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Sightsee with a Sound Track
Even locals love Backbeat Tour's Memphis Mojo Tour ($28/adults), a drive-by roundup of iconic landmarks and historic sites with live musical accompaniment. It's guided by in-the-know local musicians who sing and strum as you ride between Memphis sights such as Sun Studio and the Lorraine Motel. backbeattours.com
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Check Out the Soul Museum
The world's only museum devoted to soul, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music helped transform a once-blighted neighborhood into a safe and hopeful place. Built on the site of the recording studio that launched Isaac Hayes and Otis Redding, the museum begat the Stax Music Academy, whose high school students have performed at The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and abroad. Every senior since 2008 has gone on to college. staxmuseum.com
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Visit a Juke Joint
Musicians who used to back Al Green blow the lid off Wild Bill's every weekend (901/603-5314). "It's the best live music I've ever heard," says Tim Sampson of the Stax Museum. "I'm going to have my ashes spread in the parking lot." If you want an excellent guide (and a designated driver), call Tad Pierson, a one-man tour company who specializes in "cultural safaris" throughout Memphis and The Delta. An encyclopedia of blues, soul, and Memphis lore, Tad knows everyone at the most authentic juke joints and will chauffeur you to them in his sleek 1955 Cadillac ($40/person for groups of five). americandreamsafari.com
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