Dave Ford Does Earth

Posted by Dave Ford

When you have an cross country road trip itinerary that includes Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, and Austin you better be prepared to have your musical mind expanded. So far, that is exactly what it happening and the 5 of us are all “feeling it”.

Wild Bill’s of Memphis- The Dance party never stopped

So, after much deliberation and debate we decided to blow out of Nashville (Charly in tow) to hit up a musical city with deep roots in blues, gospel, and rock and roll. Johnny Cash, Elvis, and BB King all got their start in Memphis in the 1950s.

We had one last egg and toast breakfast at the “Charly Salvatore Bed and Breakfast” in Nashville and hightailed it for Memphis. The 4 hour drive was not bad at all. I drove with Charly, Jess and the BV show were together in “the Beagle”, while the Binck/Daddio combination piloted the Volvo station wagon.

So, everything was going quite swimmingly until we started calling (from the road) to book a hotel room in Memphis

No dice! No bueno! No rooms!

Memphis was on lock down from a “Church of God in Christ” convention that annually takes over the city. In this case, praying was just was not going to help. Benny was angry at Jesus for a brief moment for “keeping us out of Memphis”. We soon found out that there were other options and crossed over the Mississippi River into the outskirts of Arkansas. We quickly found out that Jesus was not on our side in “the Natural State” as well. We sat at a dodgy truck stop for at least a half an hour before we scored a room (via phone call with Dave’s dad who found the room on the for us on the Internet).

Sidenote: The Natural State? Who the hell was on the Arkansas “state motto committee?
After chilling in our $200 (way to expensive due to Jesus) a night Holiday Inn room for a few hours we took off for Wild Bills, a local authentic “Juke Joint”. I had heard about Wild Bills through my friends Lisa and Joe who are in love with Memphis. Let me just say that their recommendation produced “the highlight” of our trip thus far.

Click here for footage from Wild Bills in Memphis, Tennessee

The club was uber real. Tourists have by and large not touched this place. Sadly, the founder Wild Bill is dead. However, his great music, low cost legacy lives on. It cost $10 bucks to get in the joint. From there we quickly snagged a table and started drinking $4 dollar (40) oz bud lights. You can also bring your own booze to Wild Bills. They sell chicken wings in the back for $1 buck a piece. A women named Granny does the cooking . I would say the demographic mix was 80/20 African American to white folk. Furthermore, the makeup of the crowd was older.

Dave and I with “Ms. Nikki” one of the singers

There were multiple 55+ year old black gentleman dressed to the nines. Snakeskin boots, heavy jewelry, and top hats were common place. We just set there and tried to take it all in. The performers played their asses off. The sounds coming off of the stage were that of a deeply southern, cool blues. There was many a drunken soul stirred that night. I would give Wild Bills a 10 out of 10. If you are in Memphis go there. Do not miss it!

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