Over the years, The Kitchen Sisters have zeroed in on Memphis, Tennessee in a big way. The inspiration for that and the inspiration for some of our favorite stories is Knox Phillips.
Davia met Knox in 1997 in Memphis when she was doing casting for Francis Ford Coppola’s film The Rainmaker. She was on the set standing next to a guy. Cool hair, great smile. During the long set up between takes they started talking. About Memphis, about music, about radio. She told him about a new series we were starting to produce for NPR — Lost & Found Sound. Stories about sonic pioneers and people possessed by sound. The guy with the cool hair listens.
“Girl, I think you better come over to the house and meet my parents. My dad, Sam, started the Memphis Recording Service and Sun Records. He recorded Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Howlin’ Wolf.... When he sold Elvis’ contract he and my mother, Becky, used the money to start the first all-girl radio station in the nation, WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts.”
Nikki was on a plane to Memphis the next day and we drove to the Phillips family house that night. Knox, Sam, Becky and Sam’s girlfriend Sally were all there and the stories started pouring out. We walked in at 7:00 and left after midnight, recording the whole time. Those interviews became the basis of some of the most groundbreaking Kitchen Sisters pieces.
Knox Phillips — producer, promoter of Memphis music, Keeper of his family's legacy, died in April 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic, and never really got his due. His massive spirit, love and music live on.
180 - The Great Amish Pandemic Sewing Frolic
179 - The Nights of Edith Piaf
178- Hidden Kitchens - With Host Frances McDormand
177 - The Pardoning of Homer Plessy
176-Arctic Ice, Extreme Weather—Activist Photographer Camille Seaman
175 - Finding Julia Morgan
174 - The Braveheart Grandmothers and Yankton Sioux Coming of Age Ceremony
173 - Betty Reid Soskin, Celebrating the 100th Birthday of the Oldest Park Ranger in America
172 - The Sonic Memorial—The 20th Anniversary of 9/11m], Narrated by Paul Auster
171—What Fire Reveals: Stories from the CZU August Lightning Fires in The Santa Cruz Mountains
170—Route 66—The Mother Road
169—Cry Me A River
169-Gert McMullin—Sewing on the Frontline—From the AIDS Quilt to COVID-19 PPE
168-Soul to Soul at 50 — A Homecoming Festival in Ghana for African American Artists, 1971
166—Danni Washington and The Genius Generation
166-Dave Brubeck & The Ambassadors of Jazz
165—Spotlight on Black-Owned Pet Business Entrepreneurs
164 - Francis Coppola and North Beach Citizens—A Neighborhood Vision
163—Tales from Vietnamese Nail Shops in America
162—The Osaka Ramones: The All-Girl Punk Band - Shonen Knife
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