(bright jazzy orchestral music) - Sitting on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, we are at the historic hotbed for blues, soul, and rock and roll.

Yes, the "Roadshow" has come to Memphis!

(bright jazzy orchestral music continues) (bright jazzy orchestral music continues) As many people know, Memphis has a lot of music, and right now, we are on Beale Street with Dr.

Malcom Anthony, who is a Music Practitioner and Healer in this city by the Mississippi River.

Good to meet you, sir.

- Nice to meet you, pleasure to have you in.

(orchestral country music) - This is a town that I've seen get to the point where they decided, "We're going to promote, and we're going to monetize our musical heritage."

Right now, I would say that Memphis' profile on the planet is probably more musical than it ever was.

The foundation artist, whether it was an Elvis Presley, or any of the blues artists of note, were either in here, or came here, or recorded here, or lived here.

- I have a lot of people traveling internationally as well as, you know, nationally, and they're always coming in, they're like, "I'm looking for the crossroads."

And I'm like, "Dude, you're at the Crossroads.

Memphis, Beale Street, this is where blues, soul, rock and roll, all of those began.

This is the Crossroads."

(country orchestral music continues) - We had in St.

Louis a wonderful musician, who was from around here, named Oliver Sain- - Mm-hmm.

- Saxophone player, songwriter.

- One of the best songwriters.

(Malcom chuckles) - Yes, thank you.

He was telling me one day that when he was playing for the Howlin' Wolf, he said, "Yeah, he's in the studio," and where they were doing the recording, I saw this greasy-haired kid, you know, who was kind of staring and looking at us all and watching everything.

And, finally, I was really close to wanting to find out why he was there.

I didn't know he was Elvis.

(Malcom chuckles) - Man, Elvis, he was really the gatekeeper for Black music.

Early years, music, records, record players, they were truly a luxury item.

Our community didn't get many, and our community didn't have much radio, Elvis made Black music hip for the American public and changed the whole music scene for us.

You know, he was the guy that, even though Chuck Berry and, you know, the Bo Diddleys and all of that, they were being played, once Elvis made them hip, they got played on white radio, and it changed the groundwork for all African-American music.

- You yourself though have a real interesting background in music and a family connection.

- Correct.

I was blessed enough to grow up in a blues club, my dad had a small juke joint.

This was back in the '80s when blues was pretty much dying, late '70s, early '80s.

The only place that blues legends could really make a living was to travel abroad, they had very few venues in the US.

There were only two blues clubs open at the time, so we've got all of these legends in this area, Albert King, Denise LaSalle, Little Milton, James Cotton, all of these guys that only could make a living by traveling abroad.

And we were fortunate enough to have a venue that they could actually play, so it was like this thing that was a great thing for both of us.

We could afford to hire bands that we normally couldn't afford, and it was also a way for these bands to actually get their bands into shape before they did their national or international tours.

So Albert King would use our club and do a free show basically just to make sure that he had the band that he wanted to travel with at that time.

We always think about the musicians that Memphis has produced, but you also have to think about the recording studios; Stax Records, Hi Records, Goldwax.

We had some recording studios that were used for so many major labels.

One that's often forgotten because the building is gone today is American Sound Studio.

American Sound had 23 of the top 100 songs being played on American radio at one time, I think that was 1973.

23 of the top 100 songs being played were recorded here in Memphis.

They're still recording at Hi in Royal Studio Today.

(static crackling) (jazzy orchestral music) ♪ If the sky we look upon ♪ ♪ Should tumble and fall ♪ ♪ Or the mountains should crumble to the sea ♪ ♪ I won't cry ♪ ♪ Won't cry ♪ ♪ I won't cry ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ No, I won't shed a tear ♪ ♪ Just as long as you stand, stand by me ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Just stand ♪ ♪ Whoa ♪ ♪ By me ♪ ♪ Whoa-ooh-ooh ♪ ♪ Stand by me ♪ ♪ Stand by me ♪ (jazzy orchestral music continues) ♪ Mm, stand by ♪ - Couple of legends that have recently redid Memphis cover albums, Al Bell, Stax, Cyndi Lauper, and Paul Rodgers, I think the hottest song that's come out Memphis in a while is "Uptown Funk" from Bruno Mars, and a lot of people don't know that Bruno came to Memphis- - Was here.

- To record that.

It wasn't until later in life that I realized that he started out as an Elvis impersonator.

(chuckles) At six years old, Elvis was this man, so he knew greatness, and it carries through in the music that he produces today.

(country orchestral music) (groovy upbeat music) - When we're talking about labels in this area, we gotta talk about Ecko Records.

- Larry Chambers is my godfather.

- Ooh.

(Malcom chuckles) He and my father were really, really good friends, as I grew up, I had no idea of the genius he was musically.

