sun studio

MSN had an article this morning on "Touring America's Pop Culture"... in that slideshow was Sun Studio in Memphis, TN which I went to last 4th of July... wanted to post a few pics from my first trip to the birthplace of Rock & Roll!

The Sun rises on rock ’n’ roll (Memphis, Tenn.)

In 1952 Sam Phillip started Sun Records at 706 Union St. in Memphis, Tenn., and two years later a young truck driver named Elvis Presley recorded his first song there. Other musicians discovered or recorded by Sun Records in the early 1950s included Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins; together with Presley, they became known as the Million Dollar Quartet (the subject of a 2010 Broadway musical by that name). Sun Studio has since the location for recordings by acts such as U2 and Def Leppard; more recently younger touring artists, from Jakob Dylan to Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, have recorded there, their work broadcast as Sun Studio Sessions on many PBS stations. In 2003 the site of the record company and recording studio was named a National Historic Landmark.  The legendary building is open daily, with tours given hourly from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.

Above: All of the hit records produced and recorded at Sun Studio (in that exact room!) Here I am sangin' with THE Elvis Presley microphone...the exact one that recorded some of his biggest hits. I even stood on his same X on the concrete floor where he swayed with those hips. What a tour!