive and loved in Memphis. So much so, that our biggest problem organizing a soul food tour of Bluff City was choosing which ones to visit.

For expert counsel, Wro and I began at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art where curator Stanton Thomas had organized a special exhibition Soul Food: African American Cooking and Creativity.

The exhibition included works by well-known artists like Carrie Mae Weems and Whitfield Lovell, plus numerous original photographs and artifacts that deal with stereotypes and demeaning images - from Aunt Jemina to Uncle Ben.

Stanton told us that the public reaction had really been positive, opening up a dialogue by not sweeping such things under the table. He also told us that the museum is planning a much bigger show in two years - Landscapes of Slavery - which will probe into plantation culture with similar straightforwardness. Wro suggested we prepare ourselves for that, by visiting Slave Haven.

Slave Haven

The Underground Railroad stopped at the home of Jacob Burkle, just a few blocks from the slave auction. The museum teaches about “creative coping” - from the physical challenges of hiding in tight spaces, to the intellectual devices that slaves created to communicate. Docent Elaine Lee Turner told us about coded messages in all spiritual songs - “the Jordan River stood for the Ohio River, the gateway to freedom. Canada, and complete freedom was ‘the Promised Land,” she said.


Quilting too had a coded language which pointed directions to safe havens. After slavery ended, the hidden meanings of quilts were lost until it was discovered that Nigerian ekpi cloth contained the same codes.

We learned the names of two legendary slave traders. Nathan Bedford Forest became an infamous Civil War general - either a terrorist or freedom fighter depending upon your politics, but certainly a ruthless man who later founded the Ku Klux Klan. Wade Bolton was an even richer slaver. He left money to establish a school for the white children of the area. Bolton High School still exists, but now it is mostly African-American.

Roll over Jordan, in your grave.

Crossroads & Corners

Turner also explained that much of what became soul food originated as resourceful coping mechanisms for slave survival.

“Africans were forced to make do with the worst foods on the plantation, whatever was leftover, the entrails of the hog and all that. But you see, watermelon is a diuretic. So even though, they were eating foods that they weren’t used to and which weren’t good for their health, they knew that watermelon would cleanse their system. So, when you see the stereotype caricatures about watermelon and the African-Americans, now you know the story behind it,” she said.

At Four Way Restaurant, we found a good story behind some mighty good food. Owner Willie Bates explained.

“I grew up here in Sugar Hill (neighborhood). In 1955 I had a red wagon and passed this place daily with that wagon trying to earn some money cause I came from a single parent family. I never dreamed I might own this place one day. I left Memphis to play football and went into the insurance business, but when I heard it was for sale in 2001, I knew I had to try for it.

“I got outbid, but the other guy didn’t come through with money. So I got it . It was ordained. This place meant so much to the neighborhood. I remember in 1947, Mom needed shoes fixed, but she had no money. Well the show maker took care of her anyway and the shoe stitching machine out front is there to remind me of the love of community.


Wro and I visited with a group of Tennessee State University alums who lunch at Four Way every first Thursday of the month. Several of them said they grew up here in Sugar Hill and recall how the Four Way stood in stark contrast to other aspects of crossroads where it stands, known as “the Corners.”

“All the players hung out across the street. The ministers would come here after church, while the festive people would hang out around the corner,” explained Andre Woods of Memphis.

“It’s so important to have Four Way back. It’s a great motivator to the young African-American kids that they can be successful. It helps expel black stereotypes,” added another alum.

Wro noticed a customer eating a three-way vegetable plate with three orders of collard greens. Figuring that was a powerful endorsement, we asked him about them.
“I only eat greens because they rid the body of evil toxins,” he replied, insisting on anonymity.

I had some delicious fried chicken and Wro ordered neckbones. We both had collard greens, how could we not? Wro loved his limas and I loved my black-eyed peas. We split a piece of sweet potato pie. A full toxin-fighting stomach made us appreciate Willie Bates’ achievement.

“The re-emergence of Four Way is meant to be. It’s served many kings. Martine Luther King, jr. ate here before his “Mountain top” speech. Elvis ate here. And Don King ate here. We are here again now five years in October, which will be 61 years since it first opened. We are here, ordained to spread the good vibes,” Bates said.

Which Came First, the Music or the Food?

