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.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
160—Can Do: Black Visionaries, Seekers, and Entrepreneurs-with Host Alfre Woodard
159 — Nomadland with Frances McDormand
158 — A Plea for Peace: Leonard Bernstein, Richard Nixon, and the Music of the 1973 Inauguration
157 — Chido Govera—The Mushroom Queen of Zimbabwe
156 — The Amish Pandemic Sewing Frolic
155 - Frances McDormand in Nomadland
154 — Hunting & Gathering with Angelo Garro
153 — The Vietnam Tapes of Lance Corporal Michael A. Baronowski
152 — Winona LaDuke—First Born Daughter
151 - Pearl Jam: It's a Rock Band, Not The Smithsonian
150 — Floating City - The Mirabeau Water Garden, New Orleans
149 - The Sonic Memorial—Remembering 9/11 with host Paul Auster
148 - Youth on Fire—The International Congress of Youth Voices
147 - Kamal Mouzawak—A Lebanese Kitchen Vision
146 — French Manicure—Tales from Vietnamese Shops in America
145 - Louis Jones, Field Archivist, Detroit
144 - 95,000 Names—Gert McMullin, Sewing the Frontline
143 - The McDonogh Three—First Day of School
142—From King Henry the VIII to the Rolling Stones on Eel Pie Island
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