Memphis defined American music. How did it miss out on the money?
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.1 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 May 2026
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
You can’t tell the story of American music without the blues, which means you can’t tell it without Memphis. From Beale Street’s blues bars to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music to Graceland – the city’s influence on nearly every genre of music is immense. But for a city that helped shape the sound of America — why hasn’t it fully shared in the wealth it created? USA TODAY National Correspondent Chris Kenning joins The Excerpt to discuss efforts to revitalize the modern Memphis music scene, its rich music history and how the story of music in Memphis is being written today.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You can't tell the story of American music without the blues, which means you can't tell it without Memphis, from Bill Street's blues bars to the Stacks Museum of American Soul Music to Graceland. |
| 0:19.0 | The city's influence on nearly every genre of music is immense. |
| 0:23.0 | But for a city that helped shape the sound of America, why hasn't it fully shared in the wealth |
| 0:30.2 | it created? |
| 0:36.1 | Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. |
| 0:38.9 | I'm Dana Taylor. |
| 0:39.8 | Today is Monday, May 25, 26. |
| 0:43.5 | The story of music in Memphis is still being written today. |
| 0:47.6 | For more in its rich music history and efforts to revitalize the modern Memphis music scene is USA Today national correspondent Chris Kenning. |
| 0:56.7 | Chris, it's so good to have you back on the show. |
| 0:58.8 | Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. |
| 1:01.0 | Chris, what drew you to this story? |
| 1:03.8 | I've always been a huge fan of music of all kinds. |
| 1:08.1 | And I knew that Memphis was a real cradle of musical history. But in recent years, |
| 1:13.6 | a lot of the headlines had seen coming out of the city tended to be on the negative side. |
| 1:17.9 | There were headlines about crime, headlines about Trump administration deploying the National Guard |
| 1:23.6 | there. And it was kind of seemed to be sort of losing its place a little bit |
| 1:28.5 | to Nashville, which was booming. And so I really wanted to go and get a sense of where the |
| 1:34.1 | city's music stood, both its like historical sites and what was coming out of the city today. |
| 1:41.3 | And you traveled to Memphis. I know that you spent time with Pastor Juan Ship. |
| 1:46.6 | His story spans decades from the days of legendary recording studio, Stacks Records, home |
| 1:52.8 | to Otis Redding, and Isaac Hayes all the way up to today. |
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