STAX MUSEUM AND RECORDING STUDIO

STAX MUSEUM AND

RECORDING STUDIO

I will be at West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville, TN for its annual I-40 Exit 56 Blues Festival, May 28, 2011 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. They have invited me to do a book signing as a fundraiser for the Center.

I have been doing blogs related to Blues and the Festival. This week I am doing one on Stax Museum. They sent a recipe for Greens. It is a GREAT recipe for Greens using Turnip, Mustard, and Collard Greens. I know it is great, because I just made it.

The Stax Museum of American Soul Music, located at the original site of the legendary Stax Records is the heart of Soulsville USA at 926 E. McLemore Ave., Memphis, Tennessee. This 17,000-square-foot facility with more than 2,000 cultural artifacts, music exhibits, video footage, and items of memorabilia is designed to preserve and promote the legacy of American soul music, particularly that of Stax Records. With permanent Soul Music Exhibits, like Soul Train.

The mission of the Stax Museum is to keep the memory of Stax soul music legends such as Otis Redding, Booker T, Isaac Hayes, Memphis Horns, and Little Milton alive forever.

Stax is the only soul music museum in the world and you'll find programs, special events, concerts, exhibits, and memorabilia dedicated to other soul music artists and labels, including that of Muscle Shoals, Motown, Atlantic, and Hi Records.

Don’t forget to stop by this Saturday for the Blues Festival in Brownsville, some really good music, and a SIGNED copy of my cookbook “Country Goodness Recipes of Tennessee Celebrities.”

Blues Icon “Little Milton”

Blues Icon “Little Milton”

Milton Campbell recorded with Sun Records & Stax in Memphis. He garnered such honors as the W. C. Handy Blues Entertainer of the Year Award, a Grammy Award nomination, inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, & numerous billboard blues smash hits.


His friends said, “Milton just loved to cook for himself, his family, & his friends.” We have a recipe for “Little Milton in the Tennessee cookbook “Country Goodness Recipes of Tennessee Celebrities”

As I will be doing a book signing Saturday, May 28 at “The Exit 56 Blues Festival” at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville, TN (Just east of Memphis) I am doing a blog on blues contributors to the cookbooks. I will do a blog next week on Stax Record Studios, which also sent a recipe.

Milton “Little Milton” Campbell” found an early connection to Country and western music and later fused it with the other two predominant musical influences of the Mississippi Delta: Gospel & Blues. A youthful “Little” Milton began studying what he heard and practiced; mastering songs and reciting them, no matter what the style or difficulty. By his early teens, he was performing in local clubs and bars across the Delta.

He carefully developing his craft and attracting the attention of established acts and local record labels. By the time Ike Turner introduced Milton to Sam Phillips of Sun Records in the early 50's, he was a young but seasoned performer with a momentous live show that created a buzz in every town he played. His debut single Beggin My Baby was recorded and released at the same time Sam Phillips was molding the sound of another unknown talent from Mississippi: Elvis Presley.

He sky rocketed to success with such blues hits as I’m a Lonely Man, Baby I Love You, If Walls Could Talk, Feel So Bad, Who's Cheating Who? and the unforgettable Grits Ain't Groceries.

Little Milton signed with Stax and joined a virtual who’s who of influential black recording artist of the day including Isaac Hayes, Rufus & Carla Thomas, Booker T. & The M.G.'s, Albert King and, Johnnie Taylor. Milton’s legend only grew at Stax, where from 1971 through 1975, he stacked up more mega hits including Walking The Back Streets and Cryin and That's What Love Will Make You Do.

He was the man who made the THE BLUES IS ALRIGHT a national anthem with blues enthusiasts around the globe.

LAND BETWEEN THE LAKES

LAND BETWEEN THE LAKES

Eagles! Eagles! And more Eagles!!!!! That is what we had an opportunity to see this weekend. We went with friends on a dinner cruise aboard the 95 ft. Louisville-based CQ Princess Excursion yacht. It sails out of Kenlake Marina in Aurora, KY, to see the Eagles on the shores of Kentucky Lake. The eagles are nesting during the winter months in the Land Between the Lakes. We saw between 20 and 30 eagles as well as Blue Heron, Coots, and Red Tail Hawks. The LBL provides wildlife experts to help find the eagles and provide information on them. There are now over 200 eagles in the LBL.

And what does this have to do with the cookbook “Favorite Recipes of Kentucky Celebrities?” The Land Between the Lakes contributed one of the recipes in the cookbook. It was not your typical recipe. They sent a recipe for a “Suet Bird Feeder.” For all bird lovers this is a great recipe.

And what is Land Between the Lakes? When the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers were impounded to create Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, an inland peninsula was formed. With more than 170,000 acres and 300 miles of undeveloped shoreline, The Land Between the Lakes is the corner stone of Western Kentucky’s $600 million tourism industry. Again, you will have to buy the cookbook to get the recipe.

Up date on new recipes for the latest cookbook I am compiling. It is made up of Tennessee celebrities. I received a recipe this week from the daughter of the late Grammy winning musician John Hartford. He wrote “Gentle on My Mind” and music for “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” among other things. I also received a recipe from Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton.

I just received my booth assignment for the Kentucky Crafted Market held in Louisville. I will be in the publisher’s section in Booth 712. The Market is scheduled for March 4-7. Hope to see you there!