Wednesday in Memphis

After arriving at 4:30 am and getting about four hours sleep, we (Wilbur and family) started to explore Memphis. Had lunch at "Huey's" that was recommended by the desk. Great burger and fries place with a pub atmosphere. Then walked down Second Street til we came to Beale Street, where most of the events will be happening over the next three days. Right off Beale we checked out the FedEx Forum (had a Grizzlies game that night-the scalpers were already out), set up a tour of the Gibson factory for Thursday, and went to the Rock n' Soul Museum. Spent about an hour and a half doing a visual and audio history of the development of music in the Memphis area. ...interesting.
Kyle and family spent the entire day at Graceland. Not only did they tour the mansion but also got aboard the "Little Marie", Elvis's private 747 Boeing jet....complete with gold fixtures. The number of gold records and awards that Elvis received is unbelievable. Kyle and myself had quite a talk on that....plus seeing a mansion still with the 70's decore is like a trip back in time. As I reminded Kyle, that is was before he was born..bg
At 5:00, Matt, rich and Dave arrived.....unfortunately I missed picking them up at the airport.. my wife and others were still 'shopping' and forgot about the time....they grabbed a taxis to the hotel and arrived fine.....Matt even had a few stories to tell about the trip.....Matt usually does..bg.
The band met for the 6-7:30 social hour at the hotel. We planned out tomorrow's registration, et.c and spent most of the time talking with a couple of other bands who are also in the IBC competition...it was shop talk at it's finest...let about twelve musicians get together and you'll see what I mean........pics are coming but I need to get ahold of the camera's....later.
wilbur

finally in Memphis

arrived at the hotel 4:30 Wednesday morning......long story..now for a nap and figure out how to get back to the airport for the car..later.

Sitting in O'Hare....waiting...

got to O'Hare in Chicago at 2:30pm local time and had flight canceled to Memphis.......sitting here hoping that the 8:00pm flight will still be a go.....not looking good....maybe I should pull out my guitar (at least I have it with me..could've ended up in Dallas for all I know....luggage????), open up case and see if I can make some money...bg...actually will try to get some sleep....let you know when I get to Memphis....hope the rest of the band is OK for tomorrow. later.
wilbur

Packed fair & square...

is actually an old J. Geils tune but I'm pretty much packed and ready to fly out to Memphis tomorrow morning....hopefully be there in time to enjoy some of the evening life. I'm looking for a couple of good rib joints, a chance to visit the Gibson factory, stop at the "St. Blues" guitar shop, and visit Graceland again....along with all of the music seminars, etc.

The rest of the band (Matt, Dave and Rich) are flying out on Wednesday. The band plans to meet in that evening at the hotel and plan out our activities.

Starting tomorrow, I hopefully will start posting some pics for everyone to enjoy. later.

wilbur

On the road already...

Kyle, the lead guitarest from "Turkey Lane, Maine" left for Memphis on Thursday afternoon, planning to stop in Nashville for a few days to enjoy the country music scene. Hopefully he will land in Memphis on Monday or Tuesday. We all plan to meet on Wednesday at the hotel and then scope out Beale Street and some of the venues where the bands will be playing.

Getting ready to head to Memphis

The rest of the band is getting ready to travel to Memphis for the 2007 International Blues Challenge. We will try to keep everyone updated on at least a daily basis. We know that the quality of music will be unreal....we plan on having some fun and enjoying the moment