Memphis and Beale Street

Memphis sits at the top of the Mississippi Delta, which is why the music came here: field blues moved up the river with the people who played it, and on Beale Street it met an audience, a recording industry and, eventually, a name. W C Handy published his blues here in the early twentieth century, and the street is still lined with clubs playing live every night, though it is now as much a tourist strip as a musical one. The serious material is elsewhere: Sun Studio, where Elvis, Johnny Cash and Howlin' Wolf all recorded in a single small room still set up as it was; Stax, the label that made southern soul, rebuilt as a museum on its original site; and the Rock and Soul Museum, which traces the whole lineage.

Highlights

• Sun Studio - the small room where Elvis, Cash and Howlin' Wolf recorded.
• Stax Museum - southern soul, rebuilt on the original studio site.
• Beale Street clubs - live blues every night of the week.
• Memphis barbecue - dry-rubbed ribs, an argument the city takes seriously.

When to go

Spring and autumn are the most comfortable; summers are hot and humid. The Beale Street Music Festival in May and the barbecue contest fill the city. Beale is loudest at weekends; weeknights have smaller crowds and often better playing.

What to expect

Beale Street itself has become a neon strip of cover bands and daiquiri bars that locals largely leave to visitors, and the real interest is in Sun, Stax and the neighbourhood venues. Parts of downtown need ordinary city awareness after dark. Sun Studio tours are short, busy and run on a tight schedule.

Nearby

Graceland is in the south of the city; the Mississippi Delta and Clarksdale lie downriver.