James Alexander reformed his band, the Bar-Kays following the plane crash that took the lives of three members, and singer Otis Redding. The new band was created in tribute to those kil...
Robert Averwater’s father, M. J. Averwater taught music, wrote a method book and opened up Amro Music in Memphis, TN, with a fellow music teacher. Robert recalled some of the challenges o...
Chip Averwater took over the music retail business in Memphis, just as his father did and his son would one day, keeping the tradition in the family. Chip’s passion for the music business...
Pat Averwater has always been proud of the musical legacy of his grandfather, who established Amro Music in the 1920s. Since then, the Memphis based store has become a hub for the musical...
Mil Averwater was the founder of Amro Music in Memphis, Tennessee. His grandson, Chip, had the forethought to record his grandfather on audio tape talking about the early days of the stor...
Nick Averwater is part of the fourth generation of the Averwater family to be working at Amro Music in Memphis, TN. Nick fondly remembers his time as a kid running around the store and wo...
William Bell began singing in doo-wop groups before signing for Stax Records in Memphis, which is where his first hit was recorded. In fact that song, "You Don't Miss Your Water" was als...
William Bell began singing in doo-wop groups before signing for Stax Records in Memphis, which is where his first hit was recorded. In fact that song, "You Will Miss Your Waters" was als...
Al Bell was in the Stax recording studio in Memphis at the very moment Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed just a few blocks away. Ironically, the recording Al was produci...
Sonny Burgess was known as the wild man of rock and roll who brought a driving guitar style to early Sun recordings (the label that launched Elvis Presley). Among those recordings were “W...
Dave Campbell grew up in a household full of music, with both grandmothers being piano teachers and his father a professional piano player. With such a strong musical background, it was n...
Ben Cauley can be heard on hundreds of Stax Record hits including those with Otis Redding. Ben was a member of Otis's backup band called the Bar-Kays, which originated as the horn sectio...
Quinton Claunch was a musical innovator who formed Hi Records in Memphis as well as the Goldwax label. He played guitar and bass professionally beginning in 1943 and can be heard on a num...
Paul Craft always felt a pull towards music but was not just sure how it would take hold in his life. For a time he ran a music store in Memphis called Paul Craft’s Music and Drum City al...
Steve Cropper became an integral part of the Stax Studio sound in Memphis as guitarist, songwriter and producer. He was a member of the studio's house band, the Mar-Keys as well as Booker...
Eddie DeGarmo grew up across the street from Graceland (he has a great Trick or Treat story from 1960) and somehow always knew he wanted to have a career in music. As a member of a Chris...
Larry Dodson Sr. was asked to become the first singer in the Bar-Kays back in 1970. The band started out as an instrumental group in the 1960s and gained world-wide fame as Otis Redding ...
Vernon Drane played several musical instruments growing up in Tennessee including the trumpet and saxophone. He later studied instrument repair and spent 68 years (!) working with the Amr...
Bryan Eagle developed a love for the blues at an early age, which ran as a thread throughout his life, first as a kid listening to early R&B records to college working for a concert p...
DJ Fontana drove down to Houston in a pink Cadillac with Elvis Presley after being hired as the then unknown singer’s first drummer. They pulled up to Herbie Brodstein’s Drum Shop (Herb w...
John Fry was the founder of Ardent Records and a noted recording engineer with a special talent for sound mixing and studio sound control. The results of his efforts are enough to fill se...
Joe Guercio is best known for the 8 years he served as Elvis Presley’s musical director, beginning in Las Vegas in 1969. He formed the orchestra that backed Elvis and his band on every to...
John Hampton was a Grammy winning engineer at the Ardent Studios in Memphis, where he worked side by side with the studio's founder, John Fry. The studio recorded a long list of artists ...
Wayne Jackson and his saxophone-playing friend, Andrew Love, formed the Memphis Horns, a group that played on countless recordings and on stage for over 40 years! Wayne, on trumpet, began...
Rick Jefferies was focused on pre-med when he attended college in Jackson, Tennessee, but had a change of direction when he took a part time job at a local music store. The store sold St...
Booker T. Jones grew up in Memphis and began recording as a session player while still in high school at the age of 17. While waiting for a session to begin, Booker and the other musicia...
TK Keckler moved to Memphis at an early age and began playing with local bands, which is when he met Mike Ladd. Mike was a musician who opened a small guitar shop in town and would later ...
Kern Kennedy tickled the ivories on a number of early rock and roll and rockabilly recordings back in the 1950s. It was the heyday for Sun Studios in Memphis right after the success of El...
Mike Ladd was one of the first music retailers in the United States to provide custom-made guitars. He had three locations in Memphis, the last of which was right across the street from G...
Boo Mitchell was born in Memphis, TN to a very musical family. Hi father, Willie Mitchell, ran Royal Studios and was VP of Hi Records. He began working with his father at a very young age...
Scotty Moore set a date and time on July 4, 1954, to get together with a young singer who wanted to record with Sam Philips at Sun Records in Memphis. Sam asked Scotty, who had recorded w...
Floyd Newman is among the most noted studio musicians from the early days of Stax Records in Memphis. As a saxophonist, Floyd became an integral part of the studio band at Stax Records kn...
