By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Thursday, April 03, 2003 - 05:48 pm:

Looks like the Hitsville Museum will finally have some company with the brand spanking new Stax Museum of American Soul Music opens at the end of April in Memphis! Check out Troy Carpenter's article from Billboard below.

STAX MUSEUM OPENING TO FEATURE STAR PERFORMANCES
by Troy Carpenter, Billboard Magazine.

Memphis will bear witness to performances by some of soul music's all-time greats at the grand opening of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, set for April 29-May 1. The celebration will include concerts, artist tributes, a benefit celebrity golf tournament, and movie screenings.

Scheduled to play during the event are Stax artists Isaac Hayes, Mavis Staples, Booker T. & the MGs, Eddie Floyd, Carla Thomas, William Bell, the BarKays, the Temprees, Big Star, the Rance Allen Group, the MarKeys (also known as the Memphis Horns), Little Milton, Mable John, Jean Knight, and Linda Lyndell. Wilson Pickett, Bootsy Collins, Solomon Burke, Jimmie Vaughan, Warren Haynes, and Luther Vandross are among the other artists slated to perform as part of a set of tributes to Stax legends Otis Redding, Johnnie Taylor, and Rufus Thomas.

The Museum -- on the original site of Stax's studios -- will host exhibits detailing the roots of American soul music, as well as the label's archives and thousands of artifacts belonging to the musical legends that recorded for the label, which closed its doors in 1975.