After becoming aware of soul food’s religious connection, Wro began asking about “the origin of the soul” - or, which came first - soul music or soul food? Full of gospel-loving, evil-killing soul treats, we went looking for the origins of soul music. There are complicated discussions about that, but I prefer a simpler one - that soul music began when one legendary white man could find no other word to describe what he heard being sung by one legendary black man.

Sam Phillips, who also “discovered” Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash said that Chester Burnett was his greatest discovery and that losing the man, better known as Howlin’ Wolf, to the Chess label in Chicago was his biggest career disappointment. He also lost Elvis to RCA.

“His song ‘Moanin’ at Midnight’ …when it came out, it was as if everything just stopped, everything that was going on. Time stopped. Everything stopped. And you heard the Wolf. This is where the soul of man never dies," Phillips wrote.
Soul music became an urban phenomenon simultaneously in African-American neighborhoods of Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and Memphis. Though each city developed a distinctive style, Memphis musicians relied most heavily on gospel.

Stax

At the center of Memphis Soul was Stax Records. The studio produced nearly every singer, songwriter and musician in the area, including Booker T. and the MG’s, the house band most responsible for the “Memphis sound.” Stax neighborhood also produced Aretha Franklin; Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire; and Reverend Al Green, who recorded his biggest hits at nearby Royal Studio. Known as “Soulsville, USA,” this neighborhood’s interracial rails carried the soul train. We learned that most all the soul groups in the 1960’s were racially mixed and Elvis was heavily influenced by black musical scene.

Loving flashy clothes and things that shine, Wro was in heaven at Stax Museum. Two thousand interactive exhibits included Otis Redding’s favorite brown suede jacket, Albert King's famous purple Flying V guitar, Tina Turner's gold sequined stage dress and Ike Turner’s silver lame suit and Fender guitar. We saw the very organ Booker T. Jones used to record “Green Onions” as well as Isaac Hayes' peacock-blue 1972 “Superfly” Cadillac El Dorado. Phalon Jones' saxophone was salvaged from Lake Mendota after the fatal crash that took Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays.

We heard how Redding came from Macon to record at Stax in 1962 with Johnny Jenkins‘ band. Otis did not sing lead during Jenkins’ session, but afterwards he grabbed the microphone and belted out his compositions “These Arms of Mine.” Stax immediately recorded the song.

More moving were some video testimonies about how Soulville changed utterly after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968. Suddenly, the inter racial harmony ended, as did Stax before the decade was over.

Alcenia’s

The music also died suddenly for Betty Joyce (BJ) Chester-Tamayo. BJ. opened Alcenia’s as a form of grief therapy after losing her only child in a tragic accident.

When we entered her Pinch District café, Wro was thrilled to be greeted with a hug.

“I hug everyone who comes in because I know they could go to a lot of other places and I really appreciate that they came here,” BJ explained.

While Alcenia's is famous for its desserts, the restaurant also earned a reputation for ''meat-and-three'' selection. Crispy fried chicken (with just flour) and (cornmeal) fried catfish are famous, but the fried green tomatoes are legendary. We learned why, BJ makes them lighter than most, without the corn meal crunch. To balance these fried meats, fruits and fish, we tried some fried sweet potatoes, which BJ served with cinnamon, butter and sugar.

“I was raised on those,” she confided.

We enjoyed turnip greens and mac and cheese (which in Memphis, counts as a vegetable), egg pie, bread pudding and German chocolate cake, with coconut-pecan frosting.

Décor includes a portrait of BJ’s two Alcenia’s - her grandbaby, 10, and her mom, 86. Walls are painted orange, purple, green and yellow.

“You can see, I don’t like color,“ BJ joked.

We asked about a sign across the street that read “Coming Soon, Soul Food.”

“I’m not worried. That sign has been there a long time now and I haven’t seen anything more than a sign. Memphis has so many restaurants there is always lots of competition. That’s why I appreciate my customers so much that I hug and kiss most of them when they walk through the door. I believe that what’s yours is yours and no one can take that away.

“Alcenia was six months old when I started this place. I never ever cooked growing up, but I wanted to go into business making preserves like my mother’s. My mother was a great cook. I think it’s so important that we pass on the knowledge. After my son died, I knew I couldn’t let my mother’s art die with her, I had to learn it and teach it to my grand baby. She’s already learning tea cakes too. She’ll be better than I am.