Then we opened up the record store and he comes by, he's like, "You know, I got a record label Ecko Records."

I was like, "Oh my God.

(chuckles) This is Uncle Larry."

(chuckles) What's really cool is Ecko has created a really thick market for the shag and bop dancer.

- If you're in a club and you're hearing maybe something going back to the likes of Clarence Carter stroking, it's sort of a social party lubricant.

- It is.

(chuckles) Which the blues has always been.

(chuckles) - Yes, sir.

So Solomon Burke said to me once, "Oliver Sain and Quincy Jones of St.

Louis, just nobody realizes it."

Oliver would have these, what he called, the Sole Reunion Show once a year.

One year, the headliner was Rufus Thomas.

I had this wonderful afternoon watching Rufus make Oliver's band almost cry because he was so hard on them, and was just a drill sergeant telling them what he wanted from the- - He wanted right.

I mean, speaking of Rufus, he was the true spokesman for Memphis music.

Rufus was one of the few guys that bridged Sun, Stax, Hi, he bridged all of the labels.

Rufus is the only one I can think of as a songwriter, a musician as well as a DJ.

So it's not many guys that can fill that many shoes and do it so well.

- And totally unheard of these days.

- Exactly.

(groovy jazz music) - We're always referring to independent record stores nowadays, but at one time, we didn't call those stores independent, we called them mom-and-pop stores.

- Exactly.

It's kinda like the barbershop.

(Malcom chuckles) - Yeah.

- You know, you go to the barbershop, you make connections, you meet friends, and the same thing kinda happens in record stores.

You know, this store is 32 years old, it's just fun, man, it's a treat to come into a place and want to be there.

This store at one point had the largest selection of blues for sale in the country, 'cause we would not have just one title of a specific artist, but we would have pretty much their whole discography.

We sell a really nice amount of classic soul, classic rock is probably our biggest sellers.

The fun part of it is watching a teenager walk in a store and pick up a Pink Floyd album, and their dad looks at 'em and say, "Yeah, I used to have that album," and they're looking at their parents like, "No way, you were that cool."

I think the evolution of records and having vinyl has presented us with the first time in history that a teenager actually wanted their parents' opinion on what to buy.

And it's cool to watch, it's beautiful to watch families shop for music together, and now we're getting three generations that walk in and will spend an hour together looking over music and telling stories.

(groovy jazz music) - Is there a particular piece of memorabilia that you just feel is like the touchstone?

- I think my favorite piece of memorabilia, which is at the highest point in this store, is my picture, my autograph picture of Rufus Thomas; that was my buddy.

- My man.

- My man.

(chuckles) (groovy jazz music) (classic upbeat rock music) (classic upbeat rock music continues) - We're here at one of the established independent record stores in this city, name of it is Shangri-La Records, it is a musical Shangri-La, and I'm here with Mr.

John Miller.

John, wonderful store- - Thank you.

- Love the layout, nothing cookie cutter about this.

- No, no, no, this one's a custom job.

(chuckles) - Custom job, and one going for how many years?

- This fall was 37 years we ticked over.

Since the late '80s, been right here in the heart of Midtown.

(intriguing orchestral music) The back history of Shangri-La is pretty fascinating, it originally was not a record store, it had started, initially, there were sensory deprivation tanks all in the space, and you could come in and you could book a session, so it was kind of a wave of the future that Memphis wasn't quite ready to support.

From a experience, I think at Brown University Summer Program, Sherman Willmott, who'd founded the store, called up a guy he'd met there, Eric Friedl.

And so, Sherman called him and said, "Hey, you know, I'm thinking about adding records to the store, would you be interested in coming down and helping me?"

Eric said, "I'll be there as soon as I can."

And so, that's how we started with one creative records that Eric was curating, and they kind of built a store up from there, and the store kept growing and growing; and eventually, Eric left, and he is now the co-owner and founder of Goner Records, one of the other great stores here in town.

So, you know, you see those record store roots continuing to expand, and more and more coming from it, but that's kind of our origin story.

(mellow intriguing upbeat music) - [Papa] I've got to assume that people that come into Memphis, if they find this store, they're gonna be finding music they may never have found anywhere else.

- And Memphis has kind of always been that crossroads, you know, whether it was, you know, blues coming up from the Delta, you know, some of the hillbilly music coming in from Arkansas, it was always just this melting pot.

And so, it is this sort of Wild West town, you know, that independent labels have always kind of thrived, independent artists always do well, there's not really a mold for anybody to fit into, It's kind of a creative free space.

So it does lend itself to being a place where you're gonna find a whole lot of original music from here, from the region, and from further parts abroad.

- Being on the Mississippi River, I really think river cities have a special kind of dynamic when it comes to music.

- Yeah, well, and so much of the, you know, way that that travel, when you were talking about earlier, you know, some of those, you know, genres being formed, you know, whether it was from New Orleans down South, up through Memphis, St.

