USA Guide
The South
The Stax Museum of American Soul Music
In 2003 one of the city's most famous addresses, 926 E McLemore Ave, was resurrected. In 1960, this spot was occupied by the Capitol Theater, the central landmark of a neighbourhood where blacks had just started to outnumber whites. The theater went on to become the headquarters of the Stax record label, where over the next fifteen years artists such as Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, and Albert King achieved 237 entries in the top 100. The studio was a veritable powerhouse of funky soul; by 1990, however, with Stax long since defunct, 926 E McLemore Ave was no more than a derelict lot.
Now the complex has been reconstructed larger than ever, with a music academy sitting next to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, also known as Soulsville. Visits start with a film history of the label, using stunning footage to illuminate both the triumphs and the tensions that arose from its status as a joint black-white enterprise in the segregated South. The first exhibit beyond, designed to emphasize the gospel roots of soul music, is an entire Episcopal Church, transported here from Duncan, Mississippi. Showpiece artifacts include Isaac Hayes's peacock-blue and gold Cadillac. The actual Stax studio has been recreated in detail, featuring the original two-track tape recorder used by Otis Redding to record "Mr Pitiful" and "Respect." A map of the immediate neighbourhood, still largely rundown, shows what an amazing assembly of talent lived nearby; Aretha Franklin was born at 406 Lucy Ave.
Opening time: March– Oct Mon– Sat 9am–4pm, Sun 1–4pm; Nov– Feb Mon– Sat 10am–4pm, Sun 1–4pm
Price: $10, $15 combination ticket with the Civil Rights Museum