“When I started, I intended to sell preserves, which I still do at the Farmers Market. But it just evolved into cooking things too and suddenly I was running a restaurant,” she recalled.

Besides the green tomatoes, which BJ buys from local farmers, she’s famous for “ghetto Kool -Aid,” salmon croquettes, Saturday brunch (which alternative papers consider Memphis best bargain at $10). Plus the best corn bread I ever tasted, made with cornmeal, sugar and water before being fried on a greased grill. BJ served ours with her famous pear preserves, made with fruit from her mom‘s pear trees in Mississippi. Then she gave me a tip so brilliant I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself.

“At home, I make corn bread in a hot wok.”

Alcenia’s is THE soul food place for soul musicians, especially since Isaac Hayes restaurant closed last year. Charlie Musselwhite is BJ’s biggest cheerleader.
“Everywhere Charlie goes, all over the world, he always tells people and the media that Alcenia’s is his favorite restaurant and because of that we get people from all over the world coming here to see for themselves,” BJ said.

That’s probably why it’s one of the only soul food joints in town that stays open late and offers beer. Because of so many international visitors, she also keeps her vegetables vegetarian, which is unheard of in soul food.

“Lima beans are my only non-vegetarian vegetable. I just can’t make limas without ham hocks,” she confided.

“I try to feed the heart and the head besides the stomach,” BJ said, hugging us good bye. Wro was pouting, he wanted to hang out late and “see who might show up,“ but I insisted we turn in early. We had a date with history.

Sweet Lorraine

The moment I laid eyes on the Lorraine Motel’s neon sign, I recalled the day the music died for all race relations in America - when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968. In the aftershock of the assassination, motel owner Walter Lane wife Lorraine died of brain hemorrhage. Bailey kept a couple rooms as shrines to Dr. King and to Lorraine, but by 1982 his business was in foreclosure. A long fundraising drive saved the Lorraine and in 1991 it was incorporated into the National Civil Rights Museum.

The museum‘s presentation is stark and honest. It made me recall some deep feelings that had begun to surface at Stax after listening to the testimonies about how the interracial harmony of the time died with King. I wondered for the first time, I think, what I personally had lost that day, without ever acknowledging it: Friends, innocence, idealism?

We listened to a interview with a man who stood with King when he was shot, I think it was Reverend Ralph Abernathy, but I am not sure. He mentioned how he quickly removed a cigarette from King’s fingers, because the chain smoker didn’t ever want children to see him smoke. The museum retained the dirty, overfilled ashtray in the Reverend’s motel room - just as it was.

Across the street, Wro stood in the rooming house bathtub where Ray fired his fatal shot. We learned that this poor white trash had an elaborate travel itinerary through Canada, Rhodesia and South Africa. Many such questions about the murder have been orphaned from their love-seeking answers.

Too much sadness makes me hungry and nervous. I found myself asking Museum President Beverly Robertson about soul food’s place in the Civil Rights Movement.

“Cooking and the experience of unification and unity both occurred around the dining table. We discuss topical issues, we deal with concerns around our children, at our churches, the most fun time is after the sermon is over and everyone has had a good shout to sit down at the dinner table and eat fried chicken and fried catfish and spaghetti and cole slaw. Those traditional things. There is a warmth about it and there is a connection that resonates with African-Americans around the entire dining experience,” she said, graciously.

Coping in the New Millennium

At both the Civil Rights Museum and the Brooks Museum, we had been told that no soul food odyssey is complete without a visit to “Willie Mo’s.” Wro and I don’t like incomplete odysseys, so off we went. We would find that here too, the story of coping and survival plays a soulful tune.

Willie Moore’s Family Restaurant wasn’t always a family place. In fact it still looks like it’s former life as a juke joint.


“Before the casinos opened up (in nearby Tustin, Mississippi) my business was 95 per cent bar and 5 per cent food. After they opened, most of my customers were gone south on weekends, as if they couldn’t gamble away their pay checks fast enough. So, I had to re-invent my business. Today, it’s 95 per cent food and 5 per cent bar, the complete opposite of before. I did it by giving people soul food and lots of it,” Willie Moore explained.


