http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/travel/31next.html?scp=1&sq=memphis%20&st=cse

A trip to Memphis is on the must-do list of every music fan. This article in the New York Times gives some good tips on where to go once you go to the must-see spots (Graceland, Sun, Stax, Civil Rights Museum etc.). In my visits to Memphis I haven't had the time to go much beyond the obvious but I'll have this article with me the next time I go back.

The last time I was in Memphis (finishing some research on the book) my son and I were walking through the lobby of the Peabody Hotel on a late Sunday afternoon. Who should we bump into but none other than Robert Plant...just standing there casually talking to a few people. No entourage. Dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt. Very unassuming. Needless to say, we were sort of excited. My teenage son is a huge Zeppelin fan (at the time, When The Levee Breaks was his ringtone) and wanted an autograph. I told him to be polite and if Plant acted like he didn't want to be interrupted, to just back off and scram. He approached Plant with a pen and a postcard of Graceland and said "Excuse me Mr. Plant. I'm a huge fan. Could I please have your autograph?" Plant was more than cordial and asked my son for his name.

"Alex"

Plant: "Well Alex, what are you doing in Memphis?"

"My dad and I are checking out some old music stuff."

Plant: "Well, Alex...you just checked out some old music stuff..."

Great exchange and it was cool how nice he was to the kid.

The next day Alex and I are in Studio B at Ardent with Jody Stephens. I'm taking the photo of Jody you see in the book. Alex is sitting on one of the Smashing Pumpkins' road cases. Jody's phone rings and it's Robert Plant's assistant. Plant had planned on swinging by Ardent that evening to say hello but was tired from a long day in the 100-degree heat going to Graceland and a few other music spots. Checking out the old music stuff. He had finished his tour with Alison Krauss on Saturday night, gone to to the tour party, and then gotten up Sunday and driven to Memphis to "check out some old music stuff." Places he's probably been to many times The next day he was driving down to Clarksdale to soak up more of the old music stuff.

We thought it was really cool that one of the biggest rock stars ever finishes a tour and instead of heading home with his money decides to spend some time soaking up some inspiration and vibes at the source. Not surprising then that he turned down 100 million for the Zep reunion tour with the explanation that he already had enough money, but only had some many years left to explore new musical directions. I understand that Plant has another album going with Krauss but I'm hoping he returns to working with Strange Sensation. I saw them on their last tour a few years back and they were strikingly fresh and creative. I enjoyed them as much as any band I've seen this century.

http://www.therefrigerator.net/music/petediscography.html

A fair number of readers have asked about Pete LaBonne and the Blue Reimondos from the book. I promise that someday soon I'll figure out how to post a few mp3s of the classic Blue Reimondos line-up from the '70s. In the meantime, you can explore some of Pete's output from the 90s on at the above website. Check out the lyrics. Hear some live samples. Read some of his prose and and what others have written about him. Nice review by Charles M. Young in the Atlantic. Pete spend a lot of time in New Orleans and NYC (he played on Richard Hell's last studio recordings) in the 80s but since then he's lived in a self-built cabin in the Adirondack Mountains. He moved a few years ago when his rural tranquility was destroyed by a hot rod shop being built down the road from his place (endless revving of engines) and the effort involved has put a crimp in his writing and recording. Because of the temperature in the winter (wood burning stove inside, sub-zero outside) he can only record in the warmer months and at his peak he was writing and recording a song a day. Sometimes he ended up with 60 or so great songs by Labor Day. Peter is without a doubt the most unique and unrefined pure talent I've ever encountered. Those who have gotten to know him and his work or spent any time around him feel nothing but lucky. For twenty or so years I thought that he should be signed to a label and do the whole record company / rock star thing. Critics would love him. But then one day in the early 90s I realized that he was in the business of making music, for himself and his friends, and knew that he should stay far away from the music business. He's got his cabin, his land, his instruments, the woman of his dreams (I don't think that he and Shelley have spent a day apart since 1977), his garden, and always a funky vehicle. Lives a happy creative life. You can't argue with success...

http://moonraking.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/big-star-revisited/

More Big Star to start the year...

http://www.tirbd.com/2010/01/monday-interview-bruce-eaton.html

I did an interview with writer and Big Star fan John Kenyon for his Things I'd Rather Be Doing blog a month or so ago. It's up now on his blog and it turned out really nicely. I really enjoyed answering John's questions.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! The Big Star box set is showing up on quite a few year-end Best Of lists – as well it should. But if you still have some friends or associates who still haven't heard a note, amazon is offering the #1 / Radio City two-fer for mp3 download for only $5 for the entire month of January. (There are also many other great albums with the same deal. Amazon is superior to iTunes for mp3 downloads in my opinion both in terms of selection and price. If it isn't your first stop when you're looking to download something, you're probably throwing away money.) I ended up shifting out of ELP mode after Christmas (although I really grew to dig ELP's bombast and vintage synth sounds – drove through a snow storm the other night and cued up Peter Gunn Theme > Hoedown. Who has the nerve today to tackle Mancini and Copeland head on without that big wink of irony that's become so prevalent and annoying amongst the musical hipsters of today? The hip-hop guys who sampled Kraftwerk did so in the same straight-up fashion). Latest favorite has been Manfred Mann. Knew their hits but not their background (Manfred Lubowitz's tale is pretty interesting - a jazz pianist originally from South Africa) hadn't really explored their catalog. Right beyond their big US hits is a song that I can't believe wasn't huge: I'm You're Kingpin. If you're not familiar with it, go download it immediately and dig the way Manfred worked the jazz vibe - and actual vibes - into a pop r&b tune. We're talking MJQ! This has to have been in a movie soundtrack...can't believe it if it hasn't .

MERRY CHRISTMAS! It's been a while since my last post for a variety of reasons. First off, I finally succumbed to a bit of Big Star fatigue. After two and a half years focusing on one band and three albums, I just kind of got worn out a bit. I've been listening to two types of music that are anything but power pop. The first is a CD called The Legendary Cantors. It's a compilation of renowned Jewish cantors from the early to mid part of the last century. I got hip to them reading an interview with Ornette Coleman and it fell right in with an increasing interest in the Old Testament (there's far more of an emphasis on the New Testament in your typical mainline Protestant church such as the one I attend) and my wife's family's Jewish roots. The music has something so timeless, universal, soulful and even eerie about it - like listening to an old Charley Patton record. The Jews Blues. And then get this. Despite making a snide comment about them in the promo copy for the book ("Released at a time when ELP and Elton John were plodding from one packed stadium to the next"), I;'ve been listening to ELP (along with early Moody Blues, Yes, and King Crimson) for the first time ever (other than what you'd hear in your college dorm or in passing on the radio). So it's been Tarkus and Lark's Tongue In Aspic around here! Can't say that it will be a permanent habit but it's good to walk outside your little listening box (actually mine is pretty darn big) and visit some other places for a while. So I get in the car and crank up Knife Edge. Sort of clears the mind and ears a bit...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/BIG-STAR-Radio-City-Appreciation-Society/219416141367?ref=nf

Just got invited to join this fan new page on Facebook. There's a link posted to an interview Alex did with The Idler in England in 1996. If you haven't read it, it's definitely worth checking out.

If you're on Facebook, you should check out http://www.facebook.com/brokedoc?v=info&ref=nf. Broke is a documentary about the rapidly changing music industry and explores the question of just how an artist can break out today. A good friend has been working on it (T-Bone Burnett is involved) from inception and from all reports it sounds like it's going to be a really top-notch effort.