Louis, Chicago, you know, you've got the blues coming out of the Delta and moving up North, you've got all of these things that are traversing that river; as the commerce is moving, so moves the music and the people with it.

- As far as the revival of vinyl, every independent record store owner I know that's been in this business for a while talks about how there was a period where, on one hand, the vinyl sales, especially of new music plunged, because they weren't making it- - Right.

- But they were still selling vinyl to people, maybe not as much as the year before, but they kept at it.

Now we see people such as ourselves telling people, "Oh no, CDs are good, you know, they're not gonna go away forever."

- Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah.

- And how's your CD business?

- CD business is, in the last couple of years, really perked up again.

We're finding that we're not only buying more used CD collections, but we're buying recently-pressed albums as well as, you know, classic albums from the '90s, seeing a lot of, you know, kids that are probably just starting their teen years that their parents, you know, who grew up in the '90s and had more CDs, because that was what was available at the time, that is something that they're familiar with, and so, they're coming and buying CDs again.

So, yeah, it's an interesting balance time right now.

- Well, one of the things that will connect, shall we say, the generations- - [John] Mm-hmm.

- Is music.

- [John] That's right.

- So through the years, along with musicians coming in just to shop or just say "Hello," I'm assuming you've had your fair share of in stores which you would announce and allow your customer base to know about.

What was couple of your notable in stores?

- One of the ones, and it preceded my time here, but just in terms of having a moment in time available for people to get to see an artist that otherwise they wouldn't have connection to, that to me is always one of the special things Shangri-La has done real well; and they had an early bluesman, Othar Turner, who had a fife and drum outfit, and now his granddaughter, Sharde Thomas, continues that tradition today with the All Star Fife and Drum band that she runs.

But, yeah, they did a big show out on the parking lot out front, things like that to me, you're getting to again see through a lens of time and space into a place that doesn't really exist anymore.

So those kind of things were really special.

I remember during the pandemic one that was real special to me, 'cause we couldn't do much during that time, but we did something outside where we could all be socially distanced and masked, and we had Reverend John Wilkins perform before Reverend John passed, and his connection to the region is incredible, you know, his dad writing the song "Prodigal Son" that the Rolling Stones covered on "Beggars Banquet," and he, you know, played one of, I think it was probably one of his last ever public performances that day, it was just him on a guitar with another local studio guy, that I've known forever, backing him, and it was just one of those intimate acoustic, like, "Hey, you're getting to see something that doesn't exist and won't exist ever again."

And so, that one was really special, I think some of those kind of ones are the ones that always stick with me.

(groovy jazzy orchestral music) - Well, every store I come into has notable memorabilia.

What's your favorite piece of memorabilia?

- Hard to narrow down, but I think probably straight ahead over the Stax section, as we look back there, there's a photo of Otis Redding with the young Bar-Kays, they were all still high school kids at the time.

And on the far right is James Alexander, the bassist, he's the only living member still.

James and I got to work together for a number of years at a music nonprofit that he was on the board, and he still does radio promotion for a lot of artists, mails his stuff out next door, so he'll still come through.

But that photo was taken by Ernest Withers, who's a incredibly famous Memphis photographer during the Civil Rights Era, and just has an incredible catalog of photos.

But that one is one that I got maybe a year and a half ago, and has been one of my favorite new additions to the store.

- I wanna thank you for your time and hospitality here in Memphis, and may we make Memphis and the towns that we do our works in a little bit more sane and a little bit more happy.

- Yeah, well, thank you for coming through, and we appreciate the work that you're doing, you know, to highlight record stores.

And, you know, best of luck to you as you continue to run yours.

- Glory!

- Hallelujah!

(groovy jazzy orchestral music) (groovy jazzy orchestral music continues) (bright upbeat rock music) (bright upbeat rock music continues) - In Memphis Town, there's more than a few musical mansions that have sent its sons and daughters out into the world.

And we're right now in a store called Goner, Goner Records, and I'm talking to the proprietor, Mr.

Eric Friedl.

How're you doing and how're you feeling?

- Doing good, doing good.

Thanks for coming by.

- [Papa] So how many years have you had this store now?

- Well, we opened this brick-and-mortar store in 2004, me and my partner Zac Ives.

I started doing mail order and the record label, Goner Records in 1993.

We do a festival every year that brings in international and bands from all over the United States.

And we have people that come back, people have been to this festival for 10, 15 times, you know, and so, we really are, or we feel like, we're ambassadors for Memphis, and for our store, and for all the stuff, Memphis barbecue, paints down the street.

Yeah, we're always just trying to spread the word, you know; and it is, it's like a big family, people describe the festival as like a family reunion, you know?

