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.
82 - First Day of School—1960, New Orleans
81 - Sonic Prayer Flags - New Orleans
80 – Thad Vogler: A Short History of Spirits
79 – Pati’s Mexican Jewish Table
78 – The Galveston Hurricane of 1900: No Tongue Can Tell
77 – New Orleans Visions – King’s Candy & Living with Water
76 – Liberace and the Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band
75 – The Making Of a Karaoke Ice Cream Truck and More Stories
74 – What Is It About Men and Meat and Midnight and a Pit?
73 – Basque Sheepherders Ball
72 – Warriors vs Warriors
71 – Hidden Kitchen Gaza: A Palestinian Culinary Journey
70 – The Egg Wars
69 – The Romance and Sex Life of the Date
68 – Tony Schwartz: 30,000 Recordings Later
67 – The Hidden World of Girls with Tina Fey
66 – Sugar in the Milk: A Parsi Hidden Kitchen
65 – Sam Phillips, Sun Records, and the Acoustics of Life
64 – Kimchi Diplomacy: Hidden Kitchens – War and Peace and Food
63 – War and Food and Manga
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