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.
141—Pati Jinich's Mexican Jewish Table
140 -The Climate Underground with Al Gore and Alice Waters
139 - Waiting for Joe DiMaggio
138 - The Keepers - Archive Fever, with host Frances McDormand
137- The Keepers - Archiving the Underground, with Host Frances McDormand
136 - The Lou Reed Archive with Laurie Anderson
135 - Deep Fried Fuel - A Biodiesel Kitchen Vision - Celebrating Over the Road
133 - WHER - 1000 Beautiful Watts, The First All-Girl Radio Station in the Nation
133 - Theaster Gates — Keeping the South Side
132 - The Pancake Years
131 - Night of the Living Intern: First Stories from Kitchen Sisters Interns
130 - Lipstick Traces — Dreaming in Public
129 - Martin Scorsese — Try Anything
128 - First Day of School—1960, New Orleans
127 - Robert Krulwich—Talking Story, The First Third Coast
126 - Lawrence Weschler—Archivist of the Odd, the Marvelous, the Passionate and Slightly Askew
125 - The Passion of Chris Strachwitz—Arhoolie Records
124 - The Brothers Burns — A Conversation with Filmmakers Ken & Ric Burns
123- San Francisco—Stories from the Model City, Part Three
122 - Burning Man — Archiving the Ephemeral
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