So today, his restaurant has that red velvet and dark wall look of a juke joint, which it still is, but only on Saturday night. Almost everyone we talked with all week raved about Willie’s neck bones, so Wro and ordered a plate as an appetizer. Willie delivered about triple the amount of neckbones that we had been served at Four Way. We tried some delicious greens, some beans, some fried okra and some smoothered chicken.


All that prepared us for a soul food epiphany - a dish neither of us had ever heard of, much less seen on a plate. At first I thought Willie had served us deep-fried spare ribs, but he assured me that it was indeed “big-boned buffalo fish.” Eating them was like eating crab on the Eastern shore of Maryland, or eating hamachi kama in a Japanese restaurant. As with those dishes, you really have be willing to get your hands messy, but the succulent fish meat was more than worth the effort. Wro and I agreed it was certainly the best fish we had ever tasted for less than $30 a serving - and it only cost about a fifth that!

After a piece of Willie’s sweet potato pie, the band was setting up for their gig. Wro claimed that was the definitive answer to our question. Soul food comes first, then soul music, at least for those of us who sleep at night and wake up in the morning.

Recipes

Fried Corn Bread

Adapted from loose instructions of BJ Chester-Tamayo
Serves 4 to 6
Half cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 to 2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup hot milk
1 tablespoon corn oil

Mix the dry ingredients, then stir in the beaten egg and milk.. Use a big spoon to drop into a hot oiled wok and fry till golden brown on both sides. Serve with butter and fruit preserves.

Betty Joyce Chester-Tamayo’s Corn

1 - 2 tbsp. butter
Half cup chopped celery
Half cup bell pepper
Quarter envelope Lipton onion soup mix
2 tbsp. Flour
16 ounces canned corn, drained and reserved
2 tbsp. Pimentos, drained
Dash of sugar
Pepper and salt
In large skillet, melt the butter and saute the celery and bell pepper until soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
In a bowl, mix the reserved liquid from the corn and whisk with flour until thick. Set aside. Add corn, soup mix and sugar to skillet. Add butter if needed. Simmer for 15 - 20 minutes. Add thickened liquid and a quarter cup of water. Simmer on low heat till ready to serve. Stir in pimento the last few minutes.

If you go…

National Civil Rights Museum
450 Mulberry St.
901-521-9699
http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/
　
Sun Studio
706 Union Ave.
901-525-8055
http://www.sunstudio.com/

Soulsville: Stax Museum of American Soul Music
926 McLemore Ave.
901-946-2535
http://www.soulsvilleusa.com/

Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum
826 N. 2nd St.
901-527-3427
Info@heritagetoursmemphis.com

W.C. Handy Home & Museum
352 Beale St.
901-527-3427
Info@heritagetoursmemphis.com

Peabody Hotel
149 Union St., 901-529-4188

Soul Restaurants

Alcenia's (Betty Joyce Chester-Tamayo )
317 N. Main St., 901- 507-1519 Tues.-Thurs. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Fri. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Sat. 3 p.m. -10 p.m.
Sun. 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Four Way Restaurant, formerly Grill (Willie Bates)
998 Mississippi Blvd., 901 507-1519
Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Sundays 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
soulful breakfast on Saturdays from 8 a.m. - 11 a.m..

Willie Moore's Family Restaurant (pronounced ‘Mo)931 S 3rd St., 901-774-9247
Mon. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Sundays 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. (the place is a night club on Saturday nights)

Ellen's Soul Food Restaurant
61 S. Parkway E., 901-942-4888
“Miss Ellen’s” has been the darling of the Gourmet magazine set and probably has the best rep in town with tourists.

Ernestine and Hazel's 84 East G.E. Patterson Ave., 901 523-9754) Famous for the one and only "Soul Burger." Night spot with shady past.

Interstate BBQ 2265 South Third Street, 901 775-2304. The town’s third most famous Q after the tourist clichés Rendezvous and Corky’s, Jim Neely’s place has an eclectic Q menu - BBQ pork spaghetti, smoked turkey and chicken besides the standards.

Payne's 1762 Lamar Ave., 901 272-1523. Fabulous Q and a respected blues joint too.

Uncle Lou's Fried Chicken 3633 Millbranch, 901 332-2367 and 6749 E. Shelby Dr., 901 363-9444. No wehere near as hot as Nashville chicken, it’s honey sweet and a bit spicy.