Have Geek Will Travel

Hey, gang- got a Flashback Friday post for you. This one features my first official trip to visit Stax. I’ve driven by before, and taken friends there to take pics outside of it, but have never been inside the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and/or gift shop. My grandparents lived not too far from it back in the ’60-’70s, and I lived nearby back in the late ’80s – early ’90s.

Stax was founded in 1957 as Satellite Records by Jim Stewart in Brunswick, Tennessee and first ran the company in a garage and originally did country/rockabilly music. In 1958, Stewart’s sister Estelle Axton invested in the company (STewart + AXton = STAX).

The pair relocated the studio to the former Capitol movie theater (and expanded into a barbershop) in South Memphis in 1959, later renaming the label “Stax” around that time and shared its operations with sister label Volt Records.

Jim ran the recording studio where an auditorium had been, while Estelle ran the Satellite record shop which was in the cinema’s old foyer/refreshment stand. Stax Records closed in 1976, and later the building was demolished and property sold- where it sat vacant for several years.

In 2003 construction started on the new Stax Museum of American Soul Music and Stax Academy on the old location of the original Stax recording business at 926 East McLemore Avenue in south Memphis.

Stax is responsible for the careers of many artists/writers/producers including Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, David Porter, the Staple Singers, Sam & Dave, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, Wilson Pickett, Albert King, William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Jean Knight, Mable John, and many, many others- as well as recording spoken word and comedy by Rev. Jesse Jackson, Moms Mabley, and Richard Pryor.

For more Stax history click HERE, or check out the HBO documentary.

If you go to Stax, check out their gift shop in the old record store location. Lots of great items to die for..!

On May 7th, my buddy Kevin L. Williams and I went to Stax for a special live event with legendary songwriter/producer David Porter.

He was there to do a Q&A session about his career, as well as sign copies of his new book- “The Soul Man“.

Over a couple hours David shared some great stories, and great pics about Stax, growing up in Memphis, his partnership with Isaac Hayes, and the other amazing artists he worked with.

And speaking of great musical artists, the amazing drummer for The Blues Brothers and The BoKeys– Willie Hall sat down on the same row with us! I had run into Willie a few years back when he was playing at The Blue Monkey with The BoKeys, and he was nice enough to take a pic with me back then and give me a pair of his drum sticks! Got to take a pic with him again at the Stax signing after running into him in line.

David was happy to see him again, too.

Kevin and I both bought a copy of David’s “The Soul Man” book to get signed.

We also picked up a couple Stax “snap logo” posters in the gift shop- more about those in a minute.

We didn’t take the tour, but did get to see a few things around the museum while we were there- including an Isaac Hayes print by the late Mike Maness, who was a local artist I’d see at the Orpheum and around town a lot.

On Friday, June 26th Kevin and I went to the Crosstown Concourse for artist George Walker‘s art show reception.

George is one of Kev’s fellow church members, and the artist who designed the iconic Stax “snap logo”!

Kevin had mentioned that we both had posters we’d love for him to sign, so George invited us to bring them the reception.

He had a great turnout for the event. I was hoping to ask him a bit about the creation of the Stax logo, but it was loud with the crowd and live band, and he was very popular. A lot of folks wanted t talk to him! I did find out from our fellow MSCA member Antonio Johnson that George does have some books out there, and the company he works for is producing a new printing of one. Will have to try and get ahold of a copy.

I did really enjoy getting to meet him and check out his various work in person.

We ran into a few other cartoonist friends, and writer/director/producer Craig Brewer.

I’d met him a few years back at the 2013 Memphis Comic & Fantasy Con where I picked up a signed copy of his first movie “The Poor & The Hungry“, got some signed mini-movie posters, and talked a bit about mutual friends and his movies “Hustle & Flow” and “Black Snake Moan“. Really nice guy, and good to see him back in the M-town. We talked a little about his Tarzan movie, and he told me he’s working on a project with Snoop-Dogg..!

If you missed George’s reception you can still check out the art show and two other new exhibitions upstairs at Crosstown Arts, featuring works by Barbara Penn and Romain Collin (in collaboration with filmmaker Matthew Palmer) through September 6, 2026.

I’ve done some logo and branding designs before- nothing at iconic as the Stax logo, but if you’re from the Memphis area you may have seen some of my work for Rock103 and 96X around town. You can read more about that part of my life on my personal art blog at www.linworkman.com HERE.

Oh, and speaking of art shows, don’t forget that my “Featured Creatures” art show is still going on upstairs at Playhouse on the Square now through August 2nd, and run in conjunction with Playhouse’s production of  “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street“ which ends on July 12th. I’ve got a few older items hanging around in this show that I’ve had in previous group shows around town, but I also have several new pieces features at Playhouse this time. I created several new “scare-brushed monsterpieces” and some new wood panel paintings and signs done in acrylic markers.

 

You can see how I did many of them in some of my previous art blog posts on my website- www.linworkman.com. I’ve really had a lot of fun doing some smaller monsterpieces and plan on doing more for the annual Monster Market and Memphis Monster Con. The panels are not only a blast to paint, they don’t take up a lot of space to store back home!

Hope you all had a safe and happy 4th of July last weekend. Koda says hi!

Lin