(groovy upbeat music) - When I was going through the 45s in your shop, it struck me how many small indie labels there are in Memphis.

- I think the model of Sun Studios, you know, was kind of the goal.

Once they saw, "Oh my God, this storefront that's 20 by 20 is selling millions of records," then they're like, "I could do that, I could do that."

You know, you've got Stax, you've got Royal, you've got tons of small studios that pop up, and everybody thinks, you know, they're gonna be the next Sam Phillips or whatever, and that goes all the way through the '80s, you know, there's the big story of Stax crashing and burning, but kind of the biggest stuff that people are looking for now out of Memphis is '80s bounce music, which no one cared about.

You know, me and you, we hear it and we're like, "Nah, they kind of missed the train on funk and everything and soul, they're using these drum machines and things," people going crazy for it now, you know?

But that was people doing their own thing, trying to go their own way, under-appreciated at the time; and people, you know, in France and England are like, "This stuff is great," you know, and now they're appreciating it.

- What was your biggest selling record this year?

- Uh... - If you can pull one out of the hat?

- What do we sell a lot of?

We sell a lot of this band of Mummies from the '90s, it's just garage rock band that everybody wants, and I don't think anybody stocks.

So that's kind of our category that we can sell a lot of, 'cause people have to come to us for it.

- As far as music right here in Memphis that come through the door and is, you know, local musicians, what was your bestselling record?

- Actually, the "Now Again" has repressed a bunch of early '80s Memphis hip-hop, really raw stuff that's never been on vinyl before, and we've been selling a bunch of that Skinny Pimp, and Gangsta Blac and that kind of thing.

So I mean it's pretty cool, pretty wild stuff.

- When it comes to memorabilia in your shop, and when I say memorabilia, it might be a postcard, it might be an LP cover, it might be something signed by somebody, it may be something that you found thrown out on the street, but you went, "Oh, oh, okay, I'm gonna put that in the store."

Is there a memorabilia item that you have here that is number one in your head?

- The best thing that we've gotten ties into Isaac Hayes.

We got a copy of Isaac Hayes's first 45, he came in with a woman's collection, and inside there is a note from Isaac to the teacher saying, "I told you I was gonna make a record; here's my first record, and I just wanted to..." You know, so, which is kind of crappy for us to have at this point, I think I feel kind of bad about it, but it's so cool, and eventually, it'll end up at the Stax Museum, I think, we know people over there.

But for now, that is the coolest thing that's come in.

- And they should put it in the museum with a plaque underneath saying, "Donated by Goner Records."

(Eric chuckles) - Well, we didn't do anything, it was all Isaac Hayes, Isaac is the best.

(groovy upbeat music) - We wanna thank the hospitality of Goner Records today.

Eric, I do appreciate it.

- Oh, thank you.

- And may we continue to help other good souls have a musical day.

- [Eric] All right, sounds good, thank you.

(groovy upbeat music) (groovy upbeat music continues) (soulful jazzy orchestral music) - [Papa] I have to ask you one question though- - What's that?

- What was your first record?

What was your first record?

What was your very, very first record that you bought with your own money?

- I grew up listening to anything from jazz, the blues.

I think the first album that I fell in love with, or the first song I ever fell in love with, was Carlos Santana "Black Magic Woman."

That song just hit me, and I mean I could play it over and over.

I remember getting between the speakers and laying on the floor and blasting that song as a kid.

- My very first record I had found where my parents had stashed away their records that they weren't listening to anymore, didn't, you know, have the turntable active in the house, I had found a Beatles compilation, and it's the "Hey Jude" compilation that's got everything, like, you know, "Old Brown Shoe" and "Don't Let Me Down," a lot of the B-sides like "Rain" and things like that.

And it just hit my ear completely different than anything else I'd ever heard, and I became obsessed with that electric piano sound of Billy Preston on that album, and I was hooked at that point.

- First record I think that I bought with my own money was a Banana Splits Soundtrack, which I still have, it is completely destroyed, but I love "The Banana Splits" TV show, it was completely bananas.

So that is what I would say would be the first one that I bought.

(soulful jazzy orchestral music) - [Papa] So from the alternative rock vibe at Goner Records to the musical oasis called Shangri-La, and then to the Beale Street music landmark celebrating Bobby "Blue" Bland, Rufus Thomas, and Elvis Presley, we've had a fine, fine time in Memphis, Tennessee.

(soulful jazzy orchestral music) - My first album that I can remember purchasing would've been Bon Jovi's "Slippery When Wet."

- AC/DC, "For Those About to Rock."

And so, for those about to rock, we do salute you.

- First album I remember owning, I was trying to decide whether to be cool or honest, I'm gonna be honest, it was Supertramp's "Breakfast in America."

First one I remember buying for myself was J Dilla's "Donuts," a classic hip-hop instrumental album that still gets plenty of play today.