Memphis Sense of Place: David Dye’s Top Five Recording Studios

All week on World Cafe with David Dye, the Sense of Place series is exploring the city of Memphis and its musical heritage. Today, we set the scene with David’s Top Five Recording Studios. You can listen to the Sense of Place series on WXPN at 2 p.m. Monday through Friday all this week, or at 7 p.m. on XPN2: Singer-Songwriter Radio.

The history of Memphis music is in the walls of five studios that were there at the beginning of rock and soul music.  Four of them are still there at their original addresses. You can tour two of them, Stax and Sun. Three of them are working studios: Sun, Ardent and Royal where contemporary artists still record. Alas one (American) is a parking lot.  But pay a visit anyway.

Stax Museum
926 E McLemore Ave Memphis, TN 38106
(901) 942-7685
http://www.staxmuseum.com/

Sun Studios
706 Union Avenue Memphis, TN 38103
(901) 521-0664
http://www.sunstudio.com/

Ardent Studios
2000 Madison Avenue Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 725-0855
http://ardentstudios.com/

Royal Studios
1320 South Lauderdale Street Memphis, TN 38106
(901) 775-3790
http://www.williemitchell.com/

American Studios (RIP)
827 Thomas Street in Memphis, Tennessee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sound_Studio