Plantation Inn: Where stars rose in the west

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/oct/19/plantation-inn-where-stars-rose-in-the-west/

From the site:

Across the Mississippi Bridge in West Memphis, in the parking lot of Pancho's Mexican restaurant, is the site where the Plantation Inn Nite Club once stood. While there's no marker, plaque or sign noting that fact, the impact of the club -- the music it hosted and the musicians it fostered -- can still be felt decades after its demise.

Here are three other good links about the Plantation Inn:

http://www.ameriblues.com/2009/11/17/where-the-music-came-from-by-robert-nighthawk-tooms-2/

http://www.westmemphisblues.com/

Jim Dickinson: Where Memphis Music Comes from

Nashville Muscle Shoals Connection

Nashville Muscle Shoals Connection

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87x0lStEW3I

This is great – Dan Penn is featured on this but also Donnie Fritts, David Hood, Larry Jon Wilson, Spooner Oldham and many others!

Reggie is interviewed starting at 7’38” – good stuff!

07/08 Merrilee Rush, The Hollywood Show

http://hornpmshow.blogspot.com/2013/07/0708-merrilee-rush-hollywood-show.html

From the site:

Merrilee Rush (born Merrilee Gunst, January 26, 1944, Seattle, Washington) is an American singer, best known for her recording of the song "Angel of the Morning", a Top 10 hit which earned her a Grammy nomination for female vocalist of the year in 1968.

Rush grew up in Seattle's North End, and studied classical piano from a young age. In 1960, she auditioned and became the singer for the Amazing Aztecs, a Seattle-area rock & roll band led by saxophone player Neil Rush, whom she would later marry. The two went on to form Merrilee and Her Men, doing mostly cover versions of pop hits, and then joined rhythm and blues group Tiny Tony and the Statics, whose regional hit "Hey Mrs. Jones", on the Bolo label, featured Rush's keyboard playing and vocals.

In 1965 the pair formed Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts, who soon became a popular act on the Pacific Northwest's teen dancehall circuit. A member of the group's road crew also worked for Paul Revere and the Raiders, and through this connection, Rush was invited to be the opening act on the Raiders' tour of the southern United States in 1967. While in Memphis, Tennessee, Raiders lead vocalist Mark Lindsay introduced Rush to record producer Chips Moman.

Rush's version of "Angel of the Morning" was recorded at Moman's American Studio in Memphis in early 1968, and was produced by Moman and Tommy Cogbill. Released by Bell Records in late June 1968, the song climbed to #7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was a major hit in several other countries as well. The one millionth sale of this record was reported by the Recording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.) in 1970. Although credited to 'Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts', both the single and subsequent album (also called Angel Of The Morning) were recorded using the same musicians who played on Elvis Presley's famous Memphis recordings.
"Angel of the Morning" garnered Rush a Grammy Award nomination for best Contemporary Pop Female Vocalist of the year. She was nominated along with Barbra Streisand ("Funny Girl"), Dionne Warwick ("Do You Know the Way to San Jose"), Aretha Franklin ("I Say a Little Prayer"), and Mary Hopkin ("Those Were the Days"). Warwick was the